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Khushniyeh
Abandoned Circassian Syrian village in the Golan Heights From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Khushniyeh (Arabic: الخشنية), called Khishniyyeh (Хъышние къуажэ, "Khishniyyeh village") by its Circassian inhabitants, is a former Syrian town located in the Golan Heights.[3][4]
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History
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Archaeological excavations have revealed remains from the Roman, Byzantine, and the Muslim periods which followed the Muslim conquest of the Levant.[5]
The German-American, Palestine-based archaeologist Gottlieb Schumacher surveyed the village in the 1880s and described it as: "El-Khushniyeh — A large winter village on the Roman street west of er-Rafid, with scattered building stones. Most of the huts have fallen to pieces."[6]
The old part of town was built with basalt stones.[5] The residents worked with livestock and agriculture and Khushniyah was known for its vineyards and figs.[5] Eucalyptus trees were planted in the town to fight off malaria.[5][7] There were also several schools, a police station and a mosque built in 1956.[5]
The population before the Six-Day War was 1029[1] or 1600.[8] Previous to the 1967 war, Khishniyyah was inhabited by Circassians and related tribes, as one of ten villages and a town, Quneitra, settled in the Golan by these ethnic groups originating in the Northwest Caucasus.[4] The village population comprised 43 Kabardian and Besleney families, 17 Abzakh, 6 Bzhedugh, 10 Abaza, and one Shapsugh family.[4] The Golan Circassians constituted the largest concentration of Caucasians in Syria.[4] Most Circassian refugees from the Golan resettled in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and in Aleppo, with some emigrating to Central and Western Europe (Germany, Holland, Austria, France) and North America (US and Canada).[4]
After Israel occupied the area in the 1967 war, they set about destroying Syrian villages in the Golan Heights.[9][10] Khushniyeh village was destroyed in 1967.[1]
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the IDF presence at Khushniyeh was overrun by Syrian tanks and the Syrians held the position until being encircled and defeated by an Israeli force[11] (see Yom Kippur War: Golan front).
The 1973 Syrian military camp was used as a temporary home by the founders of Moshav Keshet, an Israeli settlement established in 1974 south of Quneitra.[8]
The site is known in Israel as Hushniya[11] or Hurvat Hushniya, 'Hushniya Ruins'.[4]
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Gallery: Khushniyeh after destruction
See also
External links
- Video showing the ruins of Khishniyyah and other Circassian villages in the Golan; soundtrack: the song "Golan War Lament" ("Джолан Зауэм и Гъыбзэ") about the loss of the Golan in 1967.
References
Bibliography
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