Abu Snan (, ) is a local council in the Galilee region of northern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, with an area of 4,750 dunams (4.75 km²). It achieved recognition as an independent local council in 1964. It is a religiously mixed town, with a Muslim majority and sizable Druze and Christian minorities. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), in Abu Snan had a total population of .

History

Abu Snan is an ancient village site, where old dressed stones have been reused in modern houses. Graves, oil or vine -presses, and cisterns have been found cut in rock.

Crusaders

In about 1250 Abu Snan is noted as a '' casale'' of the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

, called ''Busnen''. Under the name ''Tusyan'', probably a corruption of ''Busenan'', Abu Snan was mentioned as part of the domain of the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

during the

hudna A ''hudna'' (from the Arabic meaning "calm" or "quiet") is a truce or armistice. It is sometimes translated as "cease-fire". In his medieval dictionary of classical Arabic, the '' Lisan al-Arab'', Ibn Manzur defined it as: : "''hadana'': he ...

between the Crusaders based in Acre and the

Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...

sultan al-Mansur (

Qalawun ( ar, قلاوون الصالحي, – November 10, 1290) was the seventh Bahri Mamluk sultan; he ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1290. He was called (, "Qalāwūn the Victorious"). Biography and rise to power Qalawun was a Kipchak, ancient Turki ...

) declared in 1283.Barag, 1979, p. 204 No Crusader remains have yet been identified in the village.

Ottoman Empire

In 1517, Abu Snan was with the rest of Palestine incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

after it was captured from the

s, and by 1596, it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as 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 Akka of the '' Liwa'' of Safad. It had a population of 102 households and 3 bachelors, all Muslims. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, olive trees, sesame, cotton, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 7,600 akçe. A map by

Pierre Jacotin Pierre Jacotin (1765–1827) was the director of the survey for the '' Carte de l'Égypte (Description de l'Égypte)'', the first triangulation-based map of Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The maps were surveyed in 1799-1800 during the campaign in E ...

from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named as ''Abou Senan.'' When French explorer

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Min ...

visited the village in 1875, he estimated the population of Abu Snan to be 400, of whom 260 were Druzes and 140

Greek Orthodox Christians The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...

. Guérin also wrote that "Abu Senan has succeeded an ancient town, as is proved by cisterns cut in rock, and a considerable quantity of cut-stones, now used for modern buildings." Fragments from an older building is used in a chapel for St. George. In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described Abu Snan as a stone-built village situated on the low hill near the plain, surrounded by olive groves and arable land, and with many cisterns of rain-water. The population consisted of 150 Christians and 100 Muslims.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p
144
/ref> A population list from about 1887 showed that ''Abu Senan'' had about 565 inhabitants; two thirds Druze, one third Greek Catholic Christians.

British Mandate

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Abu Snan had a total population of 518. Of these, 43 were Muslim, 228 Druzes and 247 Christians. Of Abu Snan's 247 Christians, 196 were

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

, 44 Roman Catholics, 4 Melkites and 3

Maronites The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larg ...

. In the 1931 census it had increased to a population of 605, in 102 inhabited houses. Of these, 20 were Muslim, 274 Christians, and 311 Druzes.Mills, 1932, p
99
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population of Abu Snan was 820; 30 Muslims, 380 Christians and 410 other Arabs,Department of Statistics, 1945, p
4
/ref> and the land area was a total of 13,043 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. 2,172 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 7,933 used for cereals, while 69 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Israel

In 2003 the local council was merged with its neighboring towns. The next year this was undone.

Demographics

Abu Snan had a population of 13,000 (2014), 7,000 of whom are Muslim, 4,000 Druze, and 2,000 Christian.Hassan Shaalan
'Muslim-Druze clashes started over kaffiyeh dispute,'

Ynet Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...

15 November 2014.

Income

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a low ranking (3 out of 10) on the country's socioeconomic index (December 2001). Only 63.6% of students earn a matriculation certificate at the end of Grade 12 (2000). The average salary that year was NIS 3,629 per month, whereas the national average was NIS 6,835.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Abu Sinan
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3
IAAWikimedia commons
{{North District (Israel) Arab localities in Israel Local councils in Northern District (Israel) Druze communities in Israel Arab Christian communities in Israel