Al-Mazar was a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

village located northeast of

al-Sarafand Al-Sarafand ( ar, الصرفند) was a Palestinian Arab village near the Mediterranean shore south of Haifa. In Ottoman tax records, it is shown that the village had a population of 61 inhabitants in 1596. According to a land and population surv ...

.Morris, 2004, p
248
/ref> In 1945, it had a population of 210.

History

The village name ''

Mazar Mazar of Al-Mazar may refer to: *Mazar (mausoleum); often but not always Muslim mausoleum or shrine. Places *Mazar (toponymy), a component of Arabic toponyms literally meaning shrine, grave, tomb, etc. *Mazar, Afghanistan, a village in Balkh Pro ...

'', which is Arabic for "shrine", "a place one visits", was probably meant to commemorate the many people who were killed and buried there in the wars against the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

.Khalidi, 1992, p.178 A population list from about 1887 showed that ''el Mizar'' had about 85 inhabitants; all

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 ...

British Mandate period

In the

British Mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to: * Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan. * Mandatory P ...

period, 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 ...

‘’Al Mazar’’ had a population of 134; all

s. In the 1931 census, Al-Mazar was counted together with

Khirbat Al-Manara Khirbat Al-Manara was a Palestinian Arab village in the Haifa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on May 21, 1948. It was located 19 km south of Haifa. History In the 1931 census Khirbat Al-Manara was counted t ...

, Ijzim and Qumbaza. The total population was 2,160; 88 Christians, 2,082 Muslims, in a total of 442 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population was 210, all MuslimsGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
14
/ref> with a total of 7,976 dunams of land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
48
/ref> Of this, 5 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 473 were plantations or irrigable land, 3,750 were for

cereal A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...

s, while 39 dunams were classified built-up, (urban), land. Atlit 1932

1948 and aftermath

The village was first raided by the Israel Forces (IDF) on May 17 during the

1948 Arab-Israeli war Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

, with the aim of "rendering he villageunworthy of use." The IDF encountered only 10-20 Arabs, who ran away, and the troops proceeded to "burn what could be burned." Within days of the IDF's withdrawal, some of the villagers had returned, Arab militants and civilians. The village was permanently depopulated as a result of another IDF military assault in mid-July 1948.Morris, 2004, p
438
/ref> Following the war the area was incorporated into the

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and the kibbutz of

Ein Carmel Ein Carmel ( he, עֵין כַּרְמֶל, ''lit.'' Carmel Spring) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located near Atlit, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof HaCarmel Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The kibbutz was estab ...

was established partially on al-Mazar's land in 1950.

Shaykh Yahia/Ahya shrine

The

Maqam (shrine) A Maqām ( ar, مقام) is a shrine built on the site associated with a religious figure or saint, typical to the regions of Palestine and Syria. It is usually a funeral construction, commonly cubic-shaped and topped with a dome. Maqams are as ...

was located on the lower slopes of a hill.Petersen, 2001, p
216
/ref> In 1881,

E. H. Palmer Edward Henry Palmer (7 August 184010 August 1882), known as E. H. Palmer, was an England, English oriental studies, orientalist and explorer. Biography Youth and education Palmer was born in Green Street, Cambridge the son of a private schoo ...

described the name as possibly coming from St. John of Tyre, who was noted in this direction in 1187. Ahya is also a name for

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

. The shrine was surveyed by Ronen and Olami in 1964–65. They found a two roomed structure, facing east–west. The eastern room seemed the oldest; it was a

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

d rectangular room made of

kurkar Kurkar ( ar, كركار / he, כורכר) is the term used in Palestinian Arabic and modern Hebrew for the rock type of which lithified sea sand dunes consist. The equivalent term used in Lebanon is ramleh.

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 ...

pottery fragments. The western room was built of limestone.Ronen and Olami, 1978, as given in Petersen, 2001, p
216
/ref> The shrine has now been destroyed, and the area has been converted into orchards.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *Ronen, Avraham. Olami, Ya'aqov.(1978): (in Hebrew): Atlit map, Archaeological Survey of Israel. (p. 63-65) * *

External links

al-Mazar (Haifa)

Zochrot Zochrot ( he, זוכרות; "Remembering"; ar, ذاكرات; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian ''Nakba'' ("Catastrophe"), including the 1948 Pa ...

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 5
IAAWikimedia commons

from the

Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center () is a leading Palestinian arts and culture organization that aims to create a pluralistic, critical liberating culture through research, query, and participation, and that provides an open space for the community ...

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Haifa