Talk:Balad al-Sheikh

message: There is some text from Khalidi: "The town is named after Sheikh Abdullah as-Sahli, a renowned Sufi, who was granted the taxes collected from the village by Sultan Salim II."  I have a different version: "The al-Sahlis were the oldest ashraf (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad) family in Haifa. The founder of the family, sheikh Suhayl, lived in Balad al-Shaykh during the time of Sultan Selim I (1517). He was considered a walliyy, that is, a holy man, and had been given as waqf dhurri (family endowment) the villages of Balad al-Shaykh and Rushmiya, near Haifa, by the sultan." (Mahmoud Yazbak,  The Arabs in Haifa: From Majority to Minority, Processes of Change (1870-1948), Israel Affairs, Volume 9, Issue 1 & 2, 2003, Pages 121 - 148.  It could be that both stories are true, but it seems more likely that they are versions of the same story.  Yazbak is a specialist in the subject (at Haifa University) so I'm inclined to favor his version.  What do you think?  Zerotalk 04:45, 27 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: In this book Yazbak cites original sources for this information, so I propose to use it in replacement of the existing text. Zerotalk 04:49, 27 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Nice catch Zero. Agreed that Yazbak is a better source for this information. Go ahead and make the edit. Tiamuttalk 07:46, 27 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Selim I or Selim II 

message: Some problems with the paragraph on 1947–1948:  (1) One cannot call someone "controversial" just like that.  It needs at least a source and a reason for including it.  (2) I don't believe Robin Miller's "Research guide" is a reliable source by Wikipedia standards. The sources he cites should be consulted independently.  (3) We mention that Miller cites Wilson and Khalidi for the "14 killed" version, but Khalidi actually says "more than 60".  I have Wilson's book somewhere but can't find it at the moment. The figure of 14 comes only from Wilson's book, which gives no source for it.  (4) The source given for Yitzhaqi is a translation of a newspaper story.  Here is the relevant part of the translation:
: In the evening of January 30-31, 1947 a mixed force of the First Battalion of Palmach and the 'Carmel' Brigade under the command of Haim Avinoam attacked the village of Balad al-Shaikh (now Tel Hanan). In this operation more than sixty of the enemy, most of them non-combatants, were killed in their houses. According to a report written by the commander of the operation, 'the units silenced the heavy firing by their own heavy firing. The attacking units then entered the village and started operating inside the houses, and, because of the heavy firing in the rooms, it was impossible to avoid hitting women and children also.' (See The Book of the Palmach, p. 55).
So it really does say "Jan 30–31", which is a problem for us since it is clearly a mistake but we can't tell whose mistake (Yitzhaqi, Yediot reporter, or translator). Apart from the bad date, it is not correct to call this a different account.  Actually it agrees with Khalidi and is expanded on in Morris's book (which is the best source available).  Also note that the translation does not use the nonsensical "Palmach and Haganah" that appears in our report of it. Zerotalk 23:22, 17 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sources for late 1947 attack 

message: Sigh, I should have known by now not to trust Peterens sources: he gives Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p.   124....but that is about "Sheik el Beled", literally the elder of the village, and the village being Taybeh, -Huldra (talk) 10:48, 31 May 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Robinson, and Petersen. 

message: Just placing links to sources here, before major re-write, Huldra (talk) 23:36, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Adding sourses: