Shilta Explained

Shiltah
Native Name:شلتة
Native Name Lang:ar
Settlement Type:Village
Etymology:Shilta, from personal name[1]
Pushpin Map:Mandatory Palestine
Pushpin Mapsize:200
Coordinates:31.9178°N 35.0206°W
Grid Name:Palestine grid
Grid Position:152/147
Subdivision Type:Geopolitical entity
Subdivision Name:Mandatory Palestine
Subdivision Type1:Subdistrict
Subdivision Name1:Ramle
Established Title1:Date of depopulation
Established Date1:July 15–16, 1948[2]
Established Title2:Repopulated dates
Population As Of:1945
Population Total:100[3] [4]
Blank Name Sec1:Cause(s) of depopulation
Blank Info Sec1:Military assault by Yishuv forces
Blank3 Name Sec1:Current Localities
Blank3 Info Sec1:Shilat[5] Kfar Ruth

Shilta was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. Sitting on a hill, It was probably settled in the 19th century.[6] It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 18, 1948, by the First Battalion of the Yiftach Brigade in the Operation Danny. It was located 15 km east of Ramla.

Etymology

The name is of Aramaic origins.[7] During the Crusader era the place was called Kefrscilta or Capharscylta.

History

Persian to Mamluk periods

Shards from the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine periods have been found here, and possible shards from the Umayyad, Abbasid and the Crusader periods.[8] Shards from the Mamluk period have also been found, though Finkelstein label this find questionable.[8]

Ottoman period

The village likely saw settlement during the 19th century, given its absence from the Early Ottoman defter.

In 1870, Victor Guérin visited and noted that the village was "reduced to a few houses, it succeeded an ancient locality, as is proved by several cisterns dug in the middle of a rocky platform flattened by the man's hand, and a number of stones scattered here and there or embedded in Muslim buildings."[9]

An Ottoman village list from about the same year showed that Schi’ra had 13 houses and a population of 41, though the population count included men, only. It was noted that it was located east of Jimzu.[10] [11]

By the beginning of the 20th century, residents from Kharbatha Bani Harith settled the site, establishing it as a dependency - or satellite village - of their home village.[12]

British Mandate

According to a census conducted in 1931 by the British Mandate authorities, Shilta had a population of 22 inhabitants, in 7 houses.[13]

The village had a mosque at the north end of the village, and there was a shrine of Shayk Ahmad al Shiltawi near it.[5]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 100 Muslims,[3] with a total of 5,380 dunums of land.[4] Of this, 27 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,159 dunums were used for cereals,[14] while 6 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.[15]

1948 war; Israel

Shilta was depopulated after a military assault July 15–16, 1948.[2]

Israel established Shilat and Kfar Ruth on village land in 1977.[5]

In 1992, the village site was described: "The site is overgrown with mountain flora, including long grasses and pomegranate, almond, and carob trees. Some of the cactus hedges survive, and several wells also are visible. Israeli have built greenhouses for growing flowers, [] Israeli settlement houses have been built on village land."[5]

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 245
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xix, village No. 235. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 30
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 68
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p. 415
  6. Book: Finkelstein, Israel . Highlands of Many Cultures . Lederman . Zvi . Bunimovitz . Shlomo . Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University Publications Section . 1997 . 965-440-007-3 . Finkelstein . Israel . Jerusalem . 135 . Lederman . Zvi.
  7. Marom . Roy . Zadok . Ran . 2023 . Early-Ottoman Palestinian Toponymy: A Linguistic Analysis of the (Micro-)Toponyms in Haseki Sultan’s Endowment Deed (1552) . Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins . en . 139 . 2.
  8. Finkelstein, et al., 1997, p. 135
  9. Guérin, 1875, p. 51
  10. Socin, 1879, p. 161
  11. Hartmann, 1883, p. 138 also noted 13 houses
  12. Marom . Roy . Roy Marom . 2022 . Lydda Sub-District: Lydda and its countryside during the Ottoman period . Diospolis - City of God: Journal of the History, Archaeology and Heritage of Lod . 8 . 124.
  13. Mills, 1932, p. 23
  14. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 117
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 167

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