Dayr al-Hawa explained

Dayr al-Hawa
Native Name:دير الهوا
Native Name Lang:ar
Etymology:The Monastery of the Wind[1]
Pushpin Map:Mandatory Palestine
Pushpin Mapsize:200
Coordinates:31.7514°N 35.0372°W
Grid Name:Palestine grid
Grid Position:153/128
Subdivision Type:Geopolitical entity
Subdivision Name:Mandatory Palestine
Subdivision Type1:Subdistrict
Subdivision Name1:Jerusalem
Established Title1:Date of depopulation
Established Date1:October 19–20, 1948[2]
Established Title2:Repopulated dates
Unit Pref:dunam
Area Total Dunam:5,907
Population As Of:1945
Population Total:60[3] [4] [5]
Blank Name Sec1:Cause(s) of depopulation
Blank Info Sec1:Military assault by Yishuv forces

Dayr al-Hawa (Arabic: دير الهوا) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. The village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 19, 1948, by the Fourth Battalion of the Har'el Brigade of Operation ha-Har. It was located 18.5 km west of Jerusalem.

History

Ottoman era

Dayr al-Hawa is not mentioned in 16th century records, and was likely first settled in a later period.[6]

In 1838, Edward Robinson called it a "lofty" village, on the brink of a valley.[7] It was further noted as a Muslim village, located in the District of el-Arkub, southwest of Jerusalem.[8] In 1856 the village was named D. el Hawa on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.[9]

Victor Guérin, visiting the village in 1863, wrote that Dayr al-Hawa "probably owes its name, monastery of the wind, to its high position".[10]

An Ottoman village list from around 1870 showed that Der el-Hawa had 32 houses and a population of 103, though the population count included men, only.[11] [12]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "a village standing high, on a knoll rising from a high ridge, with a deep valley to the north. It has several high houses in it. On the west is a good spring. The ground is covered with brushwood all round the place."[13]

In 1896 the population of Der el-hawa was estimated to be about 162 persons.[14]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted i by the British Mandate authorities, Dair al-Hawa had a population of 38 residents; all Muslims,[15] increasing in the 1931 census to 47 inhabitants, in 11 houses.[16]

In the 1945 statistics the village had a population of 60 Muslims,[4] with a total of 5,907 dunums of land.[5] Of this, 58 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 1,565 for cereals,[17] while 4 dunams were built-up land.[18]

A mosque was located in the western part of the village and there was a shrine for a local sage known as al-Shaykh Sulayman. Near the ruins of the old village now stands the Israeli moshav, Nes Harim,[19] however, it is not on village land. (It is on the land of Bayt 'Itab.)[20]

During the 1948 it was defended by the local militia and the Egyptian Army/Muslim Brotherhood Battalion.

Archaeology

Coins and ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here.[21]

See also

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p.293
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #339. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  3. Khalidi, 1992, p. 285
  4. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 24
  5. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 56
  6. Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 364
  7. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, pp. 326, 340, 342, 426
  8. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 125
  9. Kiepert, 1856, Map of Southern Palestine
  10. Guerin, 1869, p. 321
  11. Socin, 1879, p. 152 It was noted in the Hebron district
  12. Hartmann, 1883, p. 145 also showed 32 houses
  13. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, p. 24
  14. Schick, 1896, p. 125
  15. Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p. 21
  16. Mills, 1932, p. 19
  17. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 102
  18. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 152
  19. [Zvi Dror]
  20. Khalidi, 1992, p. 286
  21. Dauphin, 1998, p. 908

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