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Old City of Haifa

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Coordinates: 32°48′57″N 35°0′8″E / 32.81583°N 35.00222°E / 32.81583; 35.00222
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Not to be confused with Haifa el-Atika.

Old City of Haifa
البلدة القديمة الحيفا
Old city
The Old City of Haifa in 1945
The Old City of Haifa in 1945
Plan of Haifa showing the "Old Town", Frederick Palmer, 1923
Plan of Haifa showing the "Old Town", Frederick Palmer, 1923
Coordinates: 32°48′57″N 35°0′8″E / 32.81583°N 35.00222°E / 32.81583; 35.00222
CityHaifa
Established1761
Demolished1948

The Old City of Haifa (Arabic: البلدة القديمة الحيفا) was the historic core of Haifa from 1761 until its destruction in the aftermath of the 1948 Palestine war and the Nakba.

The Old City of Haifa had at least two predecessors: the Roman and Byzantine city 2.5 km to the southeast, today known as Tell Abu Hawam, and the medieval city 2.5 km to the northwest, today known as Haifa El-Atika.[1][2]

The city was founded in its modern location in 1761 by Zahir al-Umar, using stones from Haifa el-Atika.[3] It served as the social, religious and commercial center for Haifa's Palestinian Arab community and resembled other Muslim-majority cities throughout the Ottoman Empire.[4] After World War I Haifa became part of British Mandatory Palestine.

Following the conquest of the city by Zionist forces in April 1948 and the displacement of most of its Arab population, the Old City was largely demolished by the newly established State of Israel.[5][6]

History

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Predecessors

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The archaeological site of Tell Abu Hawam, about 2.5 km southeast of the Old City, contains remains from Iron Age, Roman and Byzantine Haifa. It was abandoned by the twelfth century.[7] By the late eleventh century, under the Fatimid Caliphate a new fortified settlement had developed about 5km northwest of Tell Abu Hawam (about 2.5 km northwest of the Old City); medieval sources refer to two Haifas, an "old" and a "new" Haifa. This new Medieval Haifa is today known as Haifa El-Atika.[8] The Fatimid fortifications enabled a month-long resistance to the forces of Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1100.[9] In the twelfth century Haifa El-Atika formed a minor lordship in the Principality of Galilee and served as a regional port for Tiberias, as reported by al-Idrisi in 1154, though Acre was to regain its local supremacy.[10] After the rise of the Mamluk Sultanate, Haifa El-Atika declined and was sparsely populated until the early seventeenth century.[11] In 1538 it was a small settlement of 20–32 households. In the 1600s, it became a locus of conflict between the Ma'n dynasty and the Turabay dynasty.[12] In 1631 Haifa El-Atika was rebuilt and resettled by the Turabey governor Aḥmad al-Hārithī, in order to revive commerce and restore security.[12] By 1710 Haifa El-Atika had become a haven for piracy and smuggling, leading the Ottoman sultan Ahmed III in 1716 to order the governor of the Sidon Eyalet, Köse Halil Pasha, to fortify it with defensive towers.[13]

The autonomous ruler of Galilee, Zahir al-Umar, captured Haifa El-Atika between 1757 and 1761 to control customs revenues, secure the coastline, and dominate the route between Haifa and his capital of Acre.[14] Finding the Haifa El-Atika exposed and difficult to defend, Zahir al-Umar relocated the town 3 km southeast in 1761, demolishing the earlier settlement and establishing a new, more defensible site at the location of what became known as the Old City of Haifa. [15] Building materials from Haifa El-Atika were used to construct the new city, and its harbour was blocked with rocks. Its history is no longer visible today.[11]

Ottoman era

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The Old City, just south of the German Colony, in the 1870s (PEF Survey of Palestine)

Zahir al-Umar's relocated settlement was to become the Old City of Haifa. It was fortified with walls, gates, towers and a castle known as Burj al-Salam, and was resettled by both earlier inhabitants and newcomers.[16]

The new town included a central square, mosque, Saraya (government house), and port.[17] Contemporary visitors described it as a small but diverse town with Muslims, Christians, and some Jews living within its walls.[18]

During the 19th century, Haifa expanded beyond its original walls, especially after the arrival of the German Templer community in 1868. The German Colony was established north of the city walls and became the first planned neighborhood in the city.[19]

British Mandate

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The Old City of Haifa in 1929, in the Survey of Palestine

During the Mandatory Palestine period (1918–1948), Haifa developed into Palestine's major port city. The Old City, known as the Lower Town, remained the hub of Arab civic life, housing markets, mosques, churches, and cultural institutions. The population of Haifa became more mixed, with Jewish neighborhoods expanding on Mount Carmel while Arab residents remained concentrated in and around the Old City.[20] In 1926, the large Al-Istiqlal Mosque was constructed near the Old City's eastern edge.

Immediately prior to the 1948 Palestine war, Haifa had been a mixed city, with roughly equal Jewish and Palestinian Arab populations.[21]

Destruction

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In April 1948, during the lead-up to the end of the Mandate, Haifa was captured by Haganah forces in the Battle of Haifa. The majority of the Palestinian Arab population was displaced, forming a part of the broader 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, leaving the city 96% Jewish. According to Ziva Kolodney and Rachel Kallus this "encouraged the new State to demolish the ostensibly deserted Old City, except for the churches and mosques".[22]

Demolished buildings in the Old Town of Haifa, 1948

The initial demolition was carried out immediately between May and July 1948, while the war continued, on the direct orders of David Ben Gurion.[23] A confidential memorandum from the archives of Abba Hushi (File A1/51:3) with the title "A time to destroy and a time to heal" recommended demolition in order to prevent occupancy of the vacant houses by new Jewish immigrants and returning Arab refugees, and described the rationale as follows:[23]

the exodus of the Arab population from Haifa and the almost complete evacuation of the downtown area and the neighborhoods between downtown and lower Hadar [neighborhood] offer an unprecedented opportunity for conducting preservation work linked to demolition… The designated buildings were damaged during the war and must be demolished according to the dangerous building by-laws. This eases the situation and gives additional reason for the required work.

Following the war, Israeli authorities initiated large-scale demolition of the Old City as part of the "Shikmona Plan", including the destruction of the Saraya, and the traditional housing and markets. Very few structures from the Ottoman and Mandate periods remain today.[5][6]

Urban features

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The Old City of Haifa, 14 September 1933 during the funeral procession of Faisal I, in the second-hand market plaza (suq al-‘utaq) in front of the Grand (al-Jurayna) Mosque of Haifa, with its clock tower. The large rectangular building in the upper right-hand corner behind the Grand Mosque is the Haifa Saraya[24]

The Old City had a typical Ottoman urban layout: narrow alleys, central mosque, marketplace, and residential quarters. The city was 125 dunams (31 acres), and divided into three quarters:

  • Al-Harat al-Sharqiyya (Arabic: الحارة الشرقية: the Eastern Quarter, 54 dunums), a primarily Muslim quarter. The Harat al-Yehud (Arabic: حارة اليهود: the Jewish neighbourhood) was built on about 11 dunums within this area in the 19th century.[25]
  • Al-Harat al-Gharbiyya (Arabic: الحارة الغربية: the Western Quarter, 36 dunums), the Christian quarter. Later called the Harat al-Kanayis (Arabic: حارة الكنائس: the Church Quarter). The western and eastern quarters were divided by a north-south axis positioned along the line of the Al-Jarina Mosque[25]
  • The public area (35 dunums), containing the government institutions and some markets[25]

Important structures included:

  • The al-Jarina Mosque, built by Zahir al-Umar as the al-Nasr Mosque (Arabic: مسجد النصر, lit. 'Victory Mosque'). The mosque was on the shoreline; on its southwestern side was a public square, which functioned as the centre of Haifa.[26]
  • The Istiqlal Mosque
  • A cluster of churches in the Harat al-Kanāyis (Quarter of Churches)
  • The Ottoman Saraya (destroyed, first for a park and the central post office, later replaced by the Sail Tower)[27]
  • Hammams, khans, and coastal souqs (destroyed):
    • Eastern market (mostly destroyed, a small corner remains, called the Turkish Market)[28]

Legacy

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Following the demolition, modern buildings and roadways were constructed on the site. Since the 2000s, commemorative initiatives by historians and organizations such as Zochrot have sought to raise awareness of the Old City's history. A few remaining landmarks have been partially restored.[29]

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See also

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Bibliography

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Books and journals

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Videos and maps

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References

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  1. ^ Pringle & 1993LZ, p. 150, 152.
  2. ^ Pringle & 1993AK, p. 222, 223.
  3. ^ Safran 2015, p. 452: "His soldiers were ordered to destroy the settlement and use the same stones to build 'Haifa al-Jadida'... where the distance between the sea and Mount Carmel was narrower."
  4. ^ Safran 2015, p. 455: "The interweaving of the city resembled other Muslim cities that had sprung up during the Ottoman period and which are characterized by the lack of planned and orderly construction."
  5. ^ a b Goren 1994, p. 57-81.
  6. ^ a b Goren 1999, p. 115–133.
  7. ^ Pringle & 1993LZ, p. 150-152: "Old Haifa, which in 1046 had been no more than a village, was by then deserted. Its ruins lay at the Nahr al-Matna (or Wadi Rushmiya), between New Haifa and the Palm Grove (Palmarea) around the Kishon estuary… The very precise details given in this charter allow the "old town" to be located at or near Tall Abu Hawam, as G. Beyer formerly proposed. This is identified as mutilac Calamon, a road station between Acre (Ptolemaida) and Shiqmona (Sicanminus) that is mentioned in AD 333 by the Bordeaux Pilgrim. Since the tell itself is shown virtually surrounded by water on the Survey of Western Palestine map c. 1877, it seems likelier that the main Roman settlement would have been on the road itself, a small distance to the south-west, than on the tell itself; its remains may even be represented by the subrectangular enclosure astride the road that is shown on the same map. Finds from the tell itself, however, include objects and pottery of the Roman, Byzantine and medieval periods, including the twelfth and thirteenth centuries… and Iron Age tombs extend along the foot of the mountain to the south-west."
  8. ^ Pringle & 1993LZ, p. 150: "Two Haifas, an old and a new town, are referred to in twelfth-century sources. New Haifa, or simply Haifa, was a fortified settlement (qasr or castrum/castellum) situated in what is today the south-eastern part of lower modern Haifa. it seems to have been established under the Fatimids towards the end of the eleventh century, and in 1100 it fell to Baldwin I after a month-long siege."
  9. ^ Pringle & 1993AK, p. 222: "… in July and August 1100 it withstood a month-long siege before capitulating to Baldwin I and a Venetian fleet. The fortifications which made such a defence possible seem to have been erected by the Fatimids in the intervening period, and account for its medieval name of Qasr Ḥaufā or Castrum (or Castellum) Cayphas. According to Albert of Aachen, it was inhabited largely by Jews, who paid tribute to the Fatimid caliph; they and the Muslim garrison, which had been sent to oppose the Crusaders, were massacred when the town fell."
  10. ^ Pringle & 1993AK, p. 222-223: "In the twelfth century, Haifa was the seat of a small lordship, initially dependent on the prince of Galilee; the church in the Carmel region, wedged between the larger territories of Acre and Caesarea, as a major port. It was eclipsed by Acre until as late as the early seventeenth century: in 1154, al-Idrīsī states that it served then as a sea outlet for Tiberias."
  11. ^ a b Pringle & 1993AK, p. 223: "After the Mamluk occupation, Haifa seems to have been virtually abandoned until the early seventeenth century. In the later eighteenth century, the town moved once more to a new site, this time some 2 km south-west of the twelfth-century centre. No trace of medieval Haifa has survived the neglect of the centuries, and since 1918, the rapid expansion of the port and city."
  12. ^ a b Yazbak 1998, p. 8-9: "During the Mamluk period… Haifa… village… belonged to the 'amal of Lajjün which was part of the niyaba of Şafad. In 1521, under the Ottomans, Haifa became part of the nahiya of the coast of 'Atlit which belonged to the liwa of Lajjün. Tabu registrations (daftar mufassal) of the năhiya of the coast of Atlit show that in 1538 Haifa comprised twenty households (hanes) and thirty-two in 1596... Fakhr al-Din al-Ma'ni (r. 1590-1633)… improved security in the ports of Sidon, Beirut and Acre... Haifa's castle and the surrounding coast had become the battleground for the Turabays and Fakhr al-Din… In 1624, after Fakhr al-Din's forces had withdrawn from Haifa, the Turabays went so far as to demolish the castle, thus slowing down commerce yet further... Expanding commercial activities, especially by French merchants, motivated the wali of the liwa of Lajjün, Ahmad al-Harithi, in 1631 to have Haifa rebuilt and resettled."
  13. ^ Yazbak 1998, p. 10: "Haifa now [from 1710] became a true haven for pirates and smugglers, and was even known as "little Malta." Vessels wishing to evade customs would unload in Haifa rather than in Acre or Sidon, and merchants exporting goods illegally, e.g., wheat and gunpowder, also did their business there… It was this combination of factors—the French consul's complaints, the damage to trade in Acre and Sidon, the loss of official revenue from Haifa port, the continuous Bedouin attacks and the activities of the pirates—which impelled the sultan to consider ways of strengthening and refortifying the town and harbor of Haifa. In 1716, by written degree, he ordered the wali of Sidon, Khalil Pashā, to construct a number of towers in the city to give it protection against the Christian pirates and smugglers along the Syrian coast."
  14. ^ Yazbak 1998, p. 13: "As soon as Dahir al-'Umar al-Zaydani had established his center of government in Acre, he set out to bring Haifa under his rule as well. He conquered it in the 1760s. His primary aims were to use the port and increase his revenues from customs levied there, to secure the bay from pirates and the town from Bedouin attacks, and to ensure his control of the coastal road connecting Acre with Haifa. The port of Haifa continued to attract ships headed for Acre even after Acre had been rebuilt and fortified because too much sand, rocks and accumulated debris still remained for its port to regain its former capacity."
  15. ^ Yazbak 1998, p. 13-15: "After Dähir al-Umar had taken hold of Haifa, he soon realized that its location neither offered the security he needed nor produced the economic benefits he had expected. As it was then, Haifa was built on a rather wide plain vulnerable from every angle and difficult to defend, all the more since it lacked walls. [Footnote: At the southwestern end of the bay, on an 860m-wide strip of coastland, to the south of Ras al-Kurüm] In 1761 'Uthman Pashā, wali of Damascus, with permission from the sultan to annex Haifa and its immediate surroundings to the vilayet of Damascus, sent thirty soldiers from Beirut, on a French vessel, in order to capture it. The attempt failed only because Dähir learnt of it in advance... Thus, directly after the 1761 incident, Dahir al-'Umar decided to rebuild Haifa on a site three kilometers to the southeast, and had his soldiers demolish the ancient town. The new site had all the advantages of the bay and none of the disadvantages of the original settlement - the new dock was protected from the winds by Mount Carmel, as the old dock had been, but the city built alongside it was no longer situated on the plain but rather on a narrow strip of land directly at the foot of the mountain which made it much easier to protect on the land side. The new town was called al-'Amãra al-jadida or, in the vernacular, Hayfa al-jadida, "New Haifa." Dähir put the old port out of use by having it blocked with rocks."
  16. ^ Yazbak 1998, p. 15: "A wall was built around the new town which had two gates, one on the east and the other on the west. In all, four towers were erected, two on the walls and two on the mountain slopes overlooking the town. Dähir also had a castle built, Burj al-Salãm. The new site was settled by the former residents of "Old Haifa" and by new-comers."
  17. ^ Safran 2015, p. 451–465.
  18. ^ Kolodney and Kallus
  19. ^ Mansour, Johnny. Haifa: City of the Carmel. Rimal Publications, 2016.
  20. ^ Seikaly 2000.
  21. ^ Kolodney & Kallus 2008, p. 332: "In comparison to Haifa’s 1944 population, estimated at 128,000 inhabitants (52% Jewish and 48% Arabs), by 1948, immediately after the war, the population was estimated at 98,284, of which 96% was Jewish. The circumstances encouraged the new State to demolish the ostensibly deserted Old City, except for the churches and mosques. The demolition left a large portion of the downtown area abandoned and in ruins, and it remains partially so even today."
  22. ^ Kolodney & Kallus 2008, p. 332.
  23. ^ a b Kolodney & Kallus 2008, p. 338.
  24. ^ Bshara 2017, p. 71-72
  25. ^ a b c Safran 2015, p. 455, 456-460.
  26. ^ Safran 2015, p. 457: "The square at the front of the mosque also served as the social centre of the city. In the twilight hours, the city residents used to gather... to hear storytellers."
  27. ^ Bshara 2017, p. 71: “In 1949, Israel decided to implement a project called Shikamona, under which the Arab city ought to be demolished, with the exception of places of worship… A public park was constructed on parts of the saraya land before it was, in turn, destroyed to make room for the central post office building. In 2002, the mayor of Haifa and the Israeli government decided to establish the government and administration offices building known as the Sail Tower on the site where the saraya and the plaza associated with it once stood.”
  28. ^ Pappe, Ilan (1 March 2010). "Haifa: planned death of a city". Le Monde diplomatique. Retrieved 30 November 2025. Destruction was meant to reinforce the "Jewish character" of the city and pre-empt the return of those expelled. That is why Haifa's eastern market was demolished. The market was the temporary shelter for the masses and a convenient target for the Carmeli's artillery. It was an Ottoman architectural gem of white dressed stone. All that has remained is a small corner, named the Turkish Market by the new city administration.
  29. ^ Ben-Zvi (2016). "Wa-Ma Nasayna (We Have Not Forgotten): Palestinian Collective Memory and the Print Work of Abed Abdi". Israel Studies. 21 (1): 183. doi:10.2979/israelstudies.21.1.183. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
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