Mirka ( ar, مِركة) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located Southwest of the city of

Jenin Jenin (; ar, ') is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate of the State of Palestine and is a major center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, Jenin had a population of app ...

in the northern West Bank. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ar, الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء الفلسطيني) is the official statistical institution of the State of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures a ...

, the town had a population of 1,555 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.

History

Just southeast of the village (at grid 172/199) is a site where

sherd In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well. Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...

s mainly from the Persian era have been found. Pottery

s from the early and late Roman, Byzantine, early

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 ...

and Medieval eras have been found at the village site.

Ottoman era

Mirka, like all of

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517. In the 1596 tax registers, it was part of the '' nahiya'' ("subdistrict") of Jabal ''Sami'', part of the larger Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of 9 households, all

s. The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, a press for olive oil or grape syrup, in addition to occasional revenues and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 3,780

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 the 1882 PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP), ''Merkeh'' is described as: "a hamlet on the side of a bare hill."

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, ''Merka'' had a population 142

s, increasing in the 1931 census to 167 Muslim, in a total of 32 houses.Mills, 1932, p
69
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, the population was 230 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
16
with a total of 4,396

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

s of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 546 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 1,300 dunams were for cereals, while a total of 26 dunams were built-up, urban land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. In 1961, the population was 303.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p
25
/ref>

Post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Mirka has been under

Israeli occupation Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...

, and according to the Israeli census of that year, the population of ''Mirka'' stood at 142, of whom 59 were registered as having come from Israel.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Mirka
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Jenin Governorate Villages in the West Bank Jenin Governorate Municipalities of the State of Palestine