Al-Shaykh Muwannis | |
---|---|
Arabic | الشيخ مونّس |
Name meaning | "The Sheikh Muwannis" |
Also spelled | Sheikh Muwannis |
Subdistrict | Jaffa |
Coordinates | 32°06′50″N 34°48′15″E / 32.11389°N 34.80417°ECoordinates: 32°06′50″N 34°48′15″E / 32.11389°N 34.80417°E |
Palestine grid | 131/168 |
Population | 1,930 (1945) |
Area | 15,972 dunams |
Date of depopulation | March 30, 1948 |
Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
Secondary cause | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
Current localities | Tel Aviv |
Al-Shaykh Muwannis (Arabic: الشيخ مونّس), also Sheikh Munis, was a small Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine, located approximately 8.5 kilometers from the center of Jaffa city in territory earmarked for Jewish statehood under the UN Partition Plan. The village was abandoned in March 1948 under pressure from Jewish militia, two months before the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. Today, Tel Aviv University lies on part of the village land.
According to local legend, the village was named for a local religious figure, al-Shaykh Muwannis, whose tomb/shrine (maqam) was in the village.
During the Ottoman era, Pierre Jacotin named the village Dahr on his map from 1799.
Al-Shaykh Muwannis was noted in December 1821, as being "located on a hill surrounded by muddy land that was flooded with water despite the moderate winter"
In 1870, Victor Guérin found that al-Shaykh Muwannis contained four hundred inhabitants and was divided into several districts, each under the jurisdiction of a distinct Sheikh. Around the village there were some gardens which "delicious watermelons." In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted "ruins of a house near the kubbeh", while Al-Shaykh Muwannis was described as an ordinary adobe village. Most of the villagers were members of the Abu Kishk tribe.
The village population was 315 in 1879.
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Shaik Muannes had a population of 664 residents, all Muslims. This had increased in the 1931 census when Esh Sheikh Muwannis had 1154 inhabitants, still all Muslims, in 273 houses.