Khirbat Jiddin خربة جدّين | |
|---|---|
 Khirbat Jiddin mosque | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Khirbat Jiddin (click the buttons) | |
  Khirbat Jiddin Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:32°59′40″N35°13′19″E / 32.99444°N 35.22194°E /32.99444; 35.22194 | |
| Palestine grid | 171/266 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Acre |
| Date of depopulation | 11 July 1948 (Sheva' Brigade as part ofOperation Dekel) |
| Area | |
• Total | 7,587dunams (7.587 km2; 2.929 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 1,500[1] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault byYishuv forces |
| Current Localities | Yehiam,[3] Kiryat, andGa'aton[3][4] |
Khirbat Jiddin (Arabic:خربة جدين,lit. 'ruins of Jiddin'), known in theKingdom of Jerusalem asJudin, was anOttoman fortress in the westernUpper Galilee, originally built by theTeutonic Order after 1220 as acrusader castle, 16 km northeast of the city ofAcre, which at the time was the capital of theKingdom of Jerusalem. The castle was destroyed by theMamluk sultanBaibars sometime between 1268-1271 and lay in ruins until being rebuilt and expanded by theArab rulerZahir al-Umar asQal'at Jiddin (Arabic:قلعة جدين,lit. 'castle of Jiddin') in the 1760s, only to be destroyed again around 1775 byJazzar Pasha.[5][6] The ruined fortress, known as Khirbat Jiddin, was later inhabited by the al-Suwaytat Bedouin tribe.[7]
According to a 1945 census, there were 1500Muslims living in the area. Khirbat Jiddin land totaled 7,587 dunums, of which, however, all but 34 were officially listed as non-cultivable; 4,238 were owned byArabs and 3,349 dunums owned byJews.[7]KibbutzYehiam was established in the area in 1946.[8]
Today the remains of the castle are the central part ofYehi'am Fortress National Park.
The site was inhabited in theByzantine period.[6]
TheCrusaders called the placeJudin orJudyn. A Crusader castle was built there some time after May 1220, when theTeutonic Order acquired the nearby village of Shifaya.[9][10] The village fell to SultanBaibars between 1268 and 1271. In 1283,Burchard of Mount Sion described a destroyed castle on the site that had belonged to the Teutonic Order.[10][11]
Marino Sanuto, in 1322, still referred to it as a castle belonging to the Teutonic Knights.[12]
The castle was built around two towers with an outer enclosure wall.[13]
The fortress as it now exists was built in the eighteenth century byZahir al-Umar, the Bedouin ruler who becameOttoman governor of theGalilee.[14][15] It was Zahir al-Umar who had the enclosure walls and towers constructed and themoat hewn out of the bedrock, together with an angled entrance gatehouse, vaulted in a manner faithful to the Crusader style.[16] The vaulted hall on the lower level of the castle was the basement of a palatial residence that included a smallmosque and a bathhouse.[citation needed] The hall's roof rested on a series of square pillars on the hillside. The walls featured well shafts and gun-slits. The mosque was a small square building originally roofed with four cross-vaults resting on a central pillar. The bathhouse was a small building supplied with water from the wells below.[13]
An Italian,Giovanni Mariti, who visited "Geddin" in the 1760s, says he was given a generous reception by the local sheik who guarded the place for Daher.[17]Jezzar Pasha destroyed the fortress around 1775.[6]
A map byPierre Jacotin fromNapoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named asChateau de Geddin.[18]
French explorerVictor Guérin visited in 1875, and described it:
"'Two great square towers, deprived of their upper stage, are still there, partly upright, and contain several chambers now in very bad condition. The staircases which lead to them have been deprived of part of their steps to make access more difficult. Underneath are magazines and cellars, the vaults of which rest on several ranges of arcades. Cisterns hollowed in the rock are found beneath a paved court. Below and near the castle a second inclosure, flanked by semicircular towers, contains within it the remains of numerous demolished houses and cisterns.'"[19]
WhenKitchener inspected the place in 1877, he found it "quite unoccupied, though there are several chambers and vaults that could serve as habitations."[20][21]
The ruins were later inhabited byBedouin of the al-Suwaytat tribe whose primary occupation was animal husbandry. In the1945 statistics, they also cultivatedbarley andtobacco on 22dunums of land.[3][22] At the same time, Jews cultivated the remaining 32 dunums officially listed as cultivable.[22]
The land ownership in 1945, indunams:[1][23]
| Owner | Dunams |
|---|---|
| Arab | 4,238 |
| Jewish | 3,349 |
| Public | - |
| Total | 7,587 |
Types of land use in 1945:[1][23][24]
| Land Usage | Arab | Jewish |
|---|---|---|
| Cereal[25] | 22 | 32 |
| Non-cultivable | 4,216 | 3,317 |
Khirbat Jiddin was part of the territory allotted to a future Arab state in the1947 UN Partition Plan. On July 11, 1948, during the1948 Arab-Israeli War, it was captured byIsrael'sSheva' Brigade as part ofOperation Dekel.
