Tulayl

Tulayl

Tulayl, 2012
Tulayl
Arabic تليل
Name meaning The small mound.[1]
Subdistrict Safad
Coordinates 33°03′03.32″N 35°37′11.57″E / 33.0509222°N 35.6198806°ECoordinates: 33°03′03.32″N 35°37′11.57″E / 33.0509222°N 35.6198806°E
Palestine grid 208/272
Population 340 (together with al-Husayniyya)[2] (1945)
Area 5,324 dunams
5.3 km²
Date of depopulation late April 1948[3]

Tulayl (Arabic: تليل) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict located 14.5 kilometers (9.0 mi) northeast of Safad. It was situated on small, sandy hill on the southwestern shore of Lake Hula, near the merging of two wadis. Together with the nearby village of al-Husayniyya, it had a population of 340 in 1945. Tulayl was depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War.[4]

History

Scholars identify the mound upon which Tulayl was built with the Roman town of "Thella".[4][5] Its hilltop location protected it from floods.

Under the Ottoman Empire, in 1596, Tulayl was a part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jira, under the administration of the Liwa (sanjak) of Safad, with a population of 215. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, bees, and water buffalo.[6][7]

In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the place as having "modern cattle-sheds and traces of ruins of basaltic stone".[8]

Its houses, closely packed together, were constructed from adobe and cane.[4] During the British Mandate period, it expanded westward and by the 1940s approached the village of al-Husayniyya, itself having expanded eastward. Thus, the two virtually had become one village sharing the same services, including the only school. The entire population, engaged mostly in agriculture, raising water buffalo, and fishing, was Muslim.[4]

Like most villages in the area, Tulayl was captured by Israel during its offensive Operation Yiftach in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Israeli historian Benny Morris speculates it was seized in April 1948. According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi in 1992, "The village site is thickly covered with grass and other vegetation, including some eucalyptus and palm trees. Only one old stone house, with an arched doorway, remains standing.[4]

Economy

The village area comprised a total area of 5,324 dunams.[2] A large number of inhabitants were employed in cereal farming.[9]

Types of land use in dunams in the village in 1945:[9]

Land Usage Arab Jewish
Irrigated and plantation 22 0
Cereal 3,388 1,637
Urban 48 0
Cultivable 3,410 1,637
Non-cultivable 113,116

The land ownership of the village before occupation in dunams:[9]

Owner Dunams
Arab 3,556
Jewish 1,753
Public 15
Total 5,324

References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 96
  2. 2.0 2.1 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 71
  3. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #37. Morris gives date and cause of depopulation with "?"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Khalidi, 1992, p.500.
  5. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 209
  6. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 178. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 500
  7. Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
  8. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 257
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Hadawi, 1970

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tulayl.

External links