Al-Mazar, Jenin

Coordinates: 32°31′38″N 35°21′33″E / 32.52722°N 35.35917°E / 32.52722; 35.35917
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the depopulated Palestinian village in the District of Jenin. For other uses, see Mazar.
Al-Mazar
المزار
Village
Etymology: "shrine", "a place one visits"[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Mazar, Jenin (click the buttons)
Jenin
Date of depopulation30 May 1948[4]
Area
[3]
 • Total14,501 dunams (14.501 km2 or 5.599 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total270[2][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesPrazon, Meitav, and Gan Ner

Al-Mazar (

Mamluk rule over Palestine (13th century). An agricultural village, its villagers traced their ancestry to nomads descended from a Sufi mystic from Jaba', Syria.[5][6]

Al-Mazar was depopulated during the 1948 Palestine war, and incorporated into the newly established state of Israel.[5] The Israeli villages of Prazon, Meitav, and Gan Ner were established on al-Mazar's former lands.

Location

The village was located on the flat, circular peak of the mountain known in biblical scripture as Mount Gilboa, and locally as Mount al-Mazar or Djebel Foukou'ah ("Mount of Mushrooms"), with steep slopes on all sides excepting the southeast.[5][7] It was joined to the neighbouring village of Nuris by a dirt path.[5]

History

The village may have been named

Mamluks and the Mongols in 1260.[5]

The villagers traced their origins to the al-Sadiyyun nomads, who in turn were descended from Shaykh Sad al-Din al-Shaybani (died 1224), a prominent

Sufi mystic from the Jaba' village on the Golan.[5][6] Another tradition traces their ancestry to Libya.[6]

Ottoman era

During the period of

military campaign in Egypt.[8] Pierre Jacotin named the village Nazer on his map from that campaign.[9]

In 1870,

Carmel Mountains; to the south, the mountains around Jenin; and to the east, before the Jordan River, what he calls the ancient country of Galaad. He notes that the name of Mount Gilboa is preserved in the name of the village of Djelboun, also situated on the mountain. Descending the mountain towards the west-southwest, at the base of the village of al-Mazar, he notes the presence of a spring of the same name, Ain el-Mezar, and on the slopes of this side of the mountain, which are less steep, there were olive trees and wheat being cultivated.[7]

In the 1882 the

Muslim pilgrimage."[10]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, al-Mazar had a population of 223, all Muslims,[11] increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 257, still all Muslims, in a total of 62 inhabited houses.[12] The village was home to Sheik Farhan al Sadi, a prominent leader in the 1936 Arab revolt in Palestine.[5] In 1937, at the age of 75, he was executed by the British authorities for his participation in the revolt.[13]

Agriculture was the backbone of the village economy, which was based on grain, fruit, legume, and olive cultivation. In the 1945 statistics the population of Al-Mazar was 270 Muslims,[2] with a total of 14,501 dunams of land.[3] Of this, 5,221 dunums were used for cereals, 229 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 68 dunums were for olives,[5][14] while 9 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[15]

1936 revolt.[16]

1948 and aftermath

On 19 April 1948,

1948 Arab–Israeli war.[17] However, the specific orders for al-Mazar were either not acted upon, or did not succeed at once, as the village was not occupied until 30 May 1948.[4][5] By that time, it had been captured after an attack by Israeli soldiers from the Golani Brigade, along with the village of Nuris, which lay at the foot of the mountain.[8]

Following the war, the area was incorporated into the

Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described what remained of al-Mazar in 1992:

The site is overgrown with thorns and cactuses and strewn with stone rubble. None of the village houses or landmarks remains. Almond trees and cactuses grow on parts of the village lands. The hilly lands are used as grazing areas, and other parts are covered with forest.[18]

Folklore

According to local tradition, the ancestral mother of the local al-Sadiyyun clan, Halima al-Sa'adi, was a Bedouin woman who breastfed the prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It is said that the prophet's mother entrusted the infant to a Bedouin woman to breastfeed him. Members of the clan say Halima nursed Muhammad in the house of his uncle following his mother's death when Muhammad was six years old.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Palmer, 1881, p. 165
  2. ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 16 Archived 2018-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b c Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 54 Archived 2012-02-29 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b Morris, 2004, p. xvii, village #122. Also gives cause of depopulation
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Khalidi, 1992, p. 337
  6. ^ a b c d זהרוני, אילן (1996). "משפחות קדושות ועושי נפלאות באזור הגלבוע" [Holy families and miracle workers in the Gilboa region]. In שילר, אלי (ed.). דת ופולחן וקברי קדושים מוסלמים בארץ-ישראל. אריאל: כתב עת לידיעת ארץ ישראל (in Hebrew). ירושלים: הוצאת ספרים אריאל. p. 170.
  7. ^ a b Guérin, 1874, p.325
  8. ^ a b Cline, 2002, pp. 161-2, 169
  9. ^ Karmon, 1960, p. 169 Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 85
  11. ^ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Jenin, p. 29
  12. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 69
  13. Time magazine
  14. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 99
  15. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 149
  16. ^ "Documents, Correspondence & Photos - Image 133/316". Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  17. ^ Morris, 2004, p. 346
  18. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 338

Bibliography

External links

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