Hittin
| Hittin | |
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Hittin, 1934
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 Hittin
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| Arabic | حطّين |
| Name meaning | from personal name |
| Also spelled | Hattin, Hutin |
| Subdistrict | Tiberias |
| Coordinates | 32°48′25.21″N 35°27′12.93″E / 32.8070028°N 35.4535917°ECoordinates: 32°48′25.21″N 35°27′12.93″E / 32.8070028°N 35.4535917°E |
| Palestine grid | 192/245 |
| Population | 1,190 (1945) |
| Area | 22,764 dunams 22.8 km² |
| Date of depopulation | 16–17 July 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
| Secondary cause | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Arbel, Kefar Zetim |
Hittin (Arabic: حطّين, transliterated Ḥiṭṭīn or Ḥaṭṭīn) was a Palestinian village located 8 kilometers (5 mi) west of Tiberias. As the site of the Battle of Hattin in 1187, in which Saladin conquered most of Palestine from the Crusaders, it has become an Arab nationalist symbol. The shrine of Nabi Shu'ayb, venerated by the Druze as the tomb of Jethro, is on the village land. The village was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century until the end of World War I, when Palestine became part of the British Mandate for Palestine. In the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the village was depopulated.
Hittin was located on the northern slopes of the double hill known as the "Horns of Hattin." It was strategically and commercially significant due to its location overlooking the Plain of Hittin, which opens onto the coastal lowlands of Lake Tiberias to the east, and to the west is linked by mountain passes leading towards the plains of lower Galilee. These plains, with their east-west passages, served as routes for commercial caravans and military invasions throughout the ages.
Archaeological excavations at the village have yielded pottery fragments from the Chalcolithic Period and the Early Bronze Age. The village may have been built over the Canaanite town of Siddim or Ziddim (Joshua 19:35), which in the third century BC acquired the Old Hebrew name Kfar Hittin ("village of grain"). It was known as Kfar Hittaya in the Roman period. In the 4th century, it was a Jewish rabbinical town.
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