Fara, Safad

Fara (Arabic: فارة) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 30, 1948 under Operation Hiram. It was located 11.5 km north of Safad on the Wadi al-Fara.

Fara

فارة
Village
Etymology: Farah, The highest parts of a mountain[1]
Fara
Coordinates: 33°03′57″N 35°27′29″E
Palestine grid193/274
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictSafad
Date of depopulationOctober 30, 1948[2]
Population
 (1945)
 • Total320[3]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces

History

According to the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) this place seems to be the most probable site of Caphar Farara (or Farawa), where was the tomb of R. Nahum of Gimzo, as mentioned in the various Jewish itineraries from 1210 to 1664 C.E.[4]

Ottoman era

During the early Ottoman era in 1596, Fara was part of the nahiyah ("subdistrict") of Jira, part of the Liwa ("district") of Safad. It had a population of 40 households and 11 bachelors; an estimated 281 persons, all Muslim.[5][6] They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a press for olive oil or grape syrup; a total of 3,832 akçe. Half of the revenues went to a waqf.[7]

In 1838 Farah was noted as a village in the Safad district,[8] while in 1881 the SWP described Farah as having “Mud and basalt houses, containing about 100 Moslems. It is situated on a plain, cultivated as arable land. Water from Wady Far'ah and from cisterns and birket."[9] The villagers cultivated olive and fig trees and vineyards.[10]

A population list from about 1887 showed Farah to have an estimated 385 Muslim inhabitants.[11]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ‘’Fara‘’ had a population of 218, all Muslims except 1 Christian,[12] increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 229, all Muslims, in a total of 42 houses.[13]

In the 1944/5 statistics it had a population of 320 Muslims,[3] with a total of 7,229 dunums of land.[14] Of this, 3,738 were used for cereal, 173 were irrigated or used for orchards,[15] while 38 dunams were classified as built-up, (urban), land.[16]

1948, aftermath

In 1992 the village site was described: "One stone building (probably a mosque) stands on the site, as well as several stone terraces. On the whole, however, the site is overgrown with grass and fig trees. Less than 1 km north of it lies the settlement of Yir'on. A portion of the land around the village is planted with fruit trees, such as apples, but the land along the valley’s slope is deserted and uncultivated."[10]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 72
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #35. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 9
  4. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 206
  5. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 178, as given by Khalidi, 1992, p.
  6. Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
  7. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 178
  8. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 134
  9. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 197
  10. Khalidi, 1992, p. 448
  11. Schumacher, 1888, p. 189
  12. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Safad, p. 41
  13. Mills, 1932, p. 106
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 118
  16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 169

Bibliography
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