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Al-Sarafand

Coordinates:32°38′48″N34°56′08″E/ 32.64667°N 34.93556°E/32.64667; 34.93556
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This article is about the former village in Haifa Sub-district. For the former village in Ramle Sub-district, seeSarafand al-Amar.For the former village in Ramle Sub-district, seeSarafand al-Kharab.For Sarafand in Lebanon near ancient Sarepta, seeSarepta.
al-Sarafand
الصرفند
Sarepta Yudee
Etymology: from a personal name[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Sarafand (click the buttons)
al-Sarafand is located in Mandatory Palestine
al-Sarafand
al-Sarafand
Location withinMandatory Palestine
Coordinates:32°38′48″N34°56′08″E/ 32.64667°N 34.93556°E/32.64667; 34.93556
Palestine grid144/228
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictHaifa
Date of depopulation16 July 1948[4]
Area
[3]
• Total5,409dunams(5.409 km2or 2.088 sq mi)
Population
(1945)
• Total290[2][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault byYishuvforces
Secondary causeInfluence of nearby town's fall
Current LocalitiesTzrufa[5]

Al-Sarafand(Arabic:الصرفند) was aPalestinian Arabvillage near theMediterraneanshore south ofHaifa.In Ottoman tax records, it is shown that the village had a population of 61 inhabitants in 1596. According to a land and population survey bySami Hadawi,al-Sarafand's population was 290 in 1945, entirely Arab.[3]

Etymology

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SarafandorSarafend(Ṣarafand / صرفند) is anArabicrendition of thePhoenicianplace-name*Ṣrpt.[6]Al-Sarafand was known to theCrusadersasSarepta Yudee..[7]

History

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Pottery remains from the late Roman era andByzantineera have been found here.[8]

Ayyubidforces captured al-Sarafand from theCrusadersin 1187-1188.[9]The village appears in thewaqfof the tomb (turba) andmadrasaof amirQurqamazin Egypt.[10]

Ottoman era

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In 1517 the village of 'Sarafanda' was incorporated into theOttoman Empirewith the rest of Palestine. During the16thand17th centuries,it belonged to theTurabayEmirate (1517-1683), which encompassed also theJezreel Valley,Haifa,Jenin,Beit She'an Valley,northernJabal Nablus,Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe,and the northern part of theSharon plain.[11][12]

FromOttomanrecords it is known that in 1596 Sarafand was a village in thenahiya( "subdistrict" ) of Shafa, (liwa'( "district" ) ofLajjun), with a population of 11Muslimhouseholds, an estimated 61 persons. Villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% to the authorities for the crops that they cultivated, which includedwheat,barley,summer crops such as corn, beans, melons, and vegetables, and raisinggoats;a total of 8,500akçe.[7][13]

In1799,it appeared as the villageSarfendon the map thatPierre Jacotincompiled that year.[14] In 1859 the village of Sarafand was described as being situated on a ridge between a plain and the beach. Consul Rogers estimated that 150 people lived in it and cultivated 16faddans.[15][16]Four years later,Victor Guérinstated that the population size was not exceeding 300.[17]

According to thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine,who visited in 1873; "North of this village there is a system of rock- cut tombs, sixteen in all. Eight have each threeloculiunderarcosolia,and in three cases the rolling stones which closed the doors lie beside them. One of these stones was 3 feet diameter, and 1 foot thick, weighing probably about 6 cwt. Five of the tombs are singleloculi,open in front, cut in the face of the cliff under arcosolia; two of the tombs have only twoloculieach, and one is blocked up. This group presents the best examples found by the Survey party of the rolling stone arrangement for a tomb door. "[18]

A population list from about 1887 showed that Sarafand had about 270 inhabitants; allMuslims.[19]

British Mandate era

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In the1922 census of Palestine,conducted by theBritish Mandateauthorities, Sarafand had a population of 204; allMuslims,[20]decreasing in the1931 censusto 188; still all Muslim, in a total of 38 houses.[21]

The village economy depended on agriculture, animal husbandry and salt making.[22]

In the1945 statistics,the village had a population of 290 Muslims,[2]and the village's lands spanned 5,409dunams.[3]The population was entirely Muslim.[23]A total of 3,244 dunums of land was allocated tocereals;22 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards,[24]while 6 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[25]

Al-Sarafand (Sarafand) 1938 1:20,000
Al-Sarafand (Sarafand) 1945 1:250,000

1948, and aftermath

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During the1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine,the inhabitants fled in several stages. Most fled in early May towardsal-Tiraand when al-Tira was depopulated they left forJenin.Some returned and remained in al-Sarafand untilIsraeliforces — composed of theCarmeliandAlexandroni Brigades— assaulted the village on July 16, 1948. At the time,Arab Liberation Armyvolunteers and local militia were defending al-Sarafand.[26]Most of the inhabitants fled to the southeast line ofWadi Ara,where theIraqi Armywas stationed. Later, they crossed theJordan River,and since then the majority of al-Sarafand’s refugees have been living inJordan.Only one former resident of al-Sarafand remained inIsrael.The village houses were not immediately demolished by the Israelis and remained empty for many years. When they were eventually destroyed, the mosque was the only building spared.[7]

Petersen inspected the village mosque and adjacent vaults in 1994, and described the mosque as "a tall rectangular box-like building standing on a terrace near the top of the ridge on which it was built. The mosque is entered through a doorway in the middle of the north wall. The interior is divided into two long cross-vaulted bays resting on six large piers. There are four windows in west wall facing the sea. Themihrabis placed in the centre of the south wall and can be seen on the exterior as a rectangular projection. To the west of the mihrab are the remains of aminbar(now destroyed). The lower sections of the wall are approximately 1 m. thick, whilst the upper part of the south and north walls are considerably thinner (0.3 m.). Although the present building does not appear to be very old (late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries) it does appear to in incorporate an earlier structure which is visible in the exterior walls. To the south of the mosque is a rectangular area of ruins (approximately 30m x 40m) containing several barrel-vaulted chambers. Three of these are still accessible; one on the north side nearest the mosque, and two on the south side next to the quarry cliff. Each vault is about 7m long; one is 2.52m wide and the other is 3.52m wide. More intensive investigation could reveal a basic plan of this structure. "[27]

Mosque restoration

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In 1999, the 'Aqsa Society for the Preservation of Islamic Holy Sites decided to restore al-Sarafand’smosque.In May 2000, while restoration was on the verge of completion, the mosque was destroyed overnight by a bulldozer. The perpetrator was never identified. The activists covered the ruins by a large tent and maintained a vigil at the site. Removal of the tent was negotiated with the Israeli authorities. It was agreed that the site would be fenced to protect it, but that did not happen and the activists built a more permanent structure. The latter was demolished by the police in March 2002, but the ruined mosque continues to be used for Friday prayers.[7]According to theOr Commissionreport, Israeli authorities did not grant a license for rebuilding the mosque after the demolition; a decision that contributed to the souring of relations between local Muslim residents and the authorities. The Or Commission report also claims that activities byIslamicorganizations such as the aforementioned society may be using religious pretenses to further political aims. The commission describes such actions as a factor in 'inflaming' the Muslim population in Israel against the authorities, and cites the Sarafand mosque episode, with Muslims' attempts to restore the mosque andJewishattempts to stop them, as an example of the 'shifting of dynamics' of the relationship between Muslims and the Israeli authorities.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Palmer, 1881, p.141
  2. ^abGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p.14
  3. ^abcdGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics.Village Statistics, April, 1945.Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.49
  4. ^Morris, 2004, p.xviii,village #174. Also gives causes of depopulation
  5. ^Morris, 2004, p.xxii,settlement #124, 1949
  6. ^Marom, Roy; Zadok, Ran (2023)."Early-Ottoman Palestinian Toponymy: A Linguistic Analysis of the (Micro-)Toponyms in Haseki Sultan's Endowment Deed (1552)".Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.139(2).
  7. ^abcdEfrat Ben-Ze'ev and Issam Aburaiya (2004). ""Middle-ground" politics and the re-Palestinization of places in Israel ".International Journal of Middle East Studies.36(4): 639–655.doi:10.1017/S0020743804364068.S2CID155913777.
  8. ^Oren, 2004,Es-Sarafand
  9. ^Abu ShamaRHC(or.), IV, p.303.Cited in Petersen, 2001, p. 272
  10. ^MPF, 11 No. 31. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p.272
  11. ^al-Bakhīt, Muḥammad ʻAdnān; al-Ḥamūd, Nūfān Rajā (1989)."Daftar mufaṣṣal nāḥiyat Marj Banī ʻĀmir wa-tawābiʻihā wa-lawāḥiqihā allatī kānat fī taṣarruf al-Amīr Ṭarah Bāy sanat 945 ah".worldcat.org.Amman: Jordanian University. pp. 1–35.Retrieved2023-05-15.
  12. ^Marom, Roy; Marom, Tepper; Adams, Matthew, J (2023)."Lajjun: Forgotten Provincial Capital in Ottoman Palestine".Levant.55(2): 218–241.doi:10.1080/00758914.2023.2202484.S2CID258602184.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 158. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.188
  14. ^Karmon, 1960, p.163Archived2017-12-01 at theWayback Machine
  15. ^Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.4.Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 188
  16. ^Cited in Petersen, 2001, pp.272-3.
  17. ^Guérin, 1875, pp.301-302; cited in Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.4
  18. ^Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.33
  19. ^Schumacher, 1888, p.178
  20. ^Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p.34
  21. ^Mills, 1932, p.95
  22. ^Khalidi, 1992, p. 188
  23. ^Village Statistics April 1945,The Palestine Government, p.12Archived2012-06-09 at theWayback Machine
  24. ^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics.Village Statistics, April, 1945.Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.92
  25. ^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics.Village Statistics, April, 1945.Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.142
  26. ^Morris,2004, p.?
  27. ^Petersen, 2001, pp.272-273

Bibliography

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