Qamun
Encyclopedia
Qamun was a Palestinian
village, located southeast of Haifa
, adjacent to the neighbouring village of Qira
.
Thought to be the site of the Canaan
ite royal city of Jokneam, during Roman rule in Palestine millennia later, it was a city whose name is transcribed by Eusebius of Caesarea
as Cammona, and by Jerome
, as Cimana. During the Crusades
, Caymon was a valuable fiefdom
, granted to Balian of Ibelin
by Saladin
. Incorporated into the empires to rule Palestine
that followed, it often was referred to by locals in conjunction with its neighbouring village, as Qira wa Qamun. The occupation of Qira and Qamun by pre-state Israel
i forces on 1 March 1948 resulted in the depopulation of both villages.
, writing of Kamun in the third century, notes that it was a "city" that lay "6 miles north of Megiddo." In his book, A descriptive geography and brief historical sketch of Palestine (1850), Joseph Schwarz states that Kamun lies in the valley of Wady Naman, a valley near the Carmel
, "which has some slight resemblance to the ancient Jokneam." The identification of Kaimun with Jokneam, one of the thirty-one royal cities of Canaan
, is reiterated by Carel Willem M. van de Velde in Narrative of a journey through Syria and Palestine in 1851 and 1852. He describes Kaimun during his visit there as a "small village with a plastered tomb called Shech-Abrît or Abrik, near where the victory was obtained by Barak
over Sisera
." Van de Velde also notes the presence of ruins in Kaimun, including the foundations of a Christian
church on the east side of the hill upon which the village was located, and several large vaulted
caves.
Edward Robinson
also associated Kaimôn with Jokneam, pointing to the presence of a tell
known as Tell Kaimôn. Robinson also argued that Kaimôn may be an Arabic corruption of the Hebrew name, Yokneam, as recorded in the Old Testament
. By his theory, the Yod was dropped, the guttural Koph was retained and the Ayin sound "may well have disappeared through the medium of the Galilean
dialect, which confounded Aleph, Heth and Ayin." Robinson further identifies Kaimôn with the writings of Euseubius on Cammona and those of Jerome on Cimana, which is described as a city "situated in the great plain, six Roman miles north of Legio
, on the way to Ptolemais
."
One rendition of the story of Cain and Abel in local traditional Islam
ic folklore holds that after slaying his brother, Cain was accidentally slain by an arrow launched by Lamech
while the latter was hunting at Tell el Kaimun.
After Saladin
defeated the armies of the Crusades
in the twelfth century and before his death, he granted lordship over the fief of Caymon or Tell Kaimun to Balian of Ibelin
, an in-law of Henry of Champagne
. The Crusaders transformed its name, so as to read, Cain Mons ("Mount Cain"), recalling the tradition that it was the site of Cain's killing as described in the Book of Genesis' Song of Lamech. Writing in the latter half of the 19th century, Claude R. Conder in Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure notes that a local chapel in Keimun "shows the spot once held to be the site of the death of Cain."
According to Ilan Pappe
in The Israel/Palestine Question (1999), the 140 tenant farmers of Qira wa Qamun evacuated the village in March 1948 on the "friendly advice" of the local Haganah
intelligence officer at Yokneam, Yehuda Burstein. Benny Morris
notes that Burnstein received the orders for the evacuation from Yosef Weitz
. The Haganah Intelligence Report attributes the flight to "fear and the influence of attacks in the area," which Morris notes is "not really the same thing." Subsequent to the depopulation of the village, Weitz and his colleagues from the Jewish National Fund
in the North, "decided to raze the tenants' houses, to destroy their crops, and to pay the evictees compensation."
Qira wa Qamun's inhabitants joined the first wave of the 1948 Palestinian exodus
, displaced prior to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
. Today, the villagers and their descendants remain refugees
.
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
village, located southeast of Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, adjacent to the neighbouring village of Qira
Qira (village)
Qira was a Palestinian village, located 23 kilometers southeast of Haifa. In Canaanite times, the town was known as Yokneam, and in Roman times as Cimona...
.
Thought to be the site of the Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ite royal city of Jokneam, during Roman rule in Palestine millennia later, it was a city whose name is transcribed by Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...
as Cammona, and by Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
, as Cimana. During the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
, Caymon was a valuable fiefdom
Fiefdom
A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...
, granted to Balian of Ibelin
Balian of Ibelin
Balian of Ibelin was an important noble in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century.-Early life:Balian was the youngest son of Barisan of Ibelin, and brother of Hugh and Baldwin. His father, a knight in the County of Jaffa, had been rewarded with the lordship of Ibelin after the...
by Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
. Incorporated into the empires to rule Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
that followed, it often was referred to by locals in conjunction with its neighbouring village, as Qira wa Qamun. The occupation of Qira and Qamun by pre-state Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i forces on 1 March 1948 resulted in the depopulation of both villages.
History
Eusebius of CaesareaEusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...
, writing of Kamun in the third century, notes that it was a "city" that lay "6 miles north of Megiddo." In his book, A descriptive geography and brief historical sketch of Palestine (1850), Joseph Schwarz states that Kamun lies in the valley of Wady Naman, a valley near the Carmel
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ; , Kármēlos; , Kurmul or جبل مار إلياس Jabal Mar Elyas 'Mount Saint Elias') is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel...
, "which has some slight resemblance to the ancient Jokneam." The identification of Kaimun with Jokneam, one of the thirty-one royal cities of Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
, is reiterated by Carel Willem M. van de Velde in Narrative of a journey through Syria and Palestine in 1851 and 1852. He describes Kaimun during his visit there as a "small village with a plastered tomb called Shech-Abrît or Abrik, near where the victory was obtained by Barak
Barak
Barak , Al-Burāq the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, was a military general in the Book of Judges in the Bible. He was the commander of the army of Deborah, the prophetess and heroine of the Hebrew Bible...
over Sisera
Sisera
Sisera was commander of the Canaanite army of King Jabin of Hazor mentioned in the of the Hebrew Bible. After being defeated by Barak, Sisera was killed by Jael, who hammered a tent peg into his temple....
." Van de Velde also notes the presence of ruins in Kaimun, including the foundations of a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
church on the east side of the hill upon which the village was located, and several large vaulted
Vault (architecture)
A Vault is an architectural term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert lateral thrust that require a counter resistance. When vaults are built underground, the ground gives all the resistance required...
caves.
Edward Robinson
Edward Robinson (scholar)
Edward Robinson was an American biblical scholar, known as the “Father of Biblical Geography.” He has been referred to as the “founder of modern Palestinology.” -Biography:...
also associated Kaimôn with Jokneam, pointing to the presence of a tell
Tell
A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.-Archaeology:A tell is a hill created by different civilizations living and...
known as Tell Kaimôn. Robinson also argued that Kaimôn may be an Arabic corruption of the Hebrew name, Yokneam, as recorded in the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
. By his theory, the Yod was dropped, the guttural Koph was retained and the Ayin sound "may well have disappeared through the medium of the Galilean
Galilean
Generically, a Galilean is an inhabitant of Galilee. Galileans were also the members of a fanatical sect , followers of Judas of Galilee, who fiercely resented the taxation of the Romans, and whose violence contributed to induce the latter to vow the extermination of the whole race...
dialect, which confounded Aleph, Heth and Ayin." Robinson further identifies Kaimôn with the writings of Euseubius on Cammona and those of Jerome on Cimana, which is described as a city "situated in the great plain, six Roman miles north of Legio
Legio
Legio was a Roman Catholic titular see in the former Roman province of Palestina Secunda, which was suffragan of ScythopolisIt figures for the first time in a Latin episcopal notitia, dating probably from the eleventh century, where it is given under the name of Legionum, between the Bishoprics of...
, on the way to Ptolemais
Ptolemais
Ptolemais, an Ancient Greek place name and feminine personal name, may refer to:Places*Acre, Israel, once named Antiochia Ptolemais after Ptolemy I Soter*Crocodilopolis, an Egyptian city renamed Ptolemais Euergetis by Ptolemy III Euergetes...
."
One rendition of the story of Cain and Abel in local traditional Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic folklore holds that after slaying his brother, Cain was accidentally slain by an arrow launched by Lamech
Lamech
Lamech is a character in the genealogies of Adam in the Book of Genesis. He is the sixth generation descendant of Cain ; his father was named Methusael, and he was responsible for the "Song of the Sword." He is also noted as the first polygamist mentioned in the Bible, taking two wives, Ada and...
while the latter was hunting at Tell el Kaimun.
After Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
defeated the armies of the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
in the twelfth century and before his death, he granted lordship over the fief of Caymon or Tell Kaimun to Balian of Ibelin
Balian of Ibelin
Balian of Ibelin was an important noble in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century.-Early life:Balian was the youngest son of Barisan of Ibelin, and brother of Hugh and Baldwin. His father, a knight in the County of Jaffa, had been rewarded with the lordship of Ibelin after the...
, an in-law of Henry of Champagne
Henry II of Champagne
Henry II of Champagne was count of Champagne from 1181 to 1197, and King of Jerusalem from 1192 to 1197, although he never used the title of king.- Early Life and Family :...
. The Crusaders transformed its name, so as to read, Cain Mons ("Mount Cain"), recalling the tradition that it was the site of Cain's killing as described in the Book of Genesis' Song of Lamech. Writing in the latter half of the 19th century, Claude R. Conder in Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure notes that a local chapel in Keimun "shows the spot once held to be the site of the death of Cain."
According to Ilan Pappe
Ilan Pappé
Ilan Pappé is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, and political activist...
in The Israel/Palestine Question (1999), the 140 tenant farmers of Qira wa Qamun evacuated the village in March 1948 on the "friendly advice" of the local Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
intelligence officer at Yokneam, Yehuda Burstein. Benny Morris
Benny Morris
Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel...
notes that Burnstein received the orders for the evacuation from Yosef Weitz
Yosef Weitz
Yosef Weitz was the director of the Land and Afforestation Department of the Jewish National Fund. From the 1930s, Weitz played a major role in acquiring land for the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine.-Biography:...
. The Haganah Intelligence Report attributes the flight to "fear and the influence of attacks in the area," which Morris notes is "not really the same thing." Subsequent to the depopulation of the village, Weitz and his colleagues from the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...
in the North, "decided to raze the tenants' houses, to destroy their crops, and to pay the evictees compensation."
Qira wa Qamun's inhabitants joined the first wave of the 1948 Palestinian exodus
1948 Palestinian exodus
The 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as the Nakba , occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs left, fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Civil War that preceded it. The exact number of refugees is a matter of dispute...
, displaced prior to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
. Today, the villagers and their descendants remain refugees
Palestinian refugee
Palestinian refugees or Palestine refugees are the people and their descendants, predominantly Palestinian Arabic-speakers, who fled or were expelled from their homes during and after the 1948 Palestine War, within that part of the British Mandate of Palestine, that after that war became the...
.