El-Ahmediye ( ar, الاحمدية, Al-Ahmadiyah) also known as el-Hamediyeh or Ammudiya, is a former

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

n village in the central

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

, 15 kilometers southeast of

Lake Hula A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

. It was populated during the

Israeli occupation Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...

of the Golan Heights during the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

. The village spread over two low-lying hills surrounded by springs. The

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

of Qatzrin was established two kilometers to the south. Al-Ahmadiyah's previous inhabitants had predominantly been Turkomans.Günümüzde Suriye Türkmenleri �
Suriye’de Değişimin Ortaya Çıkardığı Toplum: Suriye Türkmenleri.
ORSAM Rapor № 83. ORSAM – Ortadoğu Türkmenleri Programı Rapor № 14. Ankara – November 2011.Urman, 1998, p. 455.

History and archaeology

Archaeological investigation

The first archaeological survey of al-Ahmadiyah was undertaken by

Gottlieb Schumacher Gottlieb Schumacher (21 November 1857 – 26 November 1925) was an American-born civil engineer, architect and archaeologist of German descent, who was an important figure in the early archaeological exploration of Palestine. Early life Sch ...

in 1884. He noted that the villages stood at the foot of a hill, Shuwaikah, which contained ancient remains, dated by Schumacher to the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

era, as indicated by the carved stone reliefs of Roman eagles and other animals. Another survey, in 1968, this time by Israeli archaeologist

Shmarya Guttman Shmarya Guttman ( he, שמריה גוטמן; 1909–1996) was an Israeli archaeologist. Early years Shmarya Guttman was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His parents were Russian immigrants. The family immigrated to Palestine when he was three. At the ...

, found items from the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

period, and more

sherd In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well. Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...

s from the Roman and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

periods. Guttman determined that te size of the ancient settlement spanned 35

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

Roman and Byzantine periods

Schumacher noted in 1884 the presence of zoomorphic stone reliefs from the Roman period, such as Roman eagles. The remains of two ancient

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

have been discovered at al-Ahmadiyah, which is possibly the site of the ancient Roman Jewish settlement of Ecbatana.Applebaum, p. 53. A number of artifacts indicate Jewish settlement in the village during the 4th century CE, such as one containing a relief of nine-branched menorah.

Early Muslim period

Sherds dating to the Islamic era, particularly the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

and

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

periods, were also found in the village.

Ottoman period

In 1596, Al-Ahmadiyah appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as '' al-Amudiyya''; part of the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

'' of ''Butayha'' in the Sanjak of Hauran. It had an entirely

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

population consisting of 15 households and 10 bachelors. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on various agricultural products, including

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

(2100

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...

(450), summer crops (450), goats and beehives (100), in addition to "occasional revenues"(100); a total of 3,200

. All of the revenue went to a

waqf A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitabl ...

. Schumacher noted in 1884 that the village, poorly built, was inhabited by some 70 Turkomans living in twelve hut-like houses. They cultivated various types of vegetables. It was situated at the bottom of a hill containing ruins known as Shuwaikah. The residents had utilized the stones of these ruins to build al-Ahmadiyah.

1967 war and aftermath

Israel occupied al-Ahmadiyah and the Golan Heights after driving out the

Syrian Army " (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six ...

from the area during the

in 1967. In 1968 it demolished the town as witnessed by

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

military observers. A Syrian diplomatic representative issued a complaint about the village's destruction. During the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...

, in October 1973, al-Ahmadiyah was one of three places where the Syrian Army launched major drives against as their forces moved across the Golan's mountainous plains. The other two places were Khishniyah and al-Rafid.Barker, 1980, p. 123.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Quneitra Governorate Destroyed towns Populated places in Quneitra Governorate Former populated places on the Golan Heights