Ma'dhar

Ma'dhar was a Palestinian village in the Tiberias Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 12, 1948 by the Golani Brigade of Operation Gideon. It was located 12.5 km southwest of Tiberias.

Ma'dhar
Village
Etymology: from personal name,[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Ma'dhar (click the buttons)
Ma'dhar
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°41′35″N 35°27′51″E
Palestine grid193/233
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictTiberias
Date of depopulationApril 6, 1948[2]
Area
 • Total11,666 dunams (11.666 km2 or 4.504 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total480[4][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationAbandonment on Arab orders
Current LocalitiesKefar Qish[5]

History

Ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here.[6]

The Crusaders referred to Ma'dhar as Kapharmater.[7]

Ottoman era

Ma'dhar was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and by 1596, it was a village under the administration of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Tiberias, part of Safad Sanjak. The village had a population of 17 households, an estimated 94 inhabitants, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on wheat, barley, goats, beehives and orchards; a total of 2,000 Akçe.[8][9] A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as Chara, but misplaced.[10]

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the village as having about 250 Muslim residents, in a village made of basalt and other stone. Water was supplied from cisterns and springs.[11]

A population list from about 1887 showed Madher to have about 975 inhabitants; all Muslims.[12]

British Mandate era

At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine, Madhar had a population of 347 Muslims,[13] increasing slightly to 359 Muslims living in 91 houses by the 1931 census.[14]

By the 1945 statistics, the village population was 480 Muslims,[4] and the total land area was 11,666 dunums of land.[3] 498 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards, 10,766 used for cereals,[15] while 63 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[16]

Ma'dhar had a school founded by the Ottomans, but closed during the British Mandate period. Ma'dhar contained a mosque and still has the ruins of a church, a burial ground, and ruined Crusader fortress called Casel de Cherio.[7]

Post 1948

In 1992, the village site was described: "The site has been fenced in and is used as an Israeli grazing area. A large cluster of cactus grows in the midst of the stone rubble of houses, and there is a well, capped with a pump, in the center of the site. About 20 m to the west of the well is a drinking trough for animals. Eucalyptus, doum palm, and chinaberry trees grow on the site."[5]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 130
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xvii, village #105. Also gives cause of depopulation
  3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 72
  4. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 12
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p. 529
  6. Dauphin, 1998, pp. 729–730
  7. Khalidi, 1992, p. 528
  8. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 190. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 528
  9. Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
  10. Karmon, 1960, p. 167.
  11. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 361. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 528
  12. Schumacher, 1888, p. 186
  13. Barron, 1923, Table XI, p. 39
  14. Mills, 1932, p.83
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 122
  16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 172

Bibliography
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