Al-Sindiyana

This article is about a depopulated Palestinian village. For the Syrian village, see al-Sindiyana, Syria.
Al-Sindiyana
Al-Sindiyana
Arabic السنديانة
Name meaning "the evergreen oak"[1][2]
Also spelled Sindiyana, Sindianeh
Subdistrict Haifa
Coordinates 32°33′24.3″N 35°0′08.15″E / 32.556750°N 35.0022639°E / 32.556750; 35.0022639Coordinates: 32°33′24.3″N 35°0′08.15″E / 32.556750°N 35.0022639°E / 32.556750; 35.0022639
Palestine grid 150/218
Population 1,250 (1945)
Area 15,172 dunams
Date of depopulation May 12–14, 1948[3]
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities Aviel[4]

Al-Sindiyana (Arabic: السنديانة, Es Sindiyâna) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Haifa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 12, 1948. It was located 29 km south of Haifa.

History

Ottoman era

On 16 March 1799, during the Ottoman era, Napoleon had a battle here just north of the village. [5]

In 1859, the population was estimated to be 300, who cultivated 22 feddans of land.[6]

Victor Guérin visited the village in 1863. Transcribing its name as Sendianeh, he notes there are 400 inhabitants and that its name must derive from the Arabic word sendian, meaning "evergreen oak", as these abound on the hills flanking the village.[7]

In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Sindianeh as a "village of moderate size on high ground, with a spring below it, and a cave; it was here that the tunnel of the Cæsarea aqueduct is said to have broken into by women digging for clay".[6]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al Sendianeh had a population of 576; all Muslims,[8] increasing in the 1931 census to 923; 922 Muslim and 1 Jew, in a total of 217 houses.[9]

Al-Sindiyana had an elementary school for boys, which by 1942-1943 had 200 students. The village had numerous springs and wells which provided it with water for both domestic use and irrigation.[10] In 1945 it had a population of 1,250, with a total of 15,172 dunams of land.[11] Of this, a total of 8,177 dunums of land was allocated to cereals; 225 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards,[12] while 24 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[13]

References

  1. Khatib et al., 2003, p. 119.
  2. Quercus coccifera, according to Palmer, 1881, p. 153
  3. Morris, 2004, xviii, village #160
  4. Khalidi, 1992, p. 193.
  5. van de Velde, 1854, vol 1, p. 344
  6. 1 2 Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 43
  7. Guérin, 1875, p. 342.
  8. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 34
  9. Mills, 1932, p. 96
  10. Khalidi, 1992, p. 192
  11. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 49
  12. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 92
  13. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 142

Bibliography

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, September 19, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.