Qaqun

Qaqun قاقون Quaquo, Caco, Chaco, Kâkôn, Kakoun
In the Crusader period, a castle called Caco or Cacho stood here, of which an 8.5m tower survives.[1]
Etymology: from personal name[2]
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Qaqun (click the buttons)
´Olesh,[6] Haniel,[6] Yikon[6]

Qaqun (

While the site is an ancient one, the current name, Qāqūn is an Aramaic one, meaning “little pelican”. In the Crusader period it was variously transcribed as Caco, Caccho among other forms. Some 17th century Ottoman documents have another variant, Qāqūm (قاقوم).^[9]

History

Ancient and classical

In the 1st century AD, Antipas, like others close to the Herodians who ruled over parts of the region at the time, was granted dominion over large areas of land. One of the gifts (doreai) he received was a parcel of land located in the Plain of Sharon which included Qaqun, among other villages.^[12]

Crusader period

In the

In December 1271, as Baybars was battling the Mongols in Aleppo, the Crusader forces of King Edward raided Qaqun, but were quickly fought back by the forces of the Mamluk emirs.^[20] However the near contemporary Egyptian historian Ibn al-Furat wrote that Edward’s raid may have been a little more troublesome, he wrote:

“At the end of the month of Rabi' II, the month already mentioned (4 December 1271), the Sultan learnt that the Franks had attacked Qaqun (Caco); the emir Husam al-Din, the ustadh-dar, had been killed and the emir Rukn al-Din al-Jaliq wounded; while the governor of the place had had to leave.”^[21]

At the end of the 13th century, the

In the late 19th century, Qaqun was described as a large village built around the central tower of the Crusader/Mamluk fort. Its houses, built of stone and mud, were dispersed over the surface of a hill. There was arable land in the surrounding area.

In the 1922 census of Palestine there were 1,629 villagers, 29 Christian males, and the rest Muslim,^[32] decreasing in the 1931 census to a population of 1367 Muslims, in a total of 260 houses.^[33]

In the

Just prior to the 1948 war, in addition to the mosque and fortress, Qaqun also housed an elementary school for boys and hundreds of homes for its more than 2,000 inhabitants.[37] The village families were made up of the Abu-Hantash, Zidan, al-Shaykh Ghanem, Matrouk, and al-Hafi clans.^[37]

• 
  Qaqun 1930 1:20,000
• 
  Qaqun 1939 1:20,000
• 
  Qaqun 1945 1:250,000

1948 War

Battle of Qaqun
Part of 1948 Arab-Israeli War
War Memorial of Alexandroni Brigade in Qaqun with Bible citation from Zephaniah 3:19
Date June 4–5, 1948 Location Israel Result Israeli victory
Belligerents
IDF (Alexandroni Brigade)	Iraq, Arab irregulars
Commanders and leaders
Col. Dan Even [he] (Alexandroni Brigade) Ben Zion Ziv (33rd Battalion)
Strength
Reinforced battalion	Iraqi regulars, 200 irregulars[38]
Casualties and losses
16[38]

Qaqun was the victim of a "hit-and-run" raid carried out by the

Qaqun was chosen as the target of an Israeli offensive, and on 5 June at 04:00, the 33rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade attacked the village. A frontal assault was conducted on the Iraqi headquarters to the north of the village, after the nearby mill was cleared. The Israel Defense Forces were only able to clear the village during the day, and used reinforcements from the 32nd Battalion at Ein HaHoresh, which flanked the Arab forces from the south. Iraqi counter-attacks from Kalansawe and Tulkarem lasted until nightfall, with both sides bombing each other's positions from the air. Israeli forces were able to hold on to the village and put an end to Iraqi advances on the coastal plain.^[42] Alexandroni suffered 16 casualties and by their estimate the entire Iraqi battalion was wiped out. According to the Alexandroni memorial website, the Iraqi defeat in the battle is considered its biggest of the war.^[43]

However, according to Benny Morris, the attack was preceded by an artillery barrage that precipitated the evacuation of most of Qaqun's inhabitants to nearby groves.^[44] And only a few local militiamen and several dozen Iraqi Army soldiers remained to fight and they were rapidly overwhelmed by the Alexandroni infantry.^[45]

Two days later, on 7 June,

Walid Khalidi described the remaining structures of the village in 1992:

The fortress on top of the hill, a well that belonged to the family of Abu Hantash, and the school building are all that remain of the village. The fortress is surrounded by stone rubble and the remains of houses, and the school building is still used as a school by Israelis. Cactuses and an old mulberry tree grow south of the hill. The surrounding lands are covered by orchards. In addition, cotton, pistachios, and vegetables are grown on the lands. There is an Israeli fodder-processing factory northeast of the village site.^[37][6]

The estimated number of Palestinian refugees from Qaqun, as of 1998, was 14,034. This figure includes descendants of the original refugees.^[37]

The Nature and Parks Authority and the Hefer Valley Economic Development Corporation recently ordered that the former site of Qaqun, its fortress and other ruins be declared a national park.^[48] The plan is to rehabilitate the site and turn it into a "focal point that will draw tourism."^[48]

See also

• Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
• List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict

References