Kudna

Kudna was known to the Crusaders as Kidna. An archaeological site in Kudna contained remnants of a fort, the foundations of buildings, previously inhabited caves, and cisterns. About half a dozen khirbas lay in the vicinity.Khalidi, 1992, p. 218 The remains of a fortified building, possibly a hall-house, from the Crusader era is still standing.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/288/mode/1up 288]Warren and Conder, 1884, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00warruoft#page/443/mode/1up 443]Pringle, 1997, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC&pg=PA62 62]

In 1838, during the rule of the Ottoman empire, Edward Robinson noted Kudna as a small Muslim village, located in the Gaza district. He also saw the remains of a large ancient building, the western wall was still standing, some {{convert|150|ft|m|abbr=on|adj=mid|long}}, built of large stones.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. II, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearc00smitgoog#page/n376/mode/1up 354]Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/119/mode/1up 119]

In 1863 the French explorer Victor Guérin found Kudna to have five hundred inhabitants. It was located on a hill whose summit was rocky and whose sides were covered with olive and fig trees interspersed with tobacco. On the highest point of the hill were the remains of an old castle, along sixty paces on fifty seven wide. Guérin found the lower courses being ancient, possibly Byzantine; the upper layers more recent.Guérin, 1869, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongog02gu#page/367/mode/1up 367]-368

An Ottoman village list of about 1870 indicated 12 houses and a population of 40, though the population count included men only.Socin, 1879, p. [https://archive.org/stream/zeitschriftdesde01deut#page/157/mode/1up 157]Hartmann, 1883, p. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_BZobAQAAIAAJ#page/n951/mode/1up 143], also noted 12 houses In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Kudna as a small village situated on a low hill and surrounded by olive trees. The walls of a Crusader Castle rose from the middle of the village.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/258/mode/1up 258]. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 218

In 1896 the population of Kidna was estimated to be about 228 persons.Schick, 1896, p. [https://archive.org/stream/zeitschriftdesde19deut#page/n230/mode/1up 123]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kudna had an entirely Muslim population of 281,Barron, 1923, Table V, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n12/mode/1up 10] increasing in the 1931 census to 353 inhabitants.Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 33]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Kudna was 450, all Muslims, who owned 15,744 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Hebron/Page-050.jpg 50] 825 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 6,505 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Hebron/Page-093.jpg 93] while 15 dunams were built-up (urban) land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Hebron/Page-143.jpg 143]

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Israeli forces of the Giv'ati Brigade, commanded by Yigal Allon in Operation Yo'av assaulted the village on 22 October 1948.{{Cite web|title=Welcome to Kudna|publisher=Palestine Remembered|access-date=2007-12-04|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Hebron/Kudna/index.html}} Though the village was defended by volunteers from the Arab Liberation Army, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and local militia men, it was overtaken by the Israeli forces and the village inhabitants fled. Benny Morris reports that Kudna was one of a number of villages, including Zikrin, Ra'na, Deir ad Dabbun and Ajjur, where most of the people fled before the arrival of the Givati Brigade; however those that did remain were expelled eastwards.Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA466 466]

Following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel and kibbutz Beit Nir was established in 1955 to the west of the village site, on what had been village land.

The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village remaining structures in 1992: "The houses have been reduced to levelled debris hidden beneath an overgrowth of wild vegetation. One can see the stones that served as fences for home gardens. Cactuses and carob, fig, and olive trees grow on the site."

{{reflist|25em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book | editor =Barron, J.B. | title = Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922|url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922 | publisher = Government of Palestine | year = 1923}}
• {{cite book|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|author-link1=Claude Reignier Conder|last2=Kitchener|first2=H.H.|author-link2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|year=1883|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp03conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|volume=3}}
• {{cite book|title=Village Statistics, April, 1945 |url=http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/Hebrew/library/Pages/BookReader.aspx?pid=856390|author=Department of Statistics|year=1945|publisher=Government of Palestine}}
• {{cite book|last=Guérin|first=V.|author-link=Victor Guérin|title=Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine|url=https://archive.org/details/descriptiongog02gu|volume=1: Judee, pt. 2|year=1869|publisher= L'Imprimerie Nationale|location=Paris|language=fr}}
• {{cite book|title=Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|first=S.|last=Hadawi|author-link=Sami Hadawi|year=1970|publisher=Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center}}
• {{cite book|title=All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_By7AAAAIAAJ |first=W.|last=Khalidi|author-link=Walid Khalidi|year=1992|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies|isbn=0-88728-224-5}}
• {{cite journal | last = Hartmann | first =M.| author-link = Martin Hartmann | title = Die Ortschaftenliste des Liwa Jerusalem in dem türkischen Staatskalender für Syrien auf das Jahr 1288 der Flucht (1871) | journal = Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins | volume = 6 | pages = 102–149 | url =https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_BZobAQAAIAAJ | year = 1883}}
• {{cite book | editor = Mills, E. | title = Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas |url=https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas | publisher = Government of Palestine | location = Jerusalem | year = 1932}}
• {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&q=benny+morris |first=B.|last=Morris |author-link=Benny Morris |year=2004 |title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited|isbn=978-0-521-00967-6 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
• {{cite book|last=Palmer|first=E.H.|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund}}
• {{cite book|title= Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC| last= Pringle |first= D.|author-link=Denys Pringle|year=1997|isbn=0521-46010-7|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
• {{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=E.|author-link1=Edward Robinson (scholar)|last2=Smith|first2=E.|author-link2=Eli Smith|year=1841|url=https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearc00smitgoog |title=Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838| location=Boston|publisher=Crocker & Brewster|volume=2}}
• {{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=E.|author-link1=Edward Robinson (scholar)|last2=Smith|first2=E.|author-link2=Eli Smith|year=1841|url=https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft |title=Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838| location=Boston|publisher=Crocker & Brewster|volume=3}}
• {{cite journal | last = Schick | first =C.| author-link = Conrad Schick | title = Zur Einwohnerzahl des Bezirks Jerusalem | journal = Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins | volume = 19 | pages = 120–127 | url =https://archive.org/details/zeitschriftdesde19deut | year = 1896}}
• {{cite journal | last = Socin | first =A.| author-link = Albert Socin | title = Alphabetisches Verzeichniss von Ortschaften des Paschalik Jerusalem | journal = Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins | volume = 2 | pages = 135–163 | url = https://archive.org/details/zeitschriftdesde01deut | year = 1879}}
• {{cite book|last1=Warren|first1=C.|author-link1=Charles Warren|last2=Conder|first2=C.R.|author-link2=Claude Reignier Conder |year=1884|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00warruoft |title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Jerusalem |location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund }}

{{refend}}

• [https://www.palestineremembered.com/Hebron/Kudna/index.html Welcome To Kudna, District of Hebron]
• [http://www.zochrot.org/en/village/49231 Kudna], Zochrot
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 20: [https://web.archive.org/web/20131227120801/http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8382 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.20.jpg Wikimedia commons]
• [http://www.alnakba.org/villages/hebron/kudna.htm Kudna], at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War}}

Category:Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War

Category:District of Hebron