Editing Hamama (section)

== History ==
In the fifth century CE, the site consisted of the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] town of ''Peleia''.<ref name="Khalidi">Khalidi, 1992, pp. 97-98</ref>

Remains from the fifth and sixth century CE have been found here, together with Byzantine ceramics.<ref>Dauphin, 1998,  p. 869</ref> A fragment of a [[Greek language|Greek]] stone inscription was discovered at this site and is currently held at the [[Louvre]] in Paris.<ref>{{Citation |title=XIV. Hamama |date=2014-07-14 |work=Volume 3 South Coast: 2161-2648 |pages=231–232 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110337679.231/html |access-date=2024-02-23 |publisher=De Gruyter |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783110337679.231 |isbn=978-3-11-033767-9|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Hamama was located near the site of a [[Battle of Ascalon|battle in 1099]] between the [[First Crusade|Crusader]]s and the [[Fatimid]]s, resulting in a Crusader victory.<ref name="Khalidi"/> Later Hamama passed into Muslim [[Mamluk]] hands.

During the Mandate time, the village was visited by inspectors from the [[Department of Antiquities of Mandatory Palestine|Department of Antiquities]] who noted two mosques. One of these, known as Shaykh Ibrahim Abi Arqub, included marble columns and capitals in the [[iwan]]. The eponymous mosque was affiliated with a mujāhid and descendant of ʿ[[Umar|Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb]].The other mosque, known as Shaykh Hamid, also incorporated marble fragments. Neither of these mosques have survived.<ref name="Petersen146">Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21539664/Gazetteer_4_D-J 146]</ref> Mandatory archaeologists documented a marble slab (0.3x0.95 m) located on the western wall of the mosque of Ibrāhīm Abū ʿArqūb. This slab featured a nine-line Arabic inscription, now unfortunately lost, which was dated to 700 AH/1301 AD, and the content of which remains unrecorded.<ref name=":0" /> 

By 1333/4 CE (734 H.) some of the income from the village formed part of a [[waqf]] of the tomb (turba) and [[madrasa]] of [[Al-Azhar_Mosque#Madrasa_and_mausoleum_of_Aqbugha|Aqbugha b. Abd Allah]] in [[Cairo]].<ref>MPF, 10 No. 30. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21539664/Gazetteer_4_D-J 146]</ref> In 1432, it is reported that the Mamluk sultan [[Barsbay]] passed through the village. In this period, a renowned scholar and preacher at the [[Qibli Mosque|al-Aqsa Mosque]], Ahmad al-Shafi'i (1406–1465), was born there.<ref name="Khalidi" />

===Ottoman era===
Hamama, like the rest of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], was incorporated into the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1517. In first Ottoman  [[Defter|tax register]] of 1526/7 the village had a population of 31 [[Muslim]] households and one [[bachelor]], and it belonged to the ''nahiya'' of Gaza ([[Gaza Sanjak]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Marom |first1=Roy |last2=Taxel |first2=Itamar |date=2023-10-01 |title=Ḥamāma: The historical geography of settlement continuity and change in Majdal 'Asqalan's hinterland, 1270–1750 CE |journal=Journal of Historical Geography |volume=82 |pages=49–65 |doi=10.1016/j.jhg.2023.08.003 |issn=0305-7488|doi-access=free }}</ref> In the tax registers of 1596 it had a population of 84 Muslim households, an estimated 462 persons. The villagers paid taxes on goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 6,800 [[akçe]]. All of the revenue went to a [[waqf]].<ref>Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 142. Cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 98.</ref> Its residents came from various places, including the [[Hauran]], and  [[Egypt]].<ref name=":02">Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in '''Shomron studies'''. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 382</ref>

The seventeenth-century traveller [[Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi|al-Nabulsi]] recorded that the tomb (qabr) of Shaykh Ibrahim Abi Arqub was located in the village,<ref name=Petersen146/> while the Syrian [[Sufi]] teacher and traveller Mustafa al-Bakri al-Siddiqi (1688-1748/9) ([[:ar:مصطفى_بن_كمال_الدين_البكري|ar]]) visited Hamama in the first half of the eighteenth century, after leaving [[al-Jura]].<ref>Khalidi, 1992, p. 98.</ref>

[[Roy Marom|Marom]] and [[Itamar Taxel|Taxel]] have shown that during the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, nomadic economic and security pressures led to settlement abandonment around Majdal ‘Asqalān, and the southern coastal plain in general. The population of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, while the lands of abandoned settlements continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages. Thus, Hamama absorbed the lands of Ṣandaḥanna, Mi‘ṣaba, and excluded the lands of Bashsha, an exclave of al-Majdal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Marom |first1=Roy |last2=Taxel |first2=Itamar |date=2023-10-01 |title=Ḥamāma: The historical geography of settlement continuity and change in Majdal 'Asqalan's hinterland, 1270–1750 CE |journal=Journal of Historical Geography |volume=82 |pages=49–65 |doi=10.1016/j.jhg.2023.08.003 |issn=0305-7488|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Hamama appears on [[Pierre Jacotin|Jacotin's]] map drawn-up during [[Napoleon]]'s invasion in 1799, though its position is interchanged with that of [[Ashkelon|Majdal]].<ref>Karmon, 1960, p. [http://www.jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,_Y_1960_Jacotin_Map_(IEJ_10).pdf 173] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222063351/http://jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,_Y_1960_Jacotin_Map_(IEJ_10).pdf |date=2019-12-22 }}</ref><ref>Palestine Exploration Quarterly Jan-Apr 1944.''' Jacotin's Map of Palestine'''. D.H.Kellner. p. 161.</ref>  In 1838, ''Hamameh'' was noted as a Muslim village in the  Gaza district.<ref>Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/118/mode/1up 118]</ref>

Local administrative restructuring began in the 1860s as [[tanzimat]] reforms were implemented at the district level. The construction of the "quarter system"—the partition of village land among groups of families—led to significant economic development, as evidenced by village land usage in the early twentieth century.<ref name=":0" /> 

In 1863, the French explorer [[Victor Guérin]] visited the village, and noted a [[mosque]] constructed with ancient materials. The village had a population of "at least eight hundred souls".<ref>Guérin, 1869, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongog02gu#page/129/mode/1up 129] -130</ref> He further noted: "The gardens of Hamama are outstandingly fertile. They are divided by living fences of huge cactus pears, and are planted with olive, fig, pomegranate, mulberry and apricot trees. Here and there slender palm trees and broad treetops of sycamore trees rise above them."<ref>translated by Moshe Gilad, [https://archive.today/20220223172600/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-this-explorer-visited-israel-in-the-19th-century-and-found-it-to-be-anything-but-emp-1.10629520 'This Explorer Visited Israel in the 19th Century and Found It to Be Anything but Empty'],  22 February 2022,  [[Haaretz]]</ref>

An official Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that ''Hamame'' had 193 houses and a population of 635, although it only counted the men.<ref>Socin, 1879, p. [https://archive.org/stream/zeitschriftdesde01deut#page/154/mode/1up 154]</ref><ref>Hartmann, 1883, p. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_BZobAQAAIAAJ#page/n939/mode/1up 131], noted 291 houses</ref>

===British Mandate era===
Under the [[Mandate for Palestine|British Mandate in Palestine]], a village council was established to administer local affairs, and Hamama had a [[mosque]], and two primary schools for boys and girls established in 1921.<ref name="Khalidi3">Khalidi, 1992, p. 99</ref> British Mandate Ḥamāma had pre-planned new communities erected around the original village nucleus, with crisscrossed pathways separating the new residential quarters.<ref name=":0" /> 

In the [[1922 census of Palestine]], conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Hamama had a population of 2,731; 2,722 Muslims and 9 Christians,<ref>Barron, 1923, Table V,  [[Gaza Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Sub-district of Gaza]], p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n10/mode/1up 8]</ref> where all the Christians were Orthodox.<ref>Barron, 1923, Table XIII, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n46/mode/1up 44]</ref> The population had increased in the [[1931 census of Palestine|1931 census]] to 3,405; 3,401 Muslims and 4 Christians, in a total of 865 houses.<ref name="Census1931">Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 3]</ref>

[[File:Hamama 1930.jpg|thumb|Hamada 1930 1:20,000]]
[[File:Isdud 1945.jpg|thumb|Hamada 1945 1:250,000 (lower left)]]

In the [[Village Statistics, 1945|1945 statistics]] Hamama had a population of 5,070; 5,000 Muslims, 10 Christians and 60 Jews,<ref name=DoS1945p31/> with a total of 41,366 [[dunam]]s of land, according to an official land and population survey.<ref name=Hadawi45/>  Of this, 1,356 dunams were used for citrus and bananas, 4,459 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 28,890 for cereals,<ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Gaza/Page-086.jpg  86]</ref> while 167 dunams were built-up (urban) land.<ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Gaza/Page-136.jpg  136]</ref>

In the 1940s, British officials paved the road to the village for year-round automobile access.<ref name=":0" /> 

In 1946, the boys' school had an enrollment of 338, and the girls' school an enrollment of 46. Its inhabitants engaged primarily in fishing and agriculture, cultivating grain, citrus, apricots, almonds, figs, olives, watermelons, and cantaloupes. Due to the existence of sand dunes in the north part of the town, trees were planted on parts of those lands to prevent soil erosion.<ref name="Khalidi3" /> 

In addition to agriculture, residents practiced animal husbandry which formed was an important source of income for the village. In 1943, they owned 405 heads of cattle, 310 sheep over a year old, 172 goats over a year old, 228 camels, 11 horses, 9 mules, 567 donkey, 2963 fowls, 454 pigeons.<ref name=":0" /> 

=== 1948, and aftermath ===
According to reports published by the newspaper ''[[Falastin (newspaper)|Felesteen]]'', Hamama was first drawn into the [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]] after a group of workers from the town laboring in the adjacent fields were struck by Jewish residents from [[Nitzanim]] on January 22, 1948, leaving fifteen Arabs wounded.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Elhassani|first1=Abdelkarim|title=From Hamama to Montreal|date=2012|isbn=978-1-4797-4125-0|page=32|publisher=Xlibris Corporation LLC }}</ref> Two days later, a unit from Nitzanim opened fire on Hamama residents, killing one, and on February 17, a group of workers waiting for a bus on the road between [[Isdud]] and the town were fired upon, wounding two.<ref name="Khalidi3"/>

It was captured by [[Israel]] from the [[Egyptian Army]] in the first stage of [[Operation Yoav]] on October 28. By then several [[Palestinian refugee|refugee]]s from nearby towns were in Hamama, most of them, along with many of Hamama's residents, fled with the withdrawing Egyptian troops.<ref>Morris, 1987, p.220, quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.99.</ref>

At the end of November 1948, Coastal Plain District troops carried out sweeps of the villages around and to the south of [[Al-Majdal, Askalan|Majdal]]. Hamama was one of the villages named in the orders to the [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]] battalions and engineers platoon, that the villagers were to be expelled to Gaza, and the IDF troops were "to prevent their return by destroying their villages." The path leading to the village was to be mined. The IDF troops were ordered to carry out the operation "with determination, accuracy and energy".<ref>Coastal Plain District HQ to battalions 151 and ´1 Volunteers`, etc., 19:55 hours, 25 Nov. 1948, IDFA (=Israeli Defence Forces and Defence Ministry Archive) 6308\49\\141. Cited in Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA517  517]</ref> The operation took place on 30 November. The troops found "not a living soul" in Hamama. However, the destruction of the villages was not completed immediately due to the dampness of the houses and the insufficient amount of explosives.<ref>Coastal Plain HQ to Southern Front\Operations, 30 Nov. 1948, IDFA 1978\50\\1; and Southern Front\Operations to General Staff Divisions, 2. Dec. 1948, IDFA 922\75\\1025. Cited in Morris, 2004, p.  [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA518  518]</ref>

[[Mohammed Dahlan]]'s family is originally from Hamama.

In 1992 it was noted: "No traces of village houses or landmarks remain. The site is overgrown with wild vegetation, including tall grasses, weeds, and bushes. It also contains cactuses. The surrounding land is unused."<ref name=Khalidi100/>