Al-Sindiyana (, ''Es Sindiyâna'') was a
Palestinian Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
village in the
Haifa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the
1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 12, 1948. It was located 29 km south of
Haifa
Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
.
History
Antiquity
A
Samaritan inscription on a stone
lintel was discovered in Al-Sindiyana, featuring 12 lines of
Samaritan script
The Samaritan Hebrew script, or simply Samaritan script, is used by the Samaritans for religious writings, including the Samaritan Pentateuch, writings in Samaritan Hebrew, and for commentaries and translations in Samaritan Aramaic language, Sam ...
, referencing the initial section of the
Shema prayer, following the
Samaritan version of
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament.
Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...
6:4-9, with notable variations from the
Masoretic text.
The stone, measuring 25 cm in height and 40 cm in width, was found inserted into a wall above the entrance of a modern house in Al-Sindiyana. The inscription, written in dots-separated words, includes a mention of the city's name "
Geva" in
Jewish script. The inscription concludes with lines suggesting a possible date, mentioning the "reign of
Ishmael
In the Bible, biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs.
Within Isla ...
" (reference to
Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
rule), potentially dating the text to shortly after the
Muslim conquest in the seventh century AD.
Ottoman era
On 16 March 1799, during the
Ottoman era,
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
had a battle here just north of the village.
In 1859, the population was estimated to be 300, who cultivated 22
feddan
A feddan () is a unit of area used in Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the feddan is the only n ...
s of land.
[Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p]
43
/ref>
Victor Guérin visited the village in 1863. Transcribing its name as ''Sendianeh'', he notes there are 400 inhabitants and that its name must derive from the Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
word ''sendian'', meaning "evergreen oak", as these abound on the hills flanking the village.[Guérin, 1875]
p. 342
In 1882, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described ''Sindianeh'' as a "village of moderate size on high ground, with a spring below it, and a cave; it was here that the tunnel of the Cæsarea aqueduct is said to have broken into by women digging for clay".[
A population list from about 1887 showed that Al-Sindiyana had about 520 inhabitants; all ]Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
s.
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Al Sendianeh'' had a population of 576; all Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
s, increasing in the 1931 census to 923; 922 Muslim and 1 Jew, in a total of 217 houses.
Al-Sindiyana had an elementary school for boys, which by 1942-1943 had 200 students. The village had several wells and springs.[Khalidi, 1992, p. 192]
In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 1,250 Muslims,[ with a total of 15,172 dunams of land.][Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
49
/ref> Of this, a total of 8,177 dunums of land was allocated to cereal
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...
s; 225 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, while 24 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
142
/ref>
File:Sindiyana 1942.jpg, Al-Sindiyana 1942 1:20,000
File:Qannir 1945.jpg, Al-Sindiyana 1945 1:250,000
File:ביקור המורה ותלמידיו מהכפר הערבי סינדיאני חנוכה תרצא 1931 - iשפיה-2i btm6871.jpeg, Children from Al-Sindiyana and Meir Shfeya (Jewish youth village) playing together, 1931
Post 1948
In 1992 the village site was described: "The site is fenced in with barbed wire. Scattered piles of stones, the debris of destroyed houses, are visible among thorns, cactuses and fig, olive, and palm trees. The surrounding lands are used by Israelis as a grazing area."[
]
References
Bibliography
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External links
Welcome To al-Sindiyana
al-Sindiyana
Zochrot
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8:
IAA
Wikimedia commons
at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War
Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Haifa