Ara ( he, עָרָה; ar, عاره) is a village in the

Haifa District Haifa District ( he, מחוז חיפה, ''Mehoz Ḥeifa''; ar, منطقة حيفا) is an administrative district surrounding the city of Haifa, Israel. The district is one of the Districts of Israel, seven administrative districts of Israel, a ...

in northern Israel, located in the

Wadi Ara Wadi Ara ( ar, وادي عارة, he, ואדי עארה) or Nahal 'Iron ( he, נחל עירון), is a valley and its surrounding area in Israel populated mainly by Arab Israelis. The area is also known as the "Northern Triangle". Wadi Ara is ...

valley. Since 1985, 'Ara has been part of the

Ar'ara Ar'ara ( ar, عرعرة, he, עַרְעָרָה; lit. "Juniper tree")Palmer, 1881p.144/ref> is an Israeli Arab or Palestinian town in the Wadi Ara region in northern Israel. It is located southwest of Umm al-Fahm just northwest of the Green L ...

local council. It is located north of highway 65, between Ar'ara and Kfar Qara. Its population of 4,600 (as of 2004) is almost entirely

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

History

Burial caves along with white

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

pavements have been excavated at the village.Dauphin, 1998, p. 748 Pottery remains from the Middle Bronze IIb and forward have been found here.Zertal, 2016, pp
108113
/ref> Some of the burial caves have been dated to the Middle and Late Bronze Ages and the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

.Massarwa, 2010
Khirbat ‘Ara
/ref>

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

lamps, glass vases and ceramics have also been found. A building from the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

era have been excavated in the village. It included many pottery objects and a glass jar, all from the same period.

Ottoman era

'Ara, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in 1517, and in the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of 1596, the village appeared in the tax registers as being in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

'' of Shara of the '' Liwa'' of

Lajjun Lajjun ( ar, اللجّون, ''al-Lajjūn'') was a large Palestinian Arab village in Mandatory Palestine, located northwest of Jenin and south of the remains of the biblical city of Megiddo. The Israeli kibbutz of Megiddo, Israel was built o ...

. It had a population of 2

households and paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on wheat, barley, vines, and goats or beehives; a total of 1,800

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...

. In 1882, PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...

'' noted "traces of ruins on a prominent mound with a well."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, p
57
/ref>

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divisi ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Arah'' had a population 372, all MuslimsBarron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p
34
/ref> This had increased at the time of the 1931 census to 673 Muslims, in 115 occupied houses.Mills, 1932, p
87
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, 'Ara was counted with

, together they had a population of 2,290 Muslims,Department of Statistics, 1945, p
13
/ref> of which 800 were in 'Ara.Department of Statistics, 1945, p
15
note A File:'Ara 1942.jpg, 'Ara 1942 1:20,000 File:Qannir 1945.jpg, 'Ara 1945 1:250,000

Israel

'Ara was merged with the neighboring

in 1985.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To 'Ara
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8
IAAWikimedia commons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ara Haifa District Arab villages in Israel Populated places in Haifa District Wadi Ara