Khirbat al-Tannur
| Khirbat al-Tannur | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Khirbat al-Tannur | |
| Arabic | خربة التنور |
| Name meaning | "The lower Allar"[1] |
| Subdistrict | Jerusalem |
| Coordinates | 31°42′50″N 35°02′50″E / 31.71389°N 35.04722°ECoordinates: 31°42′50″N 35°02′50″E / 31.71389°N 35.04722°E |
| Palestine grid | 154/124 |
| Population | 400 (19th century) |
| Date of depopulation | October 21, 1948 |
Khirbat al-Tannur (Arabic: خربة التنور), also Allar al-Sifla ("Lower Allar"),[2] was a Palestinian Arab hamlet in the Jerusalem Subdistrict, near Allar. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 21, 1948 under Operation Ha-Har. It was located 18.5 km west of Jerusalem.
History
Ein Tanur ("Oven Spring") is a spring enhanced by an ancient tunnel dug deeply to catch the water at the source and increase its flow - a so-called spring-flow tunnel.[3] According to a legend recounted by the mukhtar of Allar, Noah's oven was located here before the flood. When God destroyed the world, Noah's oven began spouting water, proving Noah's great commitment to God. When the flood was over and the water subsided, the oven forgot its original purpose and water continued to flow from it. When Noah passed by in his ark, he only saw the spring rather than his oven, so he continued his journey and finally landed on Mount Ararat.[4]
In the 12th century, during the Crusader era, a rural monastery was established consisting of several barrel-vaulted buildings, an enclosure wall and a chapel.[5] British archaeologist Denys Pringle proposed that the complex was a known Cistercian house called "Saluatio" established in 1169.[6]
In the 13th century it was recorded in two documents that income from the village supported the Madrasa al-Mu'azzamiyya, north of the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem.[7]
In 1596, the village appeared in Ottoman tax registers as Allar as-Sufla in the Nahiya of Quds in the Liwa of Quds (Jerusalem). It had a population of 7 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops and olives.[8] A visitor in 1875 wrote that it had a population of 400, but soon afterwards it was apparently abandoned until the 20th century.[9] In the late Mandate period it was classified as a hamlet.[9]
Six Arab families from Bayt 'Itab who settled amid the Crusader ruins were involved in a long-standing feud with Allar villagers over water use, land ownership and grazing routes, which only ended in 1948 when both places were depopulated.[4]
When the site was inspected in 1993, there were ten houses of which six had been destroyed.[9]
References
- ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 283
- ↑ Petersen, 2001, p. 92
- ↑ Ein Mata, Horbat Hanut and Shevil HaKeisar
- 1 2 The oven that became a spring
- ↑ Crusader Archaeology: The Material Culture of the Latin East, Adrian J. Boas
- ↑ Pringle, 1993, pp. 47 –51
- ↑ Mahmoud K. Hawari (2007). Ayyubid Jerusalem (1187-1250). BAR International Series 1628. p. 147.
- ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 112
- 1 2 3 Khalidi, 1992, pp. 320–321
- Sources
- Clermont-Ganneau, Charles Simon (1896). [ARP] Archaeological Researches in Palestine 1873-1874, translated from the French by J. McFarlane 2. London: Palestine Exploration Fund. (p. 455-456)
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, H. H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. (p. 62-63)
- Guérin, Victor (1869). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 1: Judee, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale. (p. 379-380 )
- Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
- Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Petersen, Andrew (2001). A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology) 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-727011-0. (Allar, p. 92-93 )
- Pringle, Denys (1993). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A-K (excluding Acre and Jerusalem). Cambridge University Press. (p. 47)
- Robinson, Edward; Smith, Eli (1856). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838 2. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. (p. 340 )
External links
- Welcome To Khirbat al-Tannur, Palestine Remembered
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17: IAA, Wikimedia commons
