Zemer ( he, זמר, ar, زيمر) 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, ...

local council in the Central District 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 ...

. It is located in the

Arab Triangle The Triangle ( he, המשולש, ''HaMeshulash''; ar, المثلث, ''al-Muthallath''), formerly referred to as the Little Triangle, is a concentration of Israeli Arab towns and villages adjacent to the Green Line, located in the eastern Sha ...

area, between

Baqa al-Gharbiyye Baqa al-Gharbiyye ( ar, باقة الغربية, he, באקה אל-גרביה, בָּקַה אל-עַ'רְבִּיָּה; lit. ''Baqa West'') is a predominantly Arab city in the "Triangle" region of Israel near the Green Line. In 2003, Baqa al-G ...

and Bat Hefer on Road 574. Zemer is the result of a merger of four villages – Bir al-Sika, Ibtan, Marja and Yama - in 1988.

History

At Ibtan,

potsherd 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 ...

s dating from the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

, Roman and

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 ...

period have been found. Archaeological work in Yama brought to light settlement remains ranging from the

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) is part of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, a Neolithic culture centered in upper Mesopotamia and the Levant, dating to years ago, that is, 8800–6500 BC. It was typed by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon durin ...

(PPNB) to the Ottoman period.

Bronze Age Yaham

Middle

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

II findings from Yama have been tentatively identified to belong to the ancient site of Yaham. Yaham was mentioned in

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

sources regarding

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

Thutmose III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 2 ...

and Shoshenq I. The 15th century BCE annals describing the campaign of Thutmose III against a coalition of

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ite city-states recount how the pharaoh camped at Yaham before marching on through the pass of Aruna (today's

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 ...

), at whose exit he attacked and captured the city of

Megiddo Megiddo may refer to: Places and sites in Israel * Tel Megiddo, site of an ancient city in Israel's Jezreel valley * Megiddo Airport, a domestic airport in Israel * Megiddo church (Israel) * Megiddo, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel * Megiddo Junctio ...

Mamluk period

In 1265, two of the villages were mentioned among the estates which the

Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...

sultan Baibars granted his

emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...

s after he had defeated 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 ...

: The whole of Ibthan (''Bathan'') was given to his

Alam al-Din Sanjar al-Halabi al-Salihi'',

Ibn al-Furat Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. ʿAlī al-Miṣrī al-Ḥanafī () (1334–1405 CE), better known as Ibn al-Furāt, was an Egyptian historian, best known for his universal history, generally known as ''Taʾrīkh al-duwal wa � ...

, 1971, pp. 81, 209, 249 (map) while Yamma was divided equally between the emirs ''Saif al-Din Itamish al-Sa'di'' and ''Shams al-Din Aqsunqur''.

Ottoman period

Yama and Ibtan appeared in Ottoman tax registers compiled in 1596, 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 ...

s'' of Qaqun and Jabal Sami, respectively, of the Nablus '' Liwa''. Yama had a population of 18 Muslim households and 5 bachelors, while Ibtan was indicated as empty even though it paid taxes.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 127, p. 138. In 1882, in the 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 ...

'', only ''Khurbet Ibthan'' was noted, with "traces of ruins and a well."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p
196
/ref>

British Mandate

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bir al-Sikka had a population of 36, Ibthan 56 and Yamma 48, all

Muslims 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 ...

.Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p
28
/ref> Prior to 1948, all four villages were administratively related to the modern-day

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 ...

town of

Deir al-Ghusun Deir al-Ghusun ( ar, دير الغصون) is a Palestinian town in the Tulkarm Governorate, located eight kilometers northeast of the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank. The town is near the Green Line (border between Israel and the West ...

.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
74
/ref>

Modern Israel

Zemer's population at the end of 2009 was 5,700, and its jurisdiction is 8,203 dunams. The population increased to 6,375 in 2014. The mayor of Zemer is Yassin Harzalla.Continuing to improve personal security in the Arab sector
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * pp
439440

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
Wikimedia commons
{{Authority control Arab localities in Israel Triangle (Israel) Local councils in Central District (Israel)