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Qaqun () 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 located northwest of the city of Tulkarm at the only entrance to Mount Nablus from the coastal Sharon plain. Evidence of organized settlement in Qaqun dates back to the period of Assyrian rule in the region. Ruins of a Crusader and Mamluk castle still stand at the site.Benvenisti, 2000, p
302
/ref> Qaqun was continuously inhabited by
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 ...
s since at least as early as the Mamluk period and was depopulated during a military assault by
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
i forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.


Etymology

While the site is an ancient one, the current name, Qāqūn is an
Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
one, meaning “little
pelican Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before ...
”. In the Crusader period it was variously transcribed as Caco, Caccho among other forms. Some 17th century Ottoman documents have another variant, Qāqūm (قاقوم).


History


Ancient and classical

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
n artifacts have been discovered in Qaqun. Among these are fragments of stelae recording the victory of Sargon II over the
Philistine Philistines (; Septuagint, LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philist ...
city-states in the 8th century BC, providing evidence of the establishment of Assyrian rule in Palestine.Keel etal., 1998, p. 284. In the 1st century AD, Antipas, like others close to the Herodians who ruled over parts of the region at the time, was granted dominion over large areas of land. One of the gifts (''doreai'') he received was a parcel of land located in the Plain of Sharon which included Qaqun, among other villages.Sartre et al., 2005, pp. 106-107.


Crusader period

In the Crusader period, a castle called Caco or Cacho stood here, of which an 8.5m tower survives. In 1160, Benjamin of Tudela visited Qaqun which he identified as being ancient Keilah.Conder, 2002
p. 213
It was mentioned in 1253 when it apparently still was held by the lord of Caesarea, John Aleman. In 1271, Lord Edward of England launched a large raid during the Ninth Crusade with the support of the Templar, Hospitaller, and
Teutonic Knights The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to t ...
on the town of Qaqun, in which he surprised a large force of Turcomans (mostly itinerant herdsmen), reportedly killing 1,500 of them and taking 5,000 animals as booty. These Turcomans were likely relatively new additions to Baibars' army, being integrated in 1268 and given horses, titles, and lands in return for military service after the Turkmen migrations following the Mongol invasions.


Mamluk period

Qaqun was captured by the Mamluk sultan Baibars (1259–1277) in 1267. Under Mamluk rule, Qaqun was the capital of one of six districts that made up the province of '' as-Sham'', the Mamluk administrative unit for a part of the governorship of "Mamlakat Gaza", one of the region's three Mamluk administrative governorships, the other two being "Mamlakat Dimashq" (
Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
) and "Mamlakat Zafad" (
Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...
). Qaqun and also Lydda appeared to be independent provinces later in this period. Baybars had ordered its fortress rebuilt and had its church renovated and made into a
mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...
. Its markets were re-established, and it soon became a commercial center with a
caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was an inn that provided lodging for travelers, merchants, and Caravan (travellers), caravans. They were present throughout much of the Islamic world. Depending on the region and period, they were called by a ...
for merchants, travelers, and their animals. While early scholarship often attributed the construction of the fortress to Crusaders, both the fortress and mosque at Qaqun are now thought to have built during the reign of Baybars, who also built the administrative center and large market there. In December 1271, as Baybars was battling the
Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...
in
Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...
, the Crusader forces of King Edward raided Qaqun, but were quickly fought back by the forces of the Mamluk
emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...
s. However the near contemporary Egyptian historian Ibn al-Furat wrote that Edward’s raid may have been a little more troublesome, he wrote: “At the end of the month of Rabi' II, the month already mentioned (4 December 1271), the Sultan learnt that the Franks had attacked Qaqun (Caco); the emir Husam al-Din, the ustadh-dar, had been killed and the emir Rukn al-Din al-Jaliq wounded; while the governor of the place had had to leave.” At the end of the 13th century, the Via Maris was moved eastward inland to improve the line of defence since Palestine's coastal cities were the first to fall to competing powers seeking to expand their domain. The route followed the coast of the Sinai, passing through Al-Arish,
Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...
,
Khan Yunis Khan Yunis (), also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus, is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and serves as the capital of the Khan Yunis Governorate. It has been largely destroyed during the Gaza war. Before the 14th century, Khan Y ...
, and Gaza. There, a branch then turned eastward to
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, onto
Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...
while another passed through Beit Hanoun to Ramlah through Daris and continued north to Lydda, through Jaljulia and Tira to the center of Qaqun. From Qaqun, the route branched into two, one leading to Jenin and the other to Wadi Ara. Many of these places were villages that had khans built there in the 14th century.Sharon, 1999, pp
228229
The khan in Qaqun was built on the orders of Mamluk governor Sanjar al-Jawli in 1315, and under Mamluk rule, khans like the one in Qaqun were used by couriers on horseback, forming part of the postal network on the Gaza-Damascus road. Al-Qalqashandi (d .1418) mentioned Qaqun as a pleasant, though not particularly prosperous town, with a mosque, a bath, a handsome fort, and wells.


Ottoman period

During early Ottoman rule in Palestine, the revenues of the village of Qaqun were in 1557 designated for the new
waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...
of Hasseki Sultan Imaret in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan ( Roxelana), the wife of
Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...
. By 1596, Qaqun was the center of the '' nahiya'' (subdistrict) of Qaqun under Nablus Sanjak with a population of 19 households and 4 bachelors; an estimated 127 persons; 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 ...
. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on a number of crops, including
wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
and
barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
, as well as on
goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...
s and beehives; a total of 16,590 akçe. During
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 ...
's campaign in 1799, the French forces defeated the Ottoman troops who had been sent to Qaqun to stop their advance towards
Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...
. Pierre Jacotin named the village ''Qaqoun'' on his map from the same campaign. In the 1830s, the inhabitants of Qanqun participated in the revolt against Egypt, and it was thence destroyed by the army of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt during his Syrian campaign (1832–1840). In 1838 it was noted as a village, ''Kakon'', in the western ''Esh-Sha'rawiyeh'' administrative region, north of
Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...
.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd Appendix, p
129
/ref> In the late 19th century, Qaqun was described as a large village built around the central tower of the Crusader/Mamluk fort. Its houses, built of stone and mud, were dispersed over the surface of a hill. There was arable land in the surrounding area. Claude R. Conder writes to have seen a Crusader-era tower in Qaqun during his visit there.


British Mandate

In the
1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...
there were 1,629 villagers, 29 Christian males, and the rest Muslim, decreasing in the 1931 census to a population of 1367 Muslims, in a total of 260 houses.Mills, 1932, p
56
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population of Qaqun was 1,916, all Muslims, with a total of 41,767
dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...
s of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, Arabs used a total of 713 dunums for
citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. ''Citrus'' is nativ ...
and
bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – berry (botany), botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called pla ...
, while 34,376 dunums were allocated to cereals; 210 additional dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 80 dunums were planted with olive trees, while 137 dunams were built-up (urban) land. Just prior to the 1948 war, in addition to the mosque and fortress, Qaqun also housed an elementary school for boys and hundreds of homes for its more than 2,000 inhabitants. The village families were made up of the Abu-Hantash, Zidan, al-Shaykh Ghanem, Matrouk, and al-Hafi
clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...
s. File:Qaqun 1930.jpg, Qaqun 1930 1:20,000 File:Qaqun 1939.jpg, Qaqun 1939 1:20,000 File:Qaqun 1945.jpg, Qaqun 1945 1:250,000


1948 War

Qaqun was the victim of a "hit-and-run" raid carried out by the Irgun Zvai Leumi on 6 March 1948, according to the ''History of the Haganah''. No further details are provided by this source, but the Palestinian newspaper '' Filastin'' reported an attack on the morning of 7 March. Quoting a communiqué issued by Palestinian militia forces, the paper said that the large attacking unit failed to penetrate the village, and that it threw a number of grenades which wounded two women. On 9 May 1948 the Alexandroni Arab affairs experts decided on a meeting in Netanya, in preparation for the declaration of Israeli statehood and the expected pan-Arab invasion, to immediately "expel or subdue" the inhabitants of the Palestinian villages of Kafr Saba, al Tira, Qaqun, Qalansuwa, and Tantura. The final operational order did not say what was to be done with the inhabitants, but repeatedly spoke of "cleaning" or "clearing" the village. After the establishment of the State of Israel and the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, regular Iraqi forces entrenched in the Triangle region threatened to cut Israeli-controlled territory in half by capturing Netanya. An Iraqi attack was repelled on 29 May 1948, when Israeli forces successfully defended the villages Ein Vered, Kfar Yabetz and Geulim. Arab attacks originated in Ras al-Ein, Tira, Qalansawe and Qaqun, and the capture of any of these was deemed likely to bring to an end the Iraqi effort in the Netanya area. Qaqun was chosen as the target of an Israeli offensive, and on 5 June at 04:00, the 33rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade attacked the village. A frontal assault was conducted on the Iraqi headquarters to the north of the village, after the nearby mill was cleared. The
Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
were only able to clear the village during the day, and used reinforcements from the 32nd Battalion at Ein HaHoresh, which flanked the Arab forces from the south. Iraqi counter-attacks from Kalansawe and Tulkarem lasted until nightfall, with both sides bombing each other's positions from the air. Israeli forces were able to hold on to the village and put an end to Iraqi advances on the coastal plain. Alexandroni suffered 16 casualties and by their estimate the entire Iraqi battalion was wiped out. According to the Alexandroni memorial website, the Iraqi defeat in the battle is considered its biggest of the war. However, according to Benny Morris, the attack was preceded by an artillery barrage that precipitated the evacuation of most of Qaqun's inhabitants to nearby groves. And only a few local militiamen and several dozen Iraqi Army soldiers remained to fight and they were rapidly overwhelmed by the Alexandroni infantry. Two days later, on 7 June, Joseph Weitz noted Qaqun among the villages which they had to decide as to whether destroy (to prevent the villagers from returning), or renovate and settle with Jews. By December 1948 the IDF General Staff\Operations approved the depopulation of the remaining small border-hugging sites ("khurab") in the Triangle area. It was instructed that "an effort should be made to carry out the eviction f Arab civilianswithout force". But if force proved necessary, the Military Government was authorized to use it. Among the sites evicted was eight in the Qaqun and Gharbiya area.Morris, 2004, p
533
/ref>


After 1948

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
ha-Ma´pil was built on what had traditionally been village land in 1945, 3 km to the northwest. Three settlements were founded on village land in 1949: Gan Yoshiyya, 1 km due south of the village site, Ometz, 1 km north of the site; and ´Olesh, 4 km southwest of the site. Haniel was built on village land in 1950. Yikkon was built in the early 1950s to serve as a transit camp for new Jewish immigrants, and was later made into a regional school. Burgeta, built in 1949, is 5 km to the southwest but is not on village land. Walid Khalidi described the remaining structures of the village in 1992:
The fortress on top of the hill, a well that belonged to the family of Abu Hantash, and the school building are all that remain of the village. The fortress is surrounded by stone rubble and the remains of houses, and the school building is still used as a school by Israelis. Cactuses and an old mulberry tree grow south of the hill. The surrounding lands are covered by orchards. In addition, cotton, pistachios, and vegetables are grown on the lands. There is an Israeli fodder-processing factory northeast of the village site.
The estimated number of Palestinian refugees from Qaqun, as of 1998, was 14,034. This figure includes descendants of the original refugees. The Nature and Parks Authority and the Hefer Valley Economic Development Corporation recently ordered that the former site of Qaqun, its fortress and other ruins be declared a
national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...
. The plan is to rehabilitate the site and turn it into a "focal point that will draw tourism."


See also

* Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel * List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict


References


Bibliography

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


External links


Qaqun Site موقع قرية قاقونWelcome To QaqunQaqun
Zochrot *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11
IAAWikimedia commons
from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
Qaqun
by Rami Nashashibi (1996), Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society.

- illustrated article about the site's history and national park at BibleWalks.com
Cachon
- French-language illustrated article about the castle at "Forteresses d'Orient" {{Authority control Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Tulkarm Crusader castles Castles and fortifications of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Castles in Israel Herod Antipas