Deir al-Asad
Deir al-Asad
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Local council (from 2008) | |
Coordinates: 32°55′11″N 35°16′19″E / 32.91972°N 35.27194°E | |
Grid position | 175/260 PAL |
Country | Israel |
District | Northern |
Area | |
• Total | 4,756 dunams (4.756 km2 or 1.836 sq mi) |
Population | |
• Total | 13,078[1] |
Name meaning | the lion's monastery |
Deir al-Asad (
The village was captured by Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, immediately after which it was temporarily emptied of its inhabitants and looted by Israeli troops before its residents were allowed to return, although a number of inhabitants became Palestinian refugees in the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Lebanon. A significant part of its agricultural lands were confiscated by the authorities in 1962 and formed part of the new Jewish city of Karmiel. Most of Deir al-Asad's residents belong to the clans of Asadi, descendants of Shaykh Muhammad al-Asad, and Dabbah, established in the village in the 18th century. In 2003 Deir al-Asad was merged with Bi'ina and nearby Majd al-Krum to form the single municipality of Shaghur, the name of the Ottoman district in which the towns had once been part, but the municipal union was dissolved in 2008.
Etymology
Deir al-Asad means "the lion's monastery" in Arabic.[3]
History
Crusader and Mamluk period
In the
By 1182, St. George de la Beyne came under the control of
The combined site of Deir al-Asad and Bi'ina remained inhabited under the
Ottoman period
Endowment to Muhammad al-Asad
According to Ottoman
Shaykh al-Asad was originally from the village of
Shaykh al-Asad died in 1569.[19] The descendants of his four sons are known as the Asadi clan and their original area of residence forms the core of Deir al-Asad.[21] Other Muslim clans in the village moved there to find refuge and were given the protection of the Asadi clan.[21] The attraction to Deir al-Asad during the early Ottoman era may have stemmed from its inhabitants' exemption from army service and the village's reputation as a refuge, including for criminals evading government pursuit.[22] According to local tradition, two brothers whose descendants formed Deir al-Asad's Dabbah clan settled in the village's upper neighborhood in the 18th century.[23]
Nineteenth century
Deir al-Asad possessed a large fortified monastery called St. George.
British Mandate period
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Deir al-Asad had a population of 749, all Muslim,[30] increasing in the 1931 census to 858, still all Muslims, living in total of 179 houses.[31] By the 1945 statistics, Deir al-Asad had 1,100 inhabitants, all Muslims.[32] They owned a total of 8,366 dunams of land, while 7 dunams were public.[33] 1,322 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,340 used for cereals,[34] while 38 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[35]
Israel
Units from the Arab Liberation Army evacuated Deir al-Asad and Bi'ina on 29 October 1948.[36] Village notables officially surrendered to Israeli forces the next day and Israel's Golani Brigade entered on 31 October.[36] The inhabitants of both villages were assembled in the central square of Bi'ina where Israeli troops picked four men at random, two from each village, and had them executed in a nearby olive grove.[36] A further 270 men were transferred to a prisoners-of-war camp while the remainder of the inhabitants were temporarily ousted to the environs of nearby Rameh.[36] Israeli troops looted the villages then allowed the inhabitants to return after a few days.[37] On 5 November Israeli troops blew up three houses in Deir al-Asad.[38] On 6 January 1949, 62 people from villages depopulated during the war were rounded up and expelled by the Israeli authorities.[39] A number of Deir al-Asad's inhabitants became refugees in Lebanon and some 2,500 members of the village's Asadi clan resided in the Ain al-Hilweh camp in 1982.[40]
Before 1962 Deir al-Asad was self-sufficient in food. The village produced enough meat, fruit, wheat and vegetables for its inhabitants and sold the surplus in Acre or Nazareth. In 1962 its land in the Majd al-Kurum valley was expropriated for the Karmiel town project, stripping the village of its most fertile acres and irreparably harming the local economy in the process. Only the hill land to the north, consisting mainly of olive groves, remained. Today only 10% of the labour force can work on the land, over 80% commute daily to the factories of Haifa or work as labourers on Jewish farms.[41][42]
The two main clans of Deir al-Asad are Asadi and Dabbah.[23] In 1957 the Asadi clan numbered some 800 persons and by 1984, they were about 2,400, accounting for roughly half of the population.[21] In 2000 the two clans each numbered about 3,000 members in the town.[23] Members of the Asadi clan continued to administer and receive the proceeds of the waqf of Shaykh al-Asad at least through the 1980s.[21] In 2003, the municipality of Deir al-Asad merged with Majd al-Krum and Bi'ina to form the city of Shaghur. However, it was reinstated in 2008 after Shaghur was dissolved.[2] In 2022 it had a population of 13,078.[1]
Historic buildings
Crusader abbey and church remains
The large remains of a Crusader church and abbey was already noted by Guérin and the "Survey of Western Palestine".[26][43] Guérin noted after his 1875 visit that: "Constructed of small stones very regularly cut, this church had three naves and three apses. Its windows were narrow, and fashioned like actual loopholes, and several details of its architecture show a knowledge of art. Unfortunately, the Druses have half demolished it, and what they have spared has been converted into a stable."[44] Denys Pringle named it "The abbey Church of St. George," and dated it do the 12th century.[45]
Mosque and tomb of Shaykh al-Asad al-Safadi
The mosque and tomb of Shaykh al-Asad al-Safadi is a two-domed structure, situated about 50 meters (160 ft) south of the Crusader abbey and church remains. The smaller chamber, to the north, holds the tomb of Shyakh al-Asad, while the southern, larger chamber holds a prayer hall. To the east there is a courtyard.[46]
Notable people
References
- ^ a b "Regional Statistics". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
- ^ a b Lessons in an Arab Israeli village Dayton Jewish Observer, 24 May 2011
- ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 42
- ^ Rafael Frankel, (1988). "Topographical Notes on the Territory of Acre in the Crusader Period", in Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 249-272
- ^ Ellenblum, p. 166.
- ^ Layish 1987, p. 67.
- ^ Ellenblum, pp. 166–167.
- ^ a b c d e Ellenblum, p. 167.
- ^ a b c Ellenblum, p. 168.
- ^ Ellenblum, pp. 167–168.
- ^ a b c Ellenblum, p. 169.
- ^ Layish 1987, pp. 61–63, 68.
- ^ Layish 1987, pp. 61, 65, 68.
- ^ Layish 1987, p. 65.
- ^ Layish 1987, pp. 65–68.
- ^ Layish 1987, pp. 68, 70, 72.
- ^ Layish 1987, pp. 72–73.
- ^ a b Layish 1987, p. 71.
- ^ a b c Layish 1987, p. 68.
- ^ Layish 1987, pp. 68, 71.
- ^ a b c d Layish 1987, p. 76.
- ^ Layish 1987, pp. 74–75.
- ^ a b c Forte 2003, p. 140.
- ^ a b R. Frankel, N. Getzov, M. Aviam, & A. Degani, Settlement dynamics and regional diversity in ancient Upper Galilee: archaeological survey of Upper Galilee, IAA Reports, no. 14, Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA): Jerusalem 2001, p. 136
- ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, 2nd appendix, p. 133
- ^ a b Guérin, 1880, p. 446
- ^ Firro, 1992, p. 166
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 150
- ^ Schumacher, 1888, p. 174
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Acre, p. 36
- ^ Mills, 1932, p. 100
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 4
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970 p. 40.
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 80
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 130
- ^ a b c d Morris 2004, p. 477.
- ^ Morris 2004, pp. 477–478.
- ^ Morris 2004, p. 478.
- ^ Morris 2004, p. 515.
- ^ Near East/North Africa Report, Issue 2660, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Joint Publications Research Service, 1982
- ^ Gilmour, 1983, p. 108.
- ^ Amun, Davis, and San'allah, 1977, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 153
- ^ Guérin, 1880, p. 446, as translated by Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 168
- ^ Pringle, 1993, pp. 80 -92
- ^ Petersen, 2001, pp. 131-132
- ^ GeoCities Mahmoud Darwish Biography. Sameh Al-Natour.
- ^ [1]
Bibliography
- Amun, H.; Davis, U.; San´allah, N. D. (1977). Deir al-Asad: The Destiny of an Arab Village in Galilee, in Palestinian Arabs in Israel: Two Case Studies. London: Ithaca Press.
- Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- ISBN 9780521521871. (pp. 167- 169 )
- Firro, Kais (1992). A History of the Druzes. Vol. 1. BRILL. ISBN 9004094377.
- Forte, Tania (2003). "Home in the 1990s Galilee: An Ethnographic Approach to the Study of Power Relations". In Shechter, Relli (ed.). Transitions in Domestic Consumption and Family Life in the Modern Middle East. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 135–166. ISBN 1-4039-6189-1.
- Gilmour, David (1983). Dispossessed: The Ordeal of the Palestinians. United Kingdom: Sphere Books.
- Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
- Guérin, V. (1880). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 3: Galilee, pt. 1. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Karmon, Y. (1960). "An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal. 10 (3, 4): 155–173, 244–253. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2015-04-28. (p. 165 Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine)
- Layish, Aharon (1987). ""Waqfs" and Ṣūfī Monasteries in the Ottoman Policy of Colonization: Sulṭan Selīm I's "waqf" of 1516 in Favour of Dayr al-Asad". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 50 (1): 61–89. JSTOR 616894.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- ISBN 0-521-81120-1.
- Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Petersen, Andrew (2001). A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology). Vol. 1. ISBN 978-0-19-727011-0.
- ISBN 0-521-39036-2.
- Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. Vol. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
- Schumacher, G. (1888). "Population list of the Liwa of Akka". Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 20: 169–191.
External links
- Welcome To Dayr al-Asad
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3: IAA, Wikimedia commons