Al-Qubayba
- For the modern Palestinian village, see Al-Qubeiba, Jerusalem. Al-Qubayba was the name of another Arab Palestinian village, Al-Qubayba, Ramla, that was also depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
| al-Qubayba | |
| Arabic | القبية |
| Also Spelled | Qubeiba |
| Sub-district | Hebron |
| Coordinates | 31°34′13.62″N 34°51′16.03″E / 31.57045°N 34.8544528°ECoordinates: 31°34′13.62″N 34°51′16.03″E / 31.57045°N 34.8544528°E |
| Population | 1,060[1] (1945) |
| Area | 11,912 dunums
11.912 [1] km² |
| Date of depopulation | 28 October 1948[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Lachish |
al-Qubayba (also: Qubeiba, Arabic: القبيبة) was a Palestinian village, located 24 kilometers northwest of Hebron.
Contents |
[edit] History
Known in Crusader times as Deirelcobebe, the ruins of the ancient Canaanite city of Lachish lay adjacent to the village,[3] which was subject to extensive archaeological excavations by the British Mandatory authorities in Palestine, and by Israeli authorities subsequent to its capture during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[4]
In 1596 Al-Qubayba was a village in the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza under the liwa' (district) of Gaza, with a population of 182. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, sesame, and fruit trees, as well as goats and beehives.[5]
In the late 19th century, Al-Qubayba was described as a large village built of adobe brick, situated on rolling hills near a plain, surrounded by a barren and stony area.[6]
The population was Muslim, and the village had a school, a mosque, and a number of small shops. Two wells located northwest and southwest of it provided drinking water. By 1944/45 11,912 dunums of land belonged to the village, of which 8,109 dunums were allotted to cereals.[7]
[edit] 1948, and after
Al-Qubayba was in the territory allotted to the Arab state under the 1947 UN Partition Plan.[8]
The village was first attacked during Operation Barak.
Though defended by Egyptian forces, al-Qubayba was taken by Israeli forces after Operation Yoav on 28 October 1948.
In 1955 the settlement of Lakhish was established to the southwest of the site on village lands.[9]
Of the village mosque, an elementary school, and more than 141 houses that made up al-Qubayba, Walid Khalidi notes that all that remains to mark the site in contemporary times are cactuses and a handful of olive trees.[4]
[edit] Culture
A woman's thob (loose fitting robe with sleeves), from Qubeiba dated to about 1910 forms part of the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) collection at Santa Fe. The dress is a collage of different fabrics, textures and colors. The front and the upper half of the back are of black cotton. The chest panel, the side panels and the lower back of the skirt are handwoven indigo linen. Colorful silk cross-stitch embroidery, in red, violet, orange, yellow, green and black, create an effect described as "particularly gay, twinkling"[3] The qabbeh (square chest panel) is embroidered with the qurunful ("clove") motif, and it has vertical rows of eight-pointed stars, called qamr ("moons"), and a row of the mushut ("combs") pattern. There are eight embroidered columns on each side panel of the dress. The patterns which are used are fanajin qahweh ("coffee cups"), khem-el-basha ("the pashas tent"), irq el-ward ("rose branch"), and miftah Khalil ("key of Hebron"). There is also a pattern (with flowers, moons, trees, tents and tiles) not seen anywhere else in the MOMA collection. Finally, there is also some embroidery at the wrists.[3]
[edit] See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict
- Palestinian costumes
[edit] References
- ^ a b Hadawi, 1970, p.50
- ^ Morris, 2004, p.xix, village #323. Also gives cause of depopulation.
- ^ a b c Stillman, 1979, p.57.
- ^ a b "Welcome to Al-Qubayba". Palestine Remembered. http://www.palestineremembered.com/Hebron/al-Qubayba/index.html. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
- ^ Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter and Kamal Abdulfattah (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. p. 146. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 220
- ^ SWP, Vol. III, p.258. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 220
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 220
- ^ "Map of UN Partition Plan". United Nations. Archived from the original on 18 March 2009. http://domino.un.org/maps/m0103_1b.gif. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p 221
[edit] Bibliography
- Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener (1881): The Survey of Western Palestine: memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology. London:Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. vol 3
- Clermont-Ganneau, Charles Simon (1896): Archaeological Researches in Palestine 1873-1874, [ARP], translated from the French by J. McFarlane, Palestine Exploration Fund, London. Volume 1. p 475-8
- Guérin, M. V. (1868): Description géographique, historique et archéologique de la Palestine. Judee Judee ("Tome premier") p. 348-61
- Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center. http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html.
- Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
- Morris, Benny (2004). Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7
- Pringle, Denys (1998), The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: L-Z (exluding Tyre), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-39037-0, http://books.google.ca/books?id=2Y0tA0xLzwEC p.167
- Stillman, Yedida Kalfon (1979). Palestinian Costume and Jewelry. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-0490-7. (A catalog of the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) at Santa Fe's [1] collection of Palestinian clothing and jewelry.)

