Mallaha

Mallaha
Mallaha
Arabic	ملاّحة
Name Meaning	"the salty site"
District	Safad
Coordinates	33°05′23.80″N 35°34′55.38″E / 33.089944°N 35.58205°E / 33.089944; 35.58205Coordinates: 33°05′23.80″N 35°34′55.38″E / 33.089944°N 35.58205°E / 33.089944; 35.58205
Population	654 (1932)
Area	2,168 dunums
Date of depopulation	25 May 1948[1]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Whispering campaign

Mallaha (Arabic: ملاّحة‎) was a Palestinian Arab village, located 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) northeast of Safed, on the highway between the latter and Tiberias.^[2][3] 'Ain Mallaha is the local Arabic name for a spring that served as the water source for the village inhabitants throughout the ages. It is also one of the names used in English to refer to the ancient Natufian era settlement at the site.

History

Ancient

Evidence of settlement at Mallaha (or 'Ain Mallaha) dates back to the Mesolithic period circa 10,000 BCE.^[4] The first permanent village settlement of pre-agricultural times in Palestine, Kathleen Kenyon describes the material remains found there as Natufian, consisting of 50 circular, semi-subterranean, one-room huts, paved with flat slabs and surrounded by stone walls up to 1.2 meters (3.9 ft) high.^[5][6] The floors and walls of the homes were decorated in solid white or red, a simple and popular decorative motif in the Near East at the time.^[4] The inhabitants appear to have subsisted on fish from nearby Lake Hula, as well as by hunting and gathering, though no evidence of animal domestication or cultivation has been found.^[5][7]

Crusader era

During the Crusader era, the Franks referred to Mallaha as Merla.^[8] Ibn al-Qalanisi describes a battle that took place at Mallaha in June 1157 between the Arab and Turkish forces of Nur ad-Din Zangi and those of the Crusaders under King Baldwin III.^[9][10] Qalanisi writes that Nur ad-Din sent his troops to Mallaha immediately after learning via pigeon post that the Franks had set up an encampment there. The battle, as described by Qalanisi, was bloody and quick, resulting in decisive victory for the Muslim forces, who are reported to have lost only two men, compared to heavy losses among the Crusaders,^[9] with the king narrowly escaping with a bodyguard.^[11] The battles for control over Mallaha continued. The Itinerary of Richard I notes that the army had advanced to Merla, "where the king had spent one of the previous nights."^[8]

Ottoman rule

Mallaha, like most of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in the early sixteenth century. Sufi traveler al-Bakri al-Siddiqi passed by the village in the mid-eighteenth century. In 1838, Edward Robinson (scholar) observed that Mallaha lay northwest of Lake Hula.^[3][12]

British Mandate

Mallaha during the British Mandate times had a roughly rectangular configuration that stretched from north to south, Its entire population was Muslim, and it lived mostly of agriculture. In 1944/45 a total of 1,761 dunums were used for cereals by the villagers.^[3]

1948, and after

According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, describing the remains of the village in 1992: "The sandy hill on which the village was situated is completely overgrown with tall grass, cactuses, and weeds, as well as an assortment of fig, eucalyptus, and date-palm trees. Amidst the overgrowth, stone rubble from destroyed houses can be seen. The surrounding land is cultivated by the settlement of Yesud ha-Ma'ala.^[3]

See also

• List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

References

1. ^ Morris, 2004, xvi, village #28. Also provides cause of depopulation.
2. ^ Welcome to Mallaha, Palestine Remembered, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Safad/Mallaha/index.html, retrieved 2008-12-22 
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Khalidi, 1992, p.472.
4. ^ ^{a b} Schmandt-Besserat, 2007, p. 47.
5. ^ ^{a b} Kenyon, 1985, p. 20.
6. ^ Kipfer, 2000, p. 381.
7. ^ Edwards et al., 1970, p. 499.
8. ^ ^{a b} Lyon and Jackson, 1984, p. 430.
9. ^ ^{a b} Gabrieli, 1969, pp. 66-7.
10. ^ Maalouf, 1987, pp.143-158 cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.472.
11. ^ Dabbagh, pp.165-166 cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.472.
12. ^ Robinson, 1841, p.341

Bibliography

• Edwards, Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen; Gadd, Cyril John (1970), The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena and Prehistory, Vol 1/Part 1, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521070511, 9780521070515 
• Arab Historians of the Crusades, University of California Press, 1969, ISBN 0520052242, 9780520052246 
• Kenyon, Kathleen (1985), Archaeology in the Holy Land, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 041636490X, 9780416364903 
• Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0887282245 
• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology, Springer, 2000, ISBN 0306461587, 9780306461583 
• Lyons, Malcolm Cameron; Jackson, David Edward Pritchett (1984), Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521317398, 9780521317399 
• Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521009677, 9780521009676 
• Pringle, Denys (1997), Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521460101, http://books.google.com/?id=-_NbE5obqRMC  p.109
• Robinson, Edward, Eli Smith (1841): Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1838a, v. 3
• Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (2007), When Writing Met Art: From Symbol to Story, University of Texas Press, ISBN 0292713347, 9780292713345 

External links

• Welcome to Mallaha
• Mallaha, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
• Al-Mallaha, Dr. Khalil Rizk