Hunin

Hunin occupies a prominent position on the Naftali Ridge in Upper Galilee, near the northern entrance to the modern village of Margaliot.[3][2] A Palestine Exploration Fund survey placed the castle on a slight rise in a gap between hills descending steeply toward the Huleh Valley and described it as a place of considerable natural strength on the ancient road from Tyre to Banias.[6]

Modern accounts give two approximate elevations. Maariv places the fortress at 625 metres above sea level and about 400 metres above the Hula Valley, while Ynet places it at 700 metres above sea level and about 500 metres above the valley.[3][1]

The Crusader fortress at Hunin, known as Château Neuf, was probably constructed around 1107 CE.[1] C. R. Conder identified Château Neuf with Hunin and placed it in a defensive line along the Jordan side of Galilee, together with Belvoir, after the loss of the castle above the Jordan springs at Banias, which had been held from 1130 to 1165.[7] A Palestine Exploration Fund survey compared Hunin's Crusader masonry with that of Tibnin, which the report dates to 1107, and found nothing indicating that Hunin was older.[6]

The survey relays a medieval account stating that, after the Battle of Hattin, Saladin sent a commander to besiege Hunin while traveling toward Tyre. The garrison, reduced by famine, surrendered, after which Saladin granted the castle to a chief named in the survey's transcription as Beder ed Din Widram el Barizny.[6] A separate historical summary says the fortress was captured at other stages by Nur al-Din and by a brother of Saladin before its eventual destruction by the Mamluk ruler Baybars.[3]

The village that developed beside the castle was predominantly Shiʿite. Following the 1923 demarcation of the Palestine–Lebanon border, Hunin was identified as the largest of six Shiʿite villages retained within British-mandate Palestine.[4] During the 1948 War of Independence, these villages were abandoned between April and November. The cited account also states that Hunin and other villages were used as bases by supporters of the Mufti and Fawzi al-Qawuqji's Arab Salvation Army.[4]

Hunin's residents maintained close social and economic relations with Shiʿite communities across the border in Lebanon, while their connections with other communities in mandatory Palestine were comparatively loose.[4] In 1932, approximately 3,000 Shiʿites lived collectively in the six villages retained within mandatory Palestine; the source does not provide a separate figure for Hunin.[4]

A reproduction of the 1945 village statistics contains a Safad Sub-District entry spelled "Hinin (includes Hila and ‘Udeisa)." It gives an estimated population of 1,620 at the end of 1944 and records, as of April 1, 1945, a total area of 14,224 dunums: 13,623 Arab-owned, 486 Jewish-owned, and 115 public.[8] The table does not establish that Hinin and Hunin were the same locality.

Following the War of Independence, the cited account says the former villagers became refugees in Lebanon, received Lebanese citizenship, and were integrated into the Shiʿite population of southern Lebanon.[4] A 2005 Lebanese newspaper estimate cited by that account placed the refugee community associated with the villages at approximately 45,000; it is not a current or independently verified count.[4]

Hunin's historical importance was tied to regional travel and commerce. Modern accounts describe the fortress as guarding an international trade route between Damascus and Tyre, protected by a chain of Crusader castles.[1] The nineteenth-century Palestine Exploration Fund survey instead described Hunin as standing on the ancient road from Tyre to Banias.[6]

The village's cross-border social and economic life was oriented toward Shiʿite communities in Lebanon.[4] In the twenty-first century, the site's cultural role has centered on archaeology, military heritage, and public recreation through the restoration of the fortress grounds and the creation of a hiking trail.[5]

The principal surviving monument is Hunin Castle. The Palestine Exploration Fund measured the fortress at 740 feet east–west by 340 feet north–south. On its western side, a 40-foot-wide rock-cut ditch enclosed a 240-foot-square citadel.[6] The survey recorded two entrances: a southern causeway and an eastern gateway retaining Crusader construction. By the nineteenth century, the interior and most of the Saracenic walls and buildings were ruins, and the roof of a mosque on the southern side had collapsed.[6]

Hunin also appears in historical-geographical discussions of the biblical town of Achshaph. The Jewish Encyclopedia records that Robinson identified ruins at Kesaf, or Iksaf, northwest of Hunin and south of a branch of the Nahr el-Kasimiye, as Achshaph.[9] The article notes that the proposed identification agrees with one biblical passage but not another and therefore remains uncertain.[9]

In 2023, soldiers and commanders of Brigade 769 completed a year-long restoration and visitor-access project at Hunin Castle under the "Defense Forces for Nature" initiative.[3][5] Hundreds of soldiers cleared and cleaned the site, pruned vegetation, planted trees, and installed benches, seating areas, and informational signs.[5] The work included opening a walking route through the castle's moat.[3][5]

The project was initiated by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Uri Berger, who emphasized the value of bringing soldiers and the public closer to Israel's ancient heritage.[1] Participating organizations included the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Nature and Parks Authority, Jewish National Fund, and Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.[1][5] The project opened the restored grounds near Margaliot to hikers and families, although local access may remain subject to prevailing security and site conditions.[3][5]

The circumstances under which Hunin was abandoned in 1948 are not established by village-specific documentation. The cited account presents several possibilities—including departure on the residents' own initiative, fear of the IDF or of being caught in the fighting, and IDF security considerations—without determining which applied to Hunin.[4]

Sources differ on the fortress's elevation: Maariv gives approximately 625 metres above sea level and 400 metres above the Hula Valley, while Ynet gives approximately 700 metres and 500 metres, respectively.[3][1] Descriptions of the associated road also vary. Ynet and Maariv describe a Damascus–Tyre route,[1][3] the Palestine Exploration Fund records a Tyre–Banias road,[6] and Globes describes the fortress as overlooking a route between Tyre and Sidon.[2]

The approximately 45,000 refugee figure comes from a 2005 Lebanese newspaper estimate cited by another source and is neither current nor independently verified.[4] Likewise, the available statistical table does not conclusively establish that its 1945 entry for "Hinin" refers to Hunin.[8]