Rehaniya

Rehaniya (Arabic: الريحانية‎; Hebrew: רִיחָנִיָּה‎‎; Circassian: Рихьаные) is a predominantly Circassian village about 8 km north of Safed in northern Israel. It belongs to the Merom HaGalil Regional Council.

Background and history

The Circassians arrived in the Middle East after they were chased from their homeland in the northern Caucasus. The Circassians, who fought during the long period wherein the Russians captured the northern Caucasus, were massacred and expelled by Czarist Russia from the Caucasus in an incident that became known as the Circassian Holocaust. The Ottoman Empire absorbed them in their territory and settled them in sparsely populated areas, including the Galilee in Palestine.

The village Rehaniya was established in 1873, but only in 1878 did Circassian families arrive from the Abazah tribe in the northern Caucasus, a region where today is located the Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia in the Russian Federation.

The village was built in the tradition Circassian style, which has its roots in the Caucasus, and is called "walled village": the houses are built next to one another and form a protective wall around the city, whose remnants remain until today (2008). In the village there is a mosque in the style of Circassian mosques in the Caucasus, and substantially different from Arab mosques. Also, the village contains a museum and a center for Circassian heritage.

Rehaniya is one of two predominantly-Circassian villages in Israel. The other one is Kfar Kama, which was recognized as a local council in 1950.

References

• The Circassians in Israel [1]
• Muslim revivalism and the emergence of civic society. A case study of an Israeli-Circassian community [2]

See also

• Circassians in Israel