al-Tira الطيرة Tirat al-Lawz, Tirat Haifa | |
|---|---|
| Etymology: The Fortress[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Al-Tira, Haifa (click the buttons) | |
  al-Tira Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:32°45′43″N34°58′31″E / 32.76194°N 34.97528°E /32.76194; 34.97528 | |
| Palestine grid | 148/240 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Haifa |
| Date of depopulation | 16 July 1948[3] |
| Area | |
• Total | 45,262dunams (45.262 km2; 17.476 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 5,270[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault byYishuv forces |
| Current Localities | HaHotrim,[4][5]Tirat Carmel,[5]Megadim,[5]Kfar Galim,[5]Kfar Tzvi Sitrin[5] |
al-Tira (Arabic:الطيرة, also calledTirat al-Lawz ("Tira of the almonds") orTirat Haifa to distinguish it from other al-Tiras) was aPalestinian town located 7 kilometres south ofHaifa.[6] It was made up of five khirbets, includingKhirbat al-Dayr where lie the ruins ofSt. Brocardus monastery and a cave complex with vaulted tunnels.[7]
The town’s inhabitants were ethnically cleansed during theNakba, and the Israeli townTirat Carmel was founded on its lands in 1949.[8]
Some scholars have suggested that the name Tireh reflects the town's history as the original location of Ancient Tyre.[9]
TheCrusaders called al-Tira,St. Yohan de Tire,[10] and in the thirteenth century the village contained aGreek Orthodox abbey of St. John the Baptist.[11][12] In 1283 it was mentioned as part of the domain of the Crusaders, according to thehudna between the Crusaders and theMamluk sultanQalawun.[13]
In 1517 the village was incorporated into theOttoman Empire with the rest of Palestine. During the16th and17th centuries, Tirat al-Lauz belonged to theTurabay Emirate (1517-1683), which encompassed also theJezreel Valley,Haifa,Jenin,Beit She'an Valley, northernJabal Nablus,Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe, and the northern part of theSharon plain.[14][15]
In 987 H. (1579 CE) it is recorded thatAssaf, thesanjaqbey ofal-Lajjun, built amosque in the village.[16]
In 1596, al-Tira was a village with a population of 52Muslim households, an estimated 286 persons, under the administrative jurisdiction of thenahiya ("subdistrict") of Shafa, part ofSanjak Lajjun of theOttoman Empire. Villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% to the authorities for the crops that they cultivated, which included wheat, goats, beehives, andvineyards; a total of 26,000Akçe.[17][18]
In1799, it appeared under the name of El Koneiceh (= Kh. el Keniseh) on the map thatPierre Jacotin compiled that year, though it was misplaced.[19]
Victor Guérin visited in 1870, “I first examined a small mosque, which appears to have been formerly a Christian church. Aligned from west to east it has only a single nave and is terminated towards the east by an apse. One enters through a rectangular door crowned by a fine monolithiclintel. This church, which has been constructed with very regular ashlars, is covered by slightly pointed vaults, above which there is a flat terrace roof.”[20]
After the heavy conscription imposed by the Ottomans in 1872, there was a decline in the village's prosperity, but it subsequently recovered.[21]
A population list from about 1887 showed that Tireh had about 2,555 inhabitants; allMuslims.[22]
Al-Tira had two mosques, named the Old and the New. The Old mosque was originally a church, and was already out of use by 1932.[23] The New mosque appears to be still standing, but now converted into asynagogue. The age of the New Mosque is not agreed upon; Pringle states that it is the mosque built by Assaf in 1579 C.E. However, Petersen, who inspected it in 1994, reports that this is incorrect, and that an inscription set in an arched recess by the door to what was the entrance to the prayer hall records, in provincialnasskhi script, the construction of the mosque to Ishaq ibn Amir in 687 H. (1288-1289 CE).[23]
In the1922 census of Palestine, conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities,Tireh had a population of 2,346; 2,336 PalestinianMuslims, 1 Jew and 9 Christians,[24] where the Christians were 1 Roman Catholic and 8 Orthodox.[25] The population had increased in the1931 census to 3,191 people; 3,173 Muslims, 17 Christians, 1 Druze, in a total of 624 houses.[26]
In 1943, al-Tira produced more olives and oil than any other village in the Haifa District. The abundance of almond trees in al-Tira gave rise to the village's nickname,Tirat al-Lawz ("Tira of the almonds"). By 1945, its 5,240Muslims and 30Christians[2] shared two elementary schools, one for boys, the other for girls. Its economy was based on the cultivation of grain, vegetables and fruit, watered with the natural springs of the village.[18]
By the1945 statistics, al Tira had a population of 5,270; 30 Christians and 5,240 Muslims,[2] with a total land area of 45,262dunams.[27] Of this, Palestinians used 16,219 forcereals; 3,543 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards,[28] while a total of 901 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[29]
| Part ofa series on the |
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Shortly after the beginning of the1948 Palestine war, on 11/12 December 1947 Tira was attacked by the terrorist organisationIrgun and thirteen residents were killed, "mainly children and the elderly" according to historianIlan Pappé.[30][31]
Tira was attacked by theHaganah on the night of 21–22 April 1948, causing some women and children to flee the village. At dawn on April 25, the Haganah mortared Tira, and launched an attack on the village in the early hours of 26 April. An infantry company reached the outskirts of the village but was apparently halted by fire from British units. The village's non-combat population was then evacuated by the British, leaving several hundred armed men to defend it. It fell to Israeli forces in July.[32]
Following the war, the area was incorporated into theState of Israel and absorbed intoTirat Carmel. Tira was first settled with Jewish immigrants in February 1949; by April it had a population of 2,000.[33] Many of Tira's refugees fled to Jordan, mostly toIrbid.[34]
After the war,Palestinian refugees who had been displaced the town established the Wādī al-‘Ein village . The community at Wādī al-‘Ein persisted until the early 1970s, whenIsraeli authorities forcibly evicted the residents. Thiseviction was implemented to incorporate the area into theMount Carmel National Park, which had been designated in 1960. Subsequent to the residents' removal, the dwellings in the small village were notdemolished. Instead, they remain vacant up to the present day.[35]
The Palestinian historianWalid Khalidi described the village remains in 1992: "Some of the houses, such as one belonging to 'Irsan al-Dhib, remain standing. The cemetery is unkempt and there are several broken gravestones. The remains of two shrines are visible and the school is used by Israeli students, both Palestinians and Jewish. There are forests and some residential houses in the mountainous part of the surrounding land."[18]
By 2011, four books about the Palestinian village history had been published.[36]
This place, the original site of Tyre, was, according to Strabo, thirty stadia south of New Tyre on the promontory; yet there is a passage which looks as if even in the fourth century it was placed near Athlit, for Jerome speaks of Dor (s.v. Dornapheth, Onomasticon) as nine miles north of Cæsarea (at Khurbet Tantúrah) "to those going to Tyre now deserted." [Footnote: * The name Tireh, applied to a village near Athlit, may perhaps have some connection with this idea.]
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