Qula
| Qula |
The remains of the Crusader tower at Qula. The village mosque was located about 10m to the east of it. |
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| Arabic |
قولة |
| Also Spelled |
Kouleh[1] Cola, Chola |
| District |
Ramla |
| Coordinates |
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| Population |
1,010[2] (1945) |
| Area |
4,347 dunums |
| Date of depopulation |
10 July 1948[3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation |
Military assault by Yishuv forces |
Qula (Arabic: قولة) was a Palestinian village in the British Mandate District of Ramla 15 km northeast of Ramla, depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[4]
Hasan Salama and his son Ali Hassan Salameh (1940 - 1979) were from Qula.
History
During the twelfth century the Hospitallers established an administrative and collection centre in the village, comprising a tower and a vaulted structure.[5]
In 1596, Qula was part of the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of al-Ramla under the Liwa of Gaza, with a population of 380. It paid taxes on goats and beehives, and a press that was used for processing either olives or grapes.[6]
In the late nineteenth century, the village of Qula was described as being situated on a slope at the edge of a plain; its historical relics dating back to medieval times.[7] The village mosque stood approximately 10m east of the Crusader tower. It comprised a large vaulted iwan and a smaller room with an inscription above the entrance.[8]
During the British mandate period the village expanded along the Ramle-Tulkarm highway. In the village center was the mosque, several small shops, and a school which had been founded in 1919. By the mid-1940's the school had 134 students.[9] In 1944/45 the villagers used a total of 2,842 dunums of land for cereals, while 105 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.[10]
1948 War and aftermath
Most of the villagers fled in 1948, leaving only a few, primarily elderly behind. The villagers from Qula report that those left behind (six women and one man) were all shot or burned to death in their homes.[11]
The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village site in 1992: "A forest covers much of the village site. The rubble of crumbled houses and terraces lies among the trees, and cactuses and fig, mulberry, and eucalyptus trees grow there as well. The only remaining landmark is the school, on the west side of the site. The hilly parts of the surrounding land are used for grazing animals; the rest of the land is cultivated.[13]
See also
References
- ^ Guérin, 1875, p. 390
- ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.68
- ^ Morris, 2004 p xviii village 211. Also gives cause of depopulation.
- ^ "Welcome to Qula". Palestine Remembered. http://www.palestineremembered.com/al-Ramla/Qula/index.html. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
- ^ Pringle 1986, p.21-22, Pringle 1997, p.87. Cited in Petersen, 2002, p. 254
- ^ Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977), Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 151. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.408
- ^ Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener: The Survey of Western Palestine. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. (1881) II, p.297. Also quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.408.
- ^ Petersen, 2002, p. 254
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.408
- ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.116. Also cited in Khalidi 1992, p409
- ^ Susan Slyomovics: The Rape of Qula.p.34 in Sa'di, Abu-Lughod, 2007.
- ^ Susan Slyomovics: The Rape of Qula.p.43 in Sa'di, Abu-Lughod, 2007.
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.409
Bibliography
- Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener (1881): The Survey of Western Palestine: memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology. London:Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Vol 2
- Guérin, M. V. (1875): Description Géographique, Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine. Samarie, 2 pt. ("Seconde partie -Samarie")("Tome II") p. 390 ff
- Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html
- Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0887282245
- le Strange, Guy (1890), Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, http://www.archive.org/details/palestineundermo00lestuoft
- Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521009677
- Petersen, Andrew (2002), A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine: Volume I (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology), Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780197270110, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0197270115 (Quala, p. 254 )
- Pringle, R. D. (1986), The Red Tower (al-Burj al-Ahmar): Settlement in the Plain of Sharon at the Time of the Crusaders and Mamluks, A.D. 1099-1516, British School of Archeology in Jerusalem Monograph Series, No. 1, London. (Cited in Petersen, 2002)
- Pringle, Denys (1997), Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521460101, http://books.google.com/?id=-_NbE5obqRMC (Cited in Petersen, 2002) (p.87, cites SWP, 1881, II, p.297 and p.358)
- Sa'di, Ahmad H., Abu-Lughod, Lila (2007), Nakba, Columbia University Press, ISBN 9780231135795
External links
