Uzeir ( ar, عزير; he, עֻזֵיר) is an

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 in northern Israel. Located near

Nazareth Illit Nof HaGalil ( he, נוֹף הַגָּלִיל, lit. ''View of Galilee''; ar, نوف هچليل) is a city in the Northern District of Israel with a population of . Nof HaGalil was founded in 1957 as Nazareth Illit ( he, נָצְרַת עִלִ� ...

in the

Lower Galilee The Lower Galilee (; ar, الجليل الأسفل, translit=Al Jalil Al Asfal) is a region within the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The Lower Galilee is bordered by the Jezreel Valley to the south; the Upper Galilee to t ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

al-Batuf Regional Council Al-Batuf Regional Council ( ar, البطوف, he, מועצה אזורית אל-בטוף, ''Mo'atza Azorit al-Batuf'') is a regional council located on the southern fringe of the Beit Netofa Valley North of Nazareth within the Northern District ( ...

. In it had a population of .

History

Findings from the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

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 ...

and Early Islamic periods have been found in the village.

Ottoman era

It was mentioned in the Ottoman

defter A ''defter'' (plural: ''defterler'') was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Description The information collected could vary, but ''tahrir defterleri'' typically included details of villages, dwellings, household ...

for the year 1555–1556, as ''Mezraa'' land, (that is, cultivated land), called ''‘Uzayr'', located 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

Tabariyya Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Fou ...

of the '' Liwa'' of

Safad Safed (known in Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevat ...

. The land was designated as

Timar A timar was a land grant by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with an annual tax revenue of less than 20,000 akçes. The revenues produced from the land acted as compensation for military service. A ...

land. In 1799, a map from Napoleon's invasion by

Pierre Jacotin Pierre Jacotin (1765–1827) was the director of the survey for the ''Carte de l'Égypte (Description de l'Égypte)'', the first triangulation-based map of Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The maps were surveyed in 1799-1800 during the campaign in Eg ...

showed the place, named as ''El Qasr''. In 1838 it was noted as a

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 ...

village, ''el-'Aziz'', in the Nazareth District. In 1875, the French explorer

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Mino ...

reached the village and described it as consisting of about 20 houses on the side of a hill. A few old

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s were remains after an ancient site which had preceded the present village. A Muslim

Maqam MAQAM is a US-based production company specializing in Arabic and Middle Eastern media. The company was established by a small group of Arabic music and culture lovers, later becoming a division of 3B Media Inc. "MAQAM" is an Arabic word meaning a ...

with two small domes, dedicated to "Neby A'ouzeir" was close by. In

Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, and is the oldest known organization in the world created specifically for the study ...

's 1881 ''Survey of Western Palestine'', the village (called ''El Azeir'') was described as:

A stone village at the foot of the hill. The plain to the north is cultivated with cotton, barley, etc. There are about 150 Moslems in the village. Water is supplied by cisterns in the village, and a tank.

A population list from about 1887 showed that ''el Azeir'' had about 45 Muslim inhabitants.

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 authorities, 'Uzair had a population of 70, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Nazareth, p
38
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 88, still all Muslim, in 15 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population was 150 MuslimsDepartment of Statistics, 1945, p
8
/ref> while the total land area was 766

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, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 737 dunams were allocated for cereals, while 7 dunams were classified as built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
160
/ref>

State of Israel

In 1948, Uzeir was captured by the Israeli army during the second part of

Operation Dekel Operation Dekel ( he, מבצע דקל , Mivtza Dekel, Operation Palm Tree), was the largest offensive by Israeli forces in the north of Palestine after the first truce of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was carried out by the 7th Armoured Brigade ...

between 15 and 18 July. The village remained under

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

until 1966.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To 'Uzeir
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6
IAAWikimedia commons
{{al-Batuf Regional Council Arab villages in Israel Al-Batuf Regional Council Populated places in Northern District (Israel)