Sirin سرين Sereen | |
|---|---|
| Etymology: folds (a village)[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Sirin, Baysan (click the buttons) | |
  Sirin Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:32°39′48″N35°30′33″E / 32.66333°N 35.50917°E /32.66333; 35.50917 | |
| Palestine grid | 197/228 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Baysan |
| Date of depopulation | April 6, 1948[4] |
| Area | |
• Total | 28,445 dunams (28.445 km2 or 10.983 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 810[2][3] |
Sirin (Arabic:سرين), was aPalestinianArab village located 17 kilometers (11 mi) north ofBeisan. The village was depopulated and destroyed in 1948. Only the village cemetery and one house remain standing, along with the remains of a mosaic pavement and a vaulted spring dating to theByzantine period. Mentioned in historical documents, the 1596 census indicated it had 45 households; by 1945, the number of inhabitants had risen to 810.
The village dated back to theRoman period.[5]
Near a spring were two fallen blocks, apparentlylintels, which had the appearance of dating back to theByzantine period.[6] Several other remains from the Byzantine era were also found in the village, including aGreek inscription and parts of amosaic pavement.[7]
Conder suggested that it was identical with theSirin, a place inhabited bySamaritans in the 7th century.[8]
In 1168, during theCrusader period, the village was known asLosserin. That year it was sold by a certain Simon Chevron to theHospitalliers.[9]
In 1994, Andrew Petersen visited Sirin, and inspected a rectangular (10 x 12 meters) tower structure. It had two entrances, one to the north and one to the south, where the south side was the original, older part. Themasonry andarches indicate that the original structure dates to the Crusader era, while the later northern entrance dated to an Ottoman reconstruction.[10]
Like other villages inPalestine, Sirin fell under the rule of theOttoman Empire between 1517 and 1918.
During the16th and17th centuries,Sitin al-Turab, as the village was called, 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.[11][12]
In the 1596tax records, Sirin formed part of thenahiya (subdistrict) ofJenin under theliwa' ("district") ofLajjun, with a population of 45Muslim household. Villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on a number of crops, includingwheat andbarley, as well as on goats and beehives; a total of 20,600akçe.[13]
A map byPierre Jacotin fromNapoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named asSerin.[14]James Silk Buckingham, who visited the village in 1816, transcribes its name as "Sereen" and describes it as being made up of about thirty to forty houses with half a dozenBedouin tents located close to it.[15] In 1838Edward Robinson noted it as one of the villages at the brow of the Jordan valley, together withAwlam.[16]
In 1859, the English consul estimated the population to be about 100 inhabitants, who cultivated 35faddans of land[17] In 1875Victor Guérin found the village to have 400 inhabitants. He further noted an ancient tower, each side measuring 14 steps. The remains of two churches were seen, one of them had been transformed into a mosque. There was also aWali nearby, calledNeby Sirin.[18] In 1882, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine described the village of Sirin as being anadobe village of moderate size, surrounded by hedges ofprickly pear.[19]
In the1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the authorities ofMandatory Palestine,Sirin had a population of 681; 621 Muslims and 60 Christians,[20] where all the Christians were Roman Catholics.[21] The population had decreased slightly by the1931 census to 630; 562 Muslims and 68 Christians, in a total of 161 houses.[22]
In the 1945 statistics, the population was 810; 620 Muslims and 190 Christians[2] and the total land area was 28,445 dunums.[3] Of the land, 413 dunums were used for plantations and irrigable land, 15,813 for cereals,[23] while a total of 131 dunums were classified as built-up land.[24]
First evacuated in April 1948 by Jewish forces, by June 1948, some of the inhabitants had returned. Permanently depopulated by Israeli troops in the summer of 1948, Sirin was then completely destroyed.
Benny Morris writes that Sirin was one of the first of approximately two dozen villages that were evacuated on Arab orders in April–May 1948 for "pre-invasion military reasons."[25] HoweverIlan Pappe writes that the village had not been evacuated and that it expected that it "would be exempt from the fate of the nearby villages", due to its good connections with Jewish authorities, but that it was nonetheless occupied by Jewish troops on May 12, 1948, expelling the population and destroying the mosque, church and monastery.[26]
When Israeli troops entered Sirin in June 1948, they that about 100 inhabitants had returned. After checking their IDs and searching for weapons (finding only some knives), the troops left the village. A report from the battalion's intelligence officer recommended, "the Arabs should be ejected from the area, the young men should be arrested, and the crops confiscated ..."[27] Sirin, along with the villages ofHadatha,'Ulam, andMa'dhar, were all ethnically cleansed by Israeli troops in the summer of 1948.[28]
Walid Khalidi described all that was left of the village structures of Sirin in 1992: "The cemetery and one house (which serves as a storage room for straw) are all that remain of Sirin. Stone rubble surrounded by clusters of cactuses can be seen on the site. The site itself is used as a stockyard for cattle. The spring in the middle of the site is covered with a stone structure. Some of the land around the village is planted in cotton."[7]
In 1994, Andrew Petersen visited Sirin and inspected the ruins of a Crusader tower.[10]
