Kafr Manda

Kafr Manda
  • כַּפְר מַנְדָא‎‎
  • كفر مندا‎
Hebrew transcription(s)
 • ISO 259 Kpar Mandaˀ
 • Also spelled Kafar Manda (official)
Kfar Manda, Kufur Manda (unofficial)
Kafr Manda
Coordinates: 32°49′N 35°16′E / 32.817°N 35.267°E / 32.817; 35.267Coordinates: 32°49′N 35°16′E / 32.817°N 35.267°E / 32.817; 35.267
Grid position 174/246 PAL
District Northern
Government
 • Type Local council (from 1973)
 • Head of Municipality Rafi' Hajajra
Area
 • Total 11,052 dunams (11.052 km2 or 4.267 sq mi)
Population (2015)[1]
 • Total 18,509
Name meaning The village of Menda[2]

Kafr Manda or Kfar Menda (Arabic: كفر مندا‎‎, Hebrew: כַּפְר מַנְדָא‎) is an Arab town in the Lower Galilee on the slopes of Mount Atzmon in Israel's Northern District. Kafr Manda is 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) northwest of the city of Nazareth. In 2015 its population was 18,509. The inhabitants are predominantly Arab Muslims.

History

The village is located on an ancient site on a low hill. Ancient relics have been found, including architectural fragments, two fragmentary columns and capitals.[3]

According to the 13th century Muslim scholar Yaqut al-Hamawi,

Kafr Manda lies between Acre and Tiberias and also goes by the name Midian. The tomb of the wife of Moses is seen here. Also, the pit covered by the rock which Moses raised up in order give himself and his wife water to drink... At Kafr Mandah may also be seen the tombs of two of Jacob's sons Asher and Naphthali as is reported.[4]

Ottoman period

Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, Kafr Manda appeared in the 1596 tax registers as being in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Tabariyya under the Liwa of Safad. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 93 households and 11 bachelors. Taxes were paid on wheat, barley, olive trees, cotton, soghum, goats and/or beehives, and a press for olives or grapes.[5][6]

In the early 18th century[7] the village was walled, and defended by several small forts.[8] A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as K. Mendah.[9]

Edward Robinson noted the village on his travels in the region in 1838,[10] while Victor Guérin in 1875 found the village to have about 400 inhabitants, all Muslim.[11]

In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Kefr Menda as an "adobe village at the foot of Jebel ed Deibebeh, having a white muqam in it. The population is given as 200 souls, and the tillage is twenty feddans (in 1852)."[12]

British Mandate period

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kufr Manda had a total population of 428, all Muslim.[13] In the 1931 census the population of Kafr Manda, together with Arab el Hujeirat, was a total of 975, all Muslim, in 187 inhabited houses.[14]

In 1945 the population of Kafr Manda was 1,260 all Arabs, who owned 14,935 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[15] 795 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 7,960 for cereals,[16] while 47 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[17]

Israeli period

On the crossroads between Acre and Nazareth, Kafr Manda surrendered to the advancing Israeli army during Operation Hiram, 29–31 October 1948. Many of the villagers fled north but some stayed and were not expelled by the Israeli soldiers.[18] The town remained under Martial Law until 1966. It achieved local council status in 1973. Since then, roads have been paved, schools have been built and infrastructures such as sewage, electricity and irrigation systems have been introduced.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "List of localities, in Alphabetical order" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  2. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 110
  3. ↑ Dauphin, 1998, p. 668
  4. ↑ le Strange, 1890, p. 470.
  5. ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 187
  6. ↑ Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
  7. ↑ Noted between 1700-1723, see Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 19
  8. ↑ Egmont and Heyman, 1759, vol 2, p. 15
  9. ↑ Karmon, 1960, p. 166.
  10. ↑ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 194
  11. ↑ Guérin, 1880, pp. 488-489
  12. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 274
  13. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Nazareth, p. 38
  14. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 74
  15. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 62
  16. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 109
  17. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 159
  18. ↑ Morris, Benny (1987) The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, 1947-1949. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-33028-9. p.226

Bibliography

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