Qalansawe

Qalansawe קַלַנְסֻוָה‎ قلنسوة‎
Hebrew transcription(s)
• ISO 259	Qalansuwa
• Translit.	Kalansuwa or Qalansuwa
• Also spelled	Kalansoueh,[1] Qalansuwa (unofficial)
Qalansawe
Coordinates: 32°16′56.34″N 34°59′0.27″E / 32.2823167°N 34.9834083°ECoordinates: 32°16′56.34″N 34°59′0.27″E / 32.2823167°N 34.9834083°E
Grid position	198600/687800 ITM 148/187 PAL
District	Central
Government
• Type	City
• Mayor	(Incumbent: Abdel Baset Salame - Mahmoud Kahdega)
Area
• Total	7,800 dunams (7.8 km^2 or 3.0 sq mi)
Population (2014)[2]
• Total	21,043

Qalansawe also Qalansuwa (Arabic: قلنسوة‎, Hebrew: קַלַנְסֻוָה) (lit. "turban")^[3][4] is an Arab city in the Center District of Israel. According to Israel Central Bureau of Statistics 2014 census, Qalansawe's population was 21,043.^[2] Qalansawe is part of the Triangle.

History

Mosque built on Crusader ruins

From the ninth century and until the Crusader times, Qalansawe was a stop on the Cairo-Damascus road, between Lajjun and Ramla.^[5]

During the Crusader period, the village was known as Calanson, Calansue, Calanzon or Kalensue.^[6] In 1128, it was given to the Hospitallers by the knight Godfrey of Flujeac.^[6][7] Yaqut (†1229) wrote that Qalansawe, Castle of the Plans, of the Crusaders, was a fortress near Ramle. He adds that "many of the Omayyads were slain there."^[8] It remained in Hospitallers hands (except for 1187–1191) until Baybars took it in 1265.^[6] However, during this period the lord of Caesarea appears to have retained overlordship.^[6] Remnants of a crusader fortress remain today.^[6]

Ottoman period

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared located in the Nahiya of Bani Sa'b of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 29 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, goats or beehives, and a press for olives or grapes.^[9] Pierre Jacotin called the village Qalensawi on his map from 1799.^[10]

In 1870 the French explorer Victor Guérin found it to have 500 inhabitants.^[1] He then "examined the remains of a beautiful church, built east and west, and divided into three naves, terminating to the east in three apses. It was formerly constructed of good cut stones, some of which were slightly embossed, as is proved by the portions still standing. The naves were separated one from the other by monolithic columns, only the positions of which can be traced. They were probably crowned by Corinthian capitals, for I found one in a house, of white marble, cut into a mortar by the inhabitants, who told me they brought it from the site of the church. The other capitals and shafts had disappeared. Probably they came from some more ancient building. An elegant door, with pointed arch, is still standing. Under the nave runs a vaulted crypt, now divided into several compartments, which serve as a shelter for as many families. The good walls seem ancient. One of these is near the church; the other below the village. The latter is large, and surmounted by a vaulted arcade in cut stones."^[11]

In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described it as being of moderate size, and the seat of a Caimacam. In the centre of the village was a Crusader tower and hall, surrounded by the village houses, mostly made of adobe. Wells and a spring to the west supplied water.^[12]

British Mandate of Palestine period

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qualansawe had a population of 871, all Muslims,^[13] increasing in the 1931 census to 1069, still all Muslim, in a total of 225 houses.^[14]

By 1945, the village had 1540 Arab inhabitants, who owned a total of owned 17,249 dunams of land.^[15] 473 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 759 plantations and irrigable land, 15,936 for cereals,^[16] while 47 dunams were built-up (urban) land.^[17]

1948, and after

During the 1948 Palestine war, Jewish forces had decided to "conquer and destroy" or later "expel or subdue" Qalansawe,^[18] but the village was not taken^[19] and was only transferred to Israeli sovereignty in May 1949 as part of the Israel-Jordan armistice agreement.^[20]

By 1962, land ownership had dropped to 6,620 dunams, mostly due to expropriation of land by the state in 1953–1954.^[21]

Demographics

In 2001, the ethnic makeup of the city was virtually all Arab Muslims without significant Jewish population. There were 7,700 males and 7,300 females. 53.2% of the residents were 19 years of age or younger, 17.1% were between 20 and 29, 17.9% between 30 and 44, 8.0% from 45 to 59, 1.6% from 60 to 64, and 2.2% 65 years of age or older. The population growth rate in 2001 was 3.5%.

Due to marriages among relatives, the residents suffer from a high percentage of genetic diseases, especially hearing impairment.^[22]

See also

• Arab localities in Israel

References

1. Guerin, 1875, p. 350
2. "לוח 3.- אוכלוסייה( 1), ביישובים שמנו מעל 2,000 תושבים( 2) ושאר אוכלוסייה כפרית Population (1) of localities numbering above 2,000 Residents (2) and other rural population". Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
3. The turban tradition in Islam
4. Palmer, 1881, p.187
5. Petersen, 2001, pp. 248-249, citing among others Hartmann, 1910, 675, 676
6. Pringle, 1997, p. 77 - 78
7. Röhricht, 1904, RRH Ad, p. 9-10, No. 121a
8. Cited in le Strange, 1890, p.476
9. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 139
10. Karmon, 1960, p. 170 Note that Karmon gives the wrong grid-numbers for Qalansawe
11. Guérin, 1875, pp. 350-352, 354 as translated in Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, pp. 201
12. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 165
13. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p. 28
14. Mills, 1932, p. 56
15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970 p. 76
16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 127
17. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 177
18. Morris, 2004, p. 246
19. Morris, 2004, p. 302
20. UN Doc S/1302/Rev.1 of 3 April 1949
21. S. Jiryis (1976). "The land question in Israel". MERIP Reports. No. 37: 5–20, 24–26.
22. Warzberger, Rachel (2001-03-19). "Close Family Marriages and Polygamy" (RTF) (in Hebrew). Knesset. Retrieved 2008-07-26.

Bibliography

• Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 (PDF). Government of Palestine.
• Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, H. H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. (pp. 199-201.)
• Doumani, Beshara (1995). Rediscovering Palestine, Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900. University of California Press. Retrieved 2011-11-07. p. 19
• Guérin, Victor (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
• Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
• Hartmann, Richard (1910): Die Straße von Damaskus nach Kairo Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft › Bd. 64 (Cited in Petersen, 2001)
• 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.
• Karmon, Y. (1960). "An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal 10 (3,4): 155–173; 244–253.
• Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas (PDF). Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
• Morris, Benny (2004). Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7.
• Mukaddasi (1886). Description of Syria, including Palestine. London: Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society. (pp. 95, 97)
• 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.
• Pringle, Denys (1997). Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521 46010 7.
• Pringle, Denys (1998). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: L-Z (exluding Tyre) II. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521 39037 0. (p. 161)
• Robinson, Edward; Smith, Eli (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. (p. 47)
• Röhricht, Reinhold (1904). (RRH Ad) Regesta regni Hierosolymitani Additamentum (in Latin). Berlin: Libraria Academica Wageriana.
• Strange, le, Guy (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

External links

• Welcome To Qalansiwa
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11: IAA, Wikimedia commons