Kuwaykat

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title: "Kuwaykat" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["district-of-acre", "arab-villages-depopulated-during-the-1948-arab–israeli-war"] topic_path: "geography/israel" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwaykat" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

FieldValue
nameKuwaykat
native_nameكويكات
native_name_langar
settlement_typeFormer village
image_skylineSheikh Abu Muhammad tomb (3).JPG
imagesize250
image_captionSheikh Abu Muhammad tomb
etymology"Huts" (possibly)
pushpin_mapMandatory Palestine
pushpin_mapsize200
coordinates
grid_namePalestine grid
grid_position164/264
subdivision_typeGeopolitical entity
subdivision_nameMandatory Palestine
subdivision_type1Subdistrict
subdivision_name1Acre
established_title1Date of depopulation
established_date110 July 1948
established_title2Repopulated dates
area_footnotes
unit_prefdunam
area_total_dunam4,733
population_as_of1945
population_total1,050
blank_name_sec1Cause(s) of depopulation
blank_info_sec1Military assault by Yishuv forces
blank3_name_sec1Current Localities
blank3_info_sec1Beit HaEmek
::

| name = Kuwaykat | native_name = كويكات | native_name_lang = ar | settlement_type = Former village | image_skyline = Sheikh Abu Muhammad tomb (3).JPG | imagesize = 250 | image_caption = Sheikh Abu Muhammad tomb | etymology = "Huts" (possibly) | pushpin_map = Mandatory Palestine | pushpin_map_caption = Location within Mandatory Palestine | image_map = | map_caption = A series of historical maps of the area around Kuwaykat (click the buttons) | pushpin_mapsize = 200 | coordinates = | grid_name = Palestine grid | grid_position = 164/264 | subdivision_type = Geopolitical entity | subdivision_name = Mandatory Palestine | subdivision_type1 = Subdistrict | subdivision_name1 = Acre | established_title1 = Date of depopulation | established_date1 = 10 July 1948 | established_title2 = Repopulated dates | area_footnotes = | unit_pref = dunam | area_total_dunam = 4,733 | population_as_of = 1945 | population_total = 1,050 | blank_name_sec1 = Cause(s) of depopulation | blank_info_sec1 = Military assault by Yishuv forces | blank3_name_sec1 = Current Localities | blank3_info_sec1 = Beit HaEmek

Kuwaykat (), also spelled Kuweikat, Kweikat or Kuwaikat, was a Palestinian village located 9 km northeast of Acre. It was depopulated in 1948.

History

The old khan (caravansary) in Kuwaykat possibly dated to the Crusader period or an earlier date. According to historian Denys Pringle, the khan might have been part of the headquarters of Genoese estate in the village built in the 13th century. It consisted of a round barrel-vaulted building made of ashlar.

In 1245 the western part of Kuwaykat was owned by the Church and Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr in Acre.

Ottoman era

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/AcreNE1799.jpg" caption="French map of the area, in 1799. "Chiouwe chiateh" correspond to KuwaykatKarmon, 1960, p. [http://www.jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,Y_1960_Jacotin_Map(IEJ_10).pdf 162]"] ::

In the late Ottoman period, Kuwaykat was named Chiouwe chiateh on the French map Pierre Jacotin made of the area during Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1799. In 1881 Kuwaykat was described by the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine as being built of stone and situated at the foot of hills. The roughly 300 Muslim residents cultivated olives. In 1887, an elementary school was built in the village. In addition, the village had a mosque and a shrine for the Druze religious leader, Shaykh Aby Muhammad al-Qurayshi.

A population list from about 1887 showed that Kiryet et Kuweikat had about 565 inhabitants; all Muslims.

British Mandate period

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kuaikat had a population of 604; all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 789, still all Muslims, in a total of 163 houses.

In April 1938, during the Arab revolt in Palestine, a group of Palestinian Arab rebels planted a mine on the road near Kuwaykat which blew up a British vehicle, killing nine soldiers (according to the Arabs) or one soldier and wounding two others (according to the British). A rebel leader in Kuwaykat, Fayyad Baytam, was approached by the regional rebel commander Shaykh Amhad al-Tuba, who ordered him to plant the explosive on the road. Baytam refused, arguing that planting the bomb would only inevitably bring retaliation upon the village. Two local rebels, Al-Tuba and Ali Hummada, planted the explosive instead. The British Army proceeded to start setting houses in Kafr Yasif ablaze in response, but were then informed by local residents that the inhabitants of Kuwaykat were responsible for the attack. The British troops fatally shot nine Arabs as they approached the village.

In the 1945 statistics, Kuwaykat had 1,050 Muslim inhabitants, while 26 dunams were built-up (urban) area. The villagers also engaged in livestock breeding and dairy production. The village had a population of 1,050.

1948 War and aftermath

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/كويكات-_فلسطين.jpg" caption="A tombstone in the graveyard of Kuwaykat, 2019"] ::

The first attack on the village of Kuwaykat during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War took place on 18–19 January 1948, and involved a force of over eighty Jewish militiamen, according to Filastin, the Palestinian newspaper at the time. The attack was repulsed, as was another attack on the village on the night of 6–7 February. The village was finally depopulated during a military assault by Israel's Sheva' Brigade and Carmeli Brigade, as part of Operation Dekel. On the night of 9 July, at the start of the offensive, the village came under heavy bombardment. Two people were killed and two wounded by the shelling. Many villagers fled to Abu Snan, Kafr Yasif and other villages that later surrendered. Those, mostly elderly, villagers who remained in Kuwaykat, were soon expelled to Kafr Yasif.

In January 1949, kibbutz ha-Bonim (later renamed Beit HaEmek) was established near the site of Kuwaykat, on village lands. Its settlers were Jewish immigrants from England, Hungary and the Netherlands. The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village in 1992: Little remains of the village except the deserted cemetery, completely overgrown with weeds, and rubble from houses. Inscriptions on two of the graves identify one as that of Hamad 'Isa al-Hajj, and another as that of Shaykh Salih Iskandar, who died in 1940. The shrine of Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Qurayshi still stands but its stone pedestal is badly cracked.

Footnotes

Bibliography

References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/51/mode/1up 51]
  2. Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PR17 xvii], village #86. Also gives cause of depopulation
  3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p04.jpg 4]
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Acre/Page-040.jpg 40]
  5. Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PR21 xxi], settlement #45, January 1949
  6. Khalidi, 1992, p. 22
  7. Sims, Eleanor. 1978. Trade and Travel: Markets and Caravansary.' In: Michell, George. (ed.). 1978. ''Architecture of the Islamic World - Its History and Social Meaning.'' London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 101.
  8. (1999). "Le Khan al-Khalili et ses environs: Un centre commercial et artisanal au Caire du XIIIe au XXe siècle". Institut français d'archéologie orientale.
  9. Pringle, 1997, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC&pg=PA64 64]
  10. Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. [https://archive.org/stream/regestaregnihie00rhgoog#page/n307/mode/1up 301], No. 1135; Cited in Pringle, 2009, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tKwienZI03MC&pg=PA163 163]
  11. Karmon, 1960, p. [http://www.jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,Y_1960_Jacotin_Map(IEJ_10).pdf 162]
  12. In 1875 [[Victor Guérin]] visited, and found the village surrounded with gardens planted with fig and olive trees, and with an ancient well. He further noted that the village was mentioned in Crusader sources.Guérin, 1880, p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr00gugoog#page/n45/mode/1up 29]
  13. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/147/mode/1up 147]. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 22
  14. Schumacher, 1888, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n198/mode/1up 173]
  15. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Acre, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n38/mode/1up 36]
  16. Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 101]
  17. Swedenberg, 2003, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=q7RTdcvtO2sC&pg=PA107 107]–09.
  18. (2009). "The banality of brutality: British armed forces and the repression of the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936–39". English Historical Review.
  19. with a total of {{Convert. 4,733. dunum. acre
  20. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Acre/Page-131.jpg 131]
  21. Filastin, [http://jrayed.org/olive/apa/apress_en/?href=FALASTIN%2F1948%2F01%2F21&page=1#panel=document 21.01.1948] and [http://jrayed.org/olive/apa/apress_en/?href=FALASTIN%2F1948%2F02%2F08&page=1#panel=document 08.02.1948]
  22. [[Benny Morris. Morris]], 1987, p. 187

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district-of-acrearab-villages-depopulated-during-the-1948-arab–israeli-war