Kaukab Abu al-Hija

It is possible to discern the ruins of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine settlements on Kaukab's location, and it might be the location of the town Kokhva, mentioned in the Talmud,[6] however, many places in the area shared the name, and one cannot know which one was Kokhva.[7]

Kaukab was founded next to a grave attributed to Hussam ad-Din Abu al-Hija, one of Saladin's lieutenants, and is holy to the local Muslims. It is thus named Kaukab Abu al-Hija to differentiate it from several other Arab villages with the same name.[6][8][9]

The village was one of the "Al-Hija" villages founded by relatives of Emir Hussam al-Din Abu al-Hija.[9] Abu al-Hija ("the Daring") was an Iraqi Kurd and commander of the Kurdish forces that took part in Sultan Saladin's conquest of the Crusader Kingdom in the 1180s. He was renowned for his bravery, and commanded the garrison of Acre at the time of the Siege of Acre (1189–1192).

Abu al-Hija apparently returned to Iraq, but several members of his family remained in the country under orders from Saladin, and these family members settled on spacious tracts of land that they were granted in the Carmel region, in the Lower, Eastern and Western Galilee, and in the Hebron Highlands.[9] Other al-Hija villages were Hadatha and Sirin in the Lower Galilee, Ruweis in Western Galilee, and Ein Hawd on Mount Carmel. By tradition the residents today still claim to be blood relations of al-Hija.[9]

Emir Hassam returned to Iraq after Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, and he apparently died and was buried there. His relatives who stayed behind in Palestine however, very much aware of his fame, declared Kaukab to be his burial place.[9]

In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers under the name of "Kawkab Bani Krad" as being in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Akka, part of Safad Sanjak, with a population of 41 households and 8 bachelors, all Muslim. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, summer crops, fruit trees, as well as on goats and/or beehives; a total of 1,194 akçe. 1/6 of the revenue went to a Waqf.[10][11]

In 1875, the French explorer Victor Guérin visited Kaukab, and described it as a small village with about 250 inhabitants, situated on a mountain at an altitude of 425 meters above the sea level. He also noted a waly dedicated to Sheikh Ali. "Wali" is the term used by 19th-century scholars for a maqam, a Muslim shrine or mausoleum dedicated to a holy man[7]

A population list from about 1887 showed that Kaukab had about 110 Muslim inhabitants.[12]

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kaukab had a total population of 222, all Muslim,[13] which had increased in the 1931 census to 285, still all Muslim, in a total of 57 houses.[14]

In 1938, during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, the village was destroyed and its threshing floors burnt by British troops during a revenge mission.[15]

In the 1945 statistics, the population was 490, all Muslims,[16] with 18,674 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[17] Of this, 332 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 1,657 for cereals,[18] while 10 dunams were built-up land.[19]

During Operation Hiram (29-31 October 1948) the village surrendered to the advancing Israeli army. Many of the villagers fled north but some stayed and were not expelled by the Israeli soldiers.[20] The village remained under Martial Law until 1966.

In 1973, the population had grown to 1,340. Kaukab was declared a local council in 1984.[3]

In 2020, a tender was offered by the Ministry of Tourism and Israel Land Administration for the construction of a hotel and tourist resort in the village. The compound includes a plan for 120 accommodation units and space for shops, pools, parks, sports fields and more. The decision was made in light of a rise in pilgrim tourism to Israel which creates new opportunities for the Galilee thanks to its religious, archeological and natural sites. Kaukab joins Shibli–Umm al-Ghanam, where a tender for hotel construction in a Bedouin village was offered for the first time in history.[21]