Hamama حمامة Hamameh[1] | |
|---|---|
 People of Hamama with GovernorAref al Aref andthe 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, in 1943 | |
| Etymology: "dove"[2] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Hamama (click the buttons) | |
  Hamama Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:31°41′35″N34°35′32″E / 31.69306°N 34.59222°E /31.69306; 34.59222 | |
| Palestine grid | 111/122 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Gaza |
| Date of depopulation | 4 November 1948[5] |
| Area | |
• Total | 41.4 km2 (16.0 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 5,070[3][4] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault byYishuv forces |
| Current Localities | Nitzanim,[6]Beit Ezra,[6]Eshkolot[6] |
Hamama (Arabic:حمامة) was a Palestinian town of over 5,000 inhabitants that was depopulated during the1948 Arab-Israeli War.[3][4] It was located 24 kilometers north ofGaza. It was continuously inhabited from theMamluk period (c. 1270) until 1948.[7][8]
The site had been previously inhabited from the Hellenistic through theRoman and Byzantine periods, flourishing during the latter.[8] It has been suggested that the settlement there was the city known from sources by the Greek name ofPeleia, but some are placing that city closer to Ascalon.[8] The site has been used to build a new neighbourhood in the northern part of the Israeli city ofAshkelon, after undergoing arescue dig.[8]
Hamama's earliest recorded name isPeleia, dating to the Roman period. It translates as "dove", and when theArabs conquered it through theRashidun Caliphate in the seventh century, the town received itsArabic nameHamama meaning "dove" (seeحمامة), reflecting its Byzantine roots.[citation needed]
In the fifth century CE, a Byzantine city rose at the site, possibly one known from written sources asPeleia, although there is no consensus about it.[8][9]
Remains from the fifth and sixth century CE have been found there, together with Byzantine ceramics.[10] A fragment of aGreek stone inscription discovered there is currently held at theLouvre in Paris.[11]
Hamama[dubious –discuss] was located outsideAscalon and near the site of abattle in 1099 between the Crusaders and theFatimids, resulting in a Crusader victory.[9] There are very few archaeological findings datable to the Crusader period, and sources from that time do not mention Hamama.[8]
During the Mamluk period, the area passed into Muslim hands.[8][clarification needed]
During the Mandate time, the village was visited by inspectors from the Department of Antiquities who noted two mosques. One of these, known as Shaykh Ibrahim Abi Arqub, included marble columns and capitals in theiwan. The eponymous mosque was affiliated with amujāhid and descendant of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb. The other mosque, known as Shaykh Hamid, also incorporated marble fragments. Neither of these mosques have survived.[12] Mandatory archaeologists documented a marble slab (0.3x0.95 m) located on the western wall of the mosque of Ibrāhīm Abū ʿArqūb. This slab featured a nine-line Arabic inscription, now unfortunately lost, which was dated to 700 AH/1301 CE, and the content of which remains unrecorded.[7]
By 1333/4 CE (734 AH) some of the income from the village formed part of awaqf of the tomb (turba) andmadrasa ofAqbugha b. Abd Allah inCairo.[13] In 1432, it is reported that the Mamluk sultanBarsbay passed through the village. In this period, a renowned scholar and preacher at theal-Aqsa Mosque, Ahmad al-Shafi'i (1406–1465), was born there.[9]
Hamama, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into theOttoman Empire in 1517. In first Ottomantax register of 1526/7 the village had a population of 31Muslim households and onebachelor, and it belonged to thenahiya of Gaza (Gaza Sanjak).[8] In the tax registers of 1596 it had a population of 84 Muslim households, an estimated 462 persons. The villagers paid taxes on goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 6,800akçe. All of the revenue went to awaqf.[14] Its residents came from various places, including theHauran, andEgypt.[15]
The seventeenth-century travelleral-Nabulsi recorded that the tomb (qabr) of Shaykh Ibrahim Abi Arqub was located in the village,[12] while the SyrianSufi teacher and traveller Mustafa al-Bakri al-Siddiqi (1688-1748/9) (ar) visited Hamama in the first half of the eighteenth century, after leavingal-Jura.[16]
Marom and Taxel have shown that during the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, nomadic economic and security pressures led to settlement abandonment around Majdal ‘Asqalān, and the southern coastal plain in general. The population of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, while the lands of abandoned settlements continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages. Thus, Hamama absorbed the lands of Ṣandaḥanna, Mi‘ṣaba, and excluded the lands of Bashsha, an exclave of al-Majdal.[8]
Hamama appears on Jacotin's map drawn-up duringNapoleon's invasion in 1799, though its position is interchanged with that ofMajdal.[17][18] In 1838,Hamameh was noted as a Muslim village in the Gaza district.[19]
Local administrative restructuring began in the 1860s astanzimat reforms were implemented at the district level. The construction of the "quarter system"—the partition of village land among groups of families—led to significant economic development, as evidenced by village land usage in the early twentieth century.[7]
In 1863, the French explorerVictor Guérin visited the village, and noted amosque constructed with ancient materials. The village had a population of "at least eight hundred souls".[20] He further noted: "The gardens of Hamama are outstandingly fertile. They are divided by living fences of huge cactus pears, and are planted with olive, fig, pomegranate, mulberry and apricot trees. Here and there slender palm trees and broad treetops of sycamore trees rise above them."[21]
An official Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed thatHamame had 193 houses and a population of 635, although it only counted the men.[22][23]
Under theBritish Mandate in Palestine, a village council was established to administer local affairs, Hamama had amosque, and two primary schools, one for boys and one for girls, established in 1921.[24] British Mandate Ḥamāma had pre-planned new communities erected around the original village nucleus, with crisscrossed pathways separating the new residential quarters.[7]
In the1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Hamama had a population of 2,731; 2,722 Muslims and 9 Christians,[25] where all the Christians were Orthodox.[26] The population had increased in the1931 census to 3,405; 3,401 Muslims and 4 Christians, in a total of 865 houses.[27]
In the1945 statistics Hamama had a population of 5,070; 5,000 Muslims, 10 Christians and 60 Jews,[3] with a total of 41,366dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[4] Of this, 1,356 dunams were used for citrus and bananas, 4,459 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 28,890 for cereals,[28] while 167 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[29]
In the 1940s, British officials paved the road to the village for year-round automobile access.[7]
In 1946, the boys' school had an enrollment of 338, and the girls' school an enrollment of 46. Its inhabitants engaged primarily in fishing and agriculture, cultivating grain, citrus, apricots, almonds, figs, olives, watermelons, and cantaloupes. Due to the existence of sand dunes in the north part of the town, trees were planted on parts of those lands to prevent soil erosion.[24]
In addition to agriculture, residents practiced animal husbandry which formed was an important source of income for the village. In 1943, they owned 405 heads of cattle, 310 sheep over a year old, 172 goats over a year old, 228 camels, 11 horses, 9 mules, 567 donkey, 2963 fowls, 454 pigeons.[7]
According to reports published by the newspaperFelesteen, Hamama was first drawn into the1948 Arab-Israeli War after a group of workers from the town laboring in the adjacent fields were struck by Jewish residents fromNitzanim on January 22, 1948, leaving fifteen Arabs wounded.[30] Two days later, a unit from Nitzanim opened fire on Hamama residents, killing one, and on February 17, a group of workers waiting for a bus on the road betweenIsdud and the town were fired upon, wounding two.[24]
It was captured byIsrael from theEgyptian Army in the first stage ofOperation Yoav on October 28. By then severalrefugees from nearby towns were in Hamama, most of them, along with many of Hamama's residents, fled with the withdrawing Egyptian troops.[31]
At the end of November 1948, Coastal Plain District troops carried out sweeps of the villages around and to the south ofMajdal. Hamama was one of the villages named in the orders to theIDF battalions and engineers platoon, that the villagers were to be expelled to Gaza, and the IDF troops were "to prevent their return by destroying their villages." The path leading to the village was to be mined. The IDF troops were ordered to carry out the operation "with determination, accuracy and energy".[32] The operation took place on 30 November. The troops found "not a living soul" in Hamama. However, the destruction of the villages was not completed immediately due to the dampness of the houses and the insufficient amount of explosives.[33]
In 1992 it was noted: "No traces of village houses or landmarks remain. The site is overgrown with wild vegetation, including tall grasses, weeds, and bushes. It also contains cactuses. The surrounding land is unused."[6]
Mohammed Dahlan's family and part ofAhmed Fouad Alkhatib's family are originally from Hamama.
