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Biriyya

بيريّا
Biriyya بيريّا
	Etymology: A well
	1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Biriyya (click the buttons)
	Biriyya Location within Mandatory Palestine
	Coordinates: 32°58′47″N 35°29′52″E / 32.97972°N 35.49778°E
Palestine grid	197/265
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Safad
Date of depopulation	May 2, 1948
Area
• Total	5,579 dunams (5.579 km2 or 2.154 sq mi)
Population (1945)
• Total	240
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current Localities	Birya

Biriyya (Arabic: بيريّا) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 2, 1948, by The Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) northeast of Safad. Today the Israeli moshav of Birya includes the village site.

History

The village was on a hill 1.5 kilometres northeast of Safad.^[5] It is believed to have been built on the site of the Roman village of Beral or Bin, which was later also a Jewish town.^[5] Ishtori Haparchi, however, thought the village to have been the Beri of rabbinic literature.^[6]

Ottoman era

In the 1596 tax record, Biriyya was a village in the nahiya of Jira (Liwa' of Safad) with a Muslim population of 38 families and 3 bachelors, and a Jewish population of 16 families and 1 bachelor; a total estimated population of 319 persons. The villagers paid taxes on crops such as wheat, barley, and olives and other types of produce and owned beehives, vineyards, and a press that was used for processing olives. Total taxes paid was 3,145 akçe.^[7]^[8]^[5]^[9]

A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as "Beria",^[10] while in 1838 Biria was noted as a village in the Safad region.^[11]

In 1875 Victor Guérin found Biriyya to have about 150 Muslim inhabitants.^[12] In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Biriyya as having "good stone houses, containing about 100 Muslims, surrounded by arable cultivation, and several good springs near the village".^[13]

A population list from about 1887 showed Biria to have about 355 Muslim inhabitants.^[14]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Biria had a population of 128, all Muslims,^[15] increasing in the 1931 census to 170, still all Muslims, in a total of 38 houses.^[16]

In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 240 Muslims^[2] with a total of 5,579 dunums of land.^[3] A total of 328 dunums were used for cereals, 53 dunums for irrigation for use in the orchards,^[17] while 25 dunums were built-up (urban) land.^[18]

The villagers sold their products at the market in nearby Safad.^[5]

1948 war and aftermath

On April 7, 1948, it was reported that 20 Arabs had been killed near Mount Canaan, outside Safad.^[5] On May 1, 1948, the Palmach's First Battalion captured Biriyya.^[19] The occupation of Safad and eastern Galilee was completed in May 1948 during Operation Yiftach.^[5]

In 1992 the village site was described: "About fifteen houses remain and are inhabited by the residents of the settlement of Biriyya, the settlement has been expanded to include the village site. In addition to the inhabited houses, four are semi-deserted or used for storage. Stones from destroyed houses can be found in some of the walls around the settlement. Many old almond, olive, fig, and eucalyptus trees are scattered throughout the site, mingled with trees that have been planted more recently."^[5]

References

^ Palmer, 1881, pp. 61, 69
^ ^a ^b Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 9
^ ^a ^b ^c Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 69
^ Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #54. Also gives the cause of depopulation.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Khalidi, 1992, p.440
^ Ishtori Haparchi, Kaftor wa-Ferach vol. 2, (3rd edition, published by ed. Avraham Yosef Havatzelet), chapter 11, Jerusalem 2007, p. 53 (note 14) (Hebrew)
^ Petersen, 2005, p. 131 Note that Petersen only counts families, and not bachelors
^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 175
^ Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 Archived 2019-04-20 at the Wayback Machine writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
^ Karmon, 1960, p. 166 Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine. Note 15: the area north of Safad was not surveyed by Jacotin, but drawn based on an existing map of d'Anville.
^ Robertsen and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, 2nd appendix, p. 134
^ Guérin, 1880, p. 438
^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p.196. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 440
^ Schumacher, 1888, p. 189
^ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Safad, p. 41
^ Mills, 1932, p. 105
^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 118
^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 168
^ Morris, 2004, p. 220