Khirbat Jiddin
Khirbat Jiddin
خربة جدّين | |
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Khirbat Jiddin mosque | |
A series of historical maps of the area around Khirbat Jiddin (click the buttons) | |
Location within Mandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 32°59′40″N 35°13′19″E / 32.99444°N 35.22194°E | |
| Palestine grid | 171/266 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Acre |
| Date of depopulation | 11 July 1948 (Sheva' Brigade as part of Operation Dekel) |
| Area | |
• Total | 7,587 dunams (7.587 km2 or 2.929 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 1,500 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Current Localities | Yehiam, Kiryat, and Ga'aton |
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Khirbat Jiddin (Arabic: خربة جدين, lit. 'ruins of Jiddin'), known in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as Judin, was an Ottoman fortress in the western Upper Galilee, originally built by the Teutonic Order after 1220 as a crusader castle, 16 km northeast of the city of Acre, which at the time was the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The castle was destroyed by the Mamluk sultan Baibars sometime between 1268-1271 and lay in ruins until being rebuilt and expanded by the Arab ruler Zahir al-Umar as Qal'at Jiddin (Arabic: قلعة جدين, lit. 'castle of Jiddin') in the 1760s, only to be destroyed again around 1775 by Jazzar Pasha. The ruined fortress, known as Khirbat Jiddin, was later inhabited by the al-Suwaytat Bedouin tribe.
According to a 1945 census, there were 1500 Muslims living in the area. Khirbat Jiddin land totaled 7,587 dunums, of which, however, all but 34 were officially listed as non-cultivable; 4,238 were owned by Arabs and 3,349 dunums owned by Jews. Kibbutz Yehiam was established in the area in 1946.
Today the remains of the castle are the central part of Yehi'am Fortress National Park.