Al-Safiriyya السافريّة | |
|---|---|
| Etymology: from a personal name[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-Safiriyya (click the buttons) | |
  Al-Safiriyya Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:31°59′36″N34°51′04″E / 31.99333°N 34.85111°E /31.99333; 34.85111 | |
| Palestine grid | 135/155 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Jaffa |
| Date of depopulation | Not known[4] |
| Area | |
• Total | 12,842dunams (12.842 km2; 4.958 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 3,070[2][3] |
| Current Localities | Tzafria,[5]Kfar Chabad,[5]Ahi'ezer[5]Tochelet[5]Sharir[6] Shafrir (at the site of what is nowKfar Chabad) has been absorbed in the previous, and in the suburbs ofRishon LeZion[5] |
Al-Safiriyya was aPalestinianArab village in theJaffa Subdistrict. It was depopulated duringOperation Hametz in the1948 Palestine War on May 20, 1948.[5] It was located 11 km east ofJaffa, 1.5 km west ofBen Gurion Airport.
Starting in 1949, the ruins of the site were overbuilt by the Israeli town ofKfar Chabad.
Al-Safiriyya may have been known to theByzantines andCrusaders asSapharea orSaphyria.[5][7] However, later comparative linguistic analysis excluded this possibility.[8]
Hani Al-Kindi, an earlyMuslim scholar and acetic, was buried in Al-Safiriyya. TheUmayyadcaliphUmar ibn Abd al-Aziz (717–720) had offered him the Governorship of Palestine, but Al-Kindi had declined it.[5]
Al-Safiriyya was incorporated into theOttoman Empire in 1517 with all ofPalestine. In 1552, al-Safiriyya was an inhabited village, and 21carats of its tax revenues were also endowed to theHaseki Sultan Imaret inJerusalem. Administratively, the village belonged to the Sub-district ofRamla in the District ofGaza.[9]
In 1596 it appeared in thetax registers under the name ofSafiriyya, as being in thenahiya ("subdistrict") ofRamla, which was under the administration of theliwa ("district") ofGaza. It had a population of 53 household;[10] an estimated 292 persons, who were all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3 % on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, sesame, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 18,800akçe. All of the revenue went to awaqf.[10][5]
In 1051 AH/1641/2, the Bedouin tribe ofal-Sawālima from aroundJaffa attacked the villages ofSubṭāra,Bayt Dajan, al-Sāfiriya,Jindās,Lydda andYāzūr belonging to Waqf Haseki Sultan.[11]
In 1838Safiriyeh was among the villagesEdward Robinson noted from the top of theWhite Mosque, Ramla.[12] It was further noted as a Muslim village, in the Lydda District.[13]
In 1863Victor Guérin found the village to have 450 inhabitants. He noted that themosque was shaded by an oldmulberry tree, and around the village were plantations of tobacco and watermelons.[14]
An Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that es-Safirije had 29 houses and a population of 134, though the population count included men only.[15][16]
In 1882, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine described it as anadobe village, with olives to the south.[17]
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities,Safriyeh had a population of 1,306, all Muslims,[18] increasing in the1931 census to 2,040 inhabitants, still all Muslims, in 489 houses.[19]
In the1945 statistics it had a population of 3,070 Muslims,[2] with 12,842 dunams of land.[3] Of this, Arabs used 3,539 for growingcitrus andbanana, 3,708 for plantations and irrigable land, 3,032 for cereals,[20] while 95 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[21]
Al-Safiriyya had two elementary schools, one for boys founded in 1920 which had an enrollment of 348 boys in 1945, and another school was for girls, founded in 1945 with 45 girls.[5]
Benny Morris gives both date and time of depopulation as unknown.[4]Aref al-Aref writes that Al-Safiriyya was occupied by the Yishuv in April, 1948, at the same time asYazur andBayt Dajan.[22]
On September 13, 1948, Al-Safiriyya was one of 14 Palestinian villages thatBen-Gurion asked to be destroyed, in order to block the return of the villagers.[23]
Tzafria,Kfar Chabad,Tochelet,Ahi'ezer and the suburbs ofRishon LeZion today occupy Al-Safiriyya land.[5]
In 1992 the village site was described: "The two schools – long concrete structures with rectangular doorways and windows – still stand and have been refurbished. A number of houses, some made of adobe bricks and others of concrete, also remain and are aither deserted or inhabited by Jewish families. They are architecturally simple and have rectangular doors and windows; most of their roofs are flat. Cactuses and a variety of trees line an old village road, and the site is generally dotted by sycamore and cypress trees. Parts of the surrounding land are covered by construction but some parts are cultivated by Israelis."[24]
