Zir'in ( ar, زرعين, also spelled ''Zerein'') was a
Palestinian Arab
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
village of over 1,400 in the
Jezreel Valley
The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...
, located north of
Jenin. Identified as the ancient town of
Yizre'el (Jezreel), it was known as Zir'in during Islamic rule, and was near the site of the
Battle of Ain Jalut
The Battle of Ain Jalut (), also spelled Ayn Jalut, was fought between the Bahri Mamluks of Egypt and the Mongol Empire on 3 September 1260 (25 Ramadan 658 AH) in southeastern Galilee in the Jezreel Valley near what is known today as the S ...
, in 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'') ...
s halted
Mongol
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
expansion southward. Under the Ottomans, it was a small village, expanding during the British Mandate in the early 20th century. After its capture by
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 ...
in 1948, Zir'in was destroyed. The Israeli kibbutz of
Yizre'el
Yizre'el ( he, יִזְרְעֶאל) is a kibbutz in north-eastern Israel. Located in the Jezreel Valley near Afula, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gilboa Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
After the Bahri dynasty, Mamlu ...
was established shortly after on the village lands of Zir'in.
Etymology
Derived from a common Canaanite root meaning to "sow", Yizre'el translates in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
as "God give seed" and its Arabic name "Zir'in" has a similar connotation.
[Khalidi, 1992, p.339.]
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 ...
referred to it as "le Petit Gerin" or "the Little Jenin" to distinguish it from
Jenin, which they called "le Grand Gerin".
In Latin literature of the time it was called "Gezrael", "Iezrael", "Parvum Gerinum" or "Zarain".
[Pringle, 1997]
p. 56
History
Bronze and Iron Ages
Zir'in is identified with the Canaanite town of
Yizre'el
Yizre'el ( he, יִזְרְעֶאל) is a kibbutz in north-eastern Israel. Located in the Jezreel Valley near Afula, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gilboa Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
After the Bahri dynasty, Mamlu ...
mentioned in the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
.
Crusader period
A vaulted building and other structures remain from a castle that belonged to the
Templars
, colors = White mantle with a red cross
, colors_label = Attire
, march =
, mascot = Two knights riding a single horse
, equipment ...
by the 1180s.
During the
Battle of al-Fule,
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
has sent skirmishers to raid then Crusader-held Zir'in in October 1183.
[Lyons and Jackson, 1984, p.207.] In September 1184, Saladin and his
Ayyubid forces passed through the village on their way to
Nablus.
Mamluk period
After the
Mamluks took control of the area in the late 13th century, the Mamluk sultan
Zahir Baybars defeated the
Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
in the
Battle of Ain Jalut
The Battle of Ain Jalut (), also spelled Ayn Jalut, was fought between the Bahri Mamluks of Egypt and the Mongol Empire on 3 September 1260 (25 Ramadan 658 AH) in southeastern Galilee in the Jezreel Valley near what is known today as the S ...
in 1260, at a site just west of Zir'in. After the battle, Baybars ordered the renovation of the village
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
.
During the Mamluk period the village was one of the stops on the
postal route between Jenin and
Irbid.
Ottoman period
In 1517, Zir'in 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) ...
along with the rest of
Palestine, and in 1596 it was a part of 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 ...
'' ("subdistrict") of Jinin, a part of
Sanjak 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 ...
. A village of 4
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 ...
households, it paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on wheat, barley, beehives, and goats; a total of 5,000
akçe.
[Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 160] In the 17th and 18th centuries the village was most likely under the control of the
Turabay, an Arab tribe that ruled part of northern Palestine on behalf of the Ottomans at the time. In 1799,
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 E ...
named the village ''Zezin'' on his map from the
French campaign in Egypt and Syria
The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in the Ottoman territories of Egypt and Syria, proclaimed to defend French trade interests, to establish scientific enterprise in the region. It was the ...
.
In 1838,
Edward Robinson said Zir'in contained about 20 houses.
In 1882, 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 ...
'' found Zir'in as consisting of about thirty houses, with the most prominent family living in a tall, tower-like house in the village center. A spring and well supplied Zir'in with water. The Ottomans founded a boys' school in the village.
British Mandate
In the
1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Zir'in had a population of 727; 723 Muslims and 4 Christians,
[Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Jenin, p]
29
/ref> all 4 Christians were Orthodox.[Barron, 1923, Table XV, p]
47
/ref> In the 1931 census this had increased to a population of 978 persons; 975 Muslims and 3 Christians, in 239 inhabited houses.[Mills, 1932, p]
72
/ref>
In the early 20th century, Zir'in was the birthplace of Mahmud Salim, a leader of the 1936-39 revolt in Palestine. The majority of the village's houses were constructed of mud and were clustered together, but house building and renovation also expanded. The commercial center of Zir'in consisted of the Mosque of Baybars, a marketplace, and the Ottoman school. Residents mainly cultivated grains, fruits, and vegetables.
In the 1945 statistics, the population was 1,420, all Muslims,[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p]
17
/ref> with a total of 23,920 dunams of land. In 1944/45 a total of 22,595 dunums of village land was allocated to 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,[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
100
/ref> while 81 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
150
/ref>
1948 war
Prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in March 1948, Zir'in's defenders, the Arab Liberation Army
The Arab Liberation Army (ALA; ar, جيش الإنقاذ العربي ''Jaysh al-Inqadh al-Arabi''), also translated as Arab Salvation Army, was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji. It fought on the Arab side in the ...
(ALA), reported that the Haganah
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...
had attempted several times to capture the village, but their assaults were suspended for ten days after heavy losses. On April 19, Zir'in was briefly captured, and most of the village houses were ordered destroyed, while the remainder were to be used to accommodate Jewish troops.
Controlled by the ALA, Zir'in was located in a strategic commanding position overlooking the towns of Afula
Afula ( he, עפולה Arabic: العفولة) is a city in the Northern District of Israel, often known as the "Capital of the Valley" due to its strategic location in the Jezreel Valley. As of , the city had a population of .
Afula's ancient ...
and Baysan. The fear of Iraqi forces from Gesher in the east and Jenin in the south to form a "spearhead" and capture the Baysan and Jezreel valleys convinced the Jews to take Zir'in. After a mortar barrage to soften its defense, the village was captured on May 28 by the Thirteenth Battalion of the Golani Brigade with "little resistance". Women and children fled weeks prior to its capture, and after word had spread of its capture, the residents of nearby Nuris
Nuris ( ar, نورِِِس) was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jenin. In 1945, Nuris had 570 inhabitants. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on 29 May 1948 under Operation Gideon.Morris, 2004, p.346/ref> The Israeli moshav o ...
and al-Mazar also abandoned their villages. The ALA unsuccessfully attempted to recapture Zir'in two days later.[Tal, 2004, p.258.]
On July 10, the Iraqi Army based in Jenin, intended to recapture the village, but were unable to break through Israeli lines, followed by another unsuccessful attempt on July 19, after the second truce of the war. The final armistice line was drawn just to the south of Zir'in.
Israel
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 ...
. The kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
of Yizre'el
Yizre'el ( he, יִזְרְעֶאל) is a kibbutz in north-eastern Israel. Located in the Jezreel Valley near Afula, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gilboa Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
After the Bahri dynasty, Mamlu ...
was established on the northwestern side of Zir'in in August 1948.[Khalidi, 1992, p.340.]
The tower house
In the 19th century this was described as the Castle of Zir'in, which was used as an inn
Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...
(''manzil'') for travellers. A representative for the Palestine Antiquities Museum (PAM), Mr Husseini, visited Zir'in in 1941, and noted: "''S-E. of Church in a lane a part of a wall about 8m. long with two rough courses of masonry...S. within house of Abdul Karim Abdul Hadi in an open yard more building foundations are visible to N. two medieval vaults known as el-Uqud.''"[Petersen, 2001, p]
322
/ref>
Denys Pringle
Reginald Denys Pringle (born 20 September 1951) is a British archaeologist and medievalist. He is best known for his numerous publications regarding Crusader castles and Crusader-era churches in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the 12th-13th century Crusa ...
believes the vaults are part of the destroyed Crusader castle, but according to Petersen, they could equally well be from the Mamluk time. Petersen, who inspected the place in 1994, notes that the appearance of the building indicate that it was constructed over a long period of time.
Geography
Situated on a plateau off the Mount Gilboa
Mount Gilboa ( he, הַר הַגִּלְבֹּעַ, translit=Har hagGīlbōaʿ ; ar, جبل جلبوع ''Jabal Jarbūʿ'' or ''Jabal Fuqqāʿa''), sometimes referred to as the Mountains of Gilboa, is the name for a mountain range in Israel. It ...
, Zir'in was not much higher than the surrounding Jezreel Valley
The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...
at its southern and western sides, with an average elevation of above sea level. To the north and east was Wadi al-Jalut. Located north of Jenin, it was the northernmost locality in the Jenin District, and alongside a lateral road linking two highways; one towards Jenin, the other towards Baysan
Beit She'an ( he, בֵּית שְׁאָן '), also Beth-shean, formerly Beisan ( ar, بيسان ), is a town in the Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below sea level.
Beit She'an is be ...
.
Nearby localities included Nuris to the southeast, Sandala to the south, Zububa
Zububa ( ar, زبوبا) is the northernmost Palestinian village in the West Bank, located 10 km Northwest of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had an estimated ...
to the southwest, Sulam
Sulam ( ar, سولم; he, סוּלַם) is an Arab citizens of Israel, Arab village in north-eastern Israel. Known in ancient times as ''Shunama'' and ''Shunem'', it is first mentioned in the Amarna Letters in the 14th century BCE. Archaeologica ...
to the north, and Qumya
Qumya ( ar, قوميه), was a Palestinian village of 510 inhabitants when it was depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Located 12.5 kilometers north of Baysan, the village was assaulted by the forces of the Golani Brigade on 26 March ...
to the northeast.Satellite view of Zir'in
Palestine Remembered. In 1945, it consisted of 23,920 dunams. The majority of the village lands (20,964 dunams) were allocated for cereals, while the built-up area of Zir'in consisted of 81 dunams.
Demographics
Zir'in had a population of 22 in 1596 according to Ottoman records. In 1922, a British Mandate survey recorded a population of 722,
Palestine Remembered. rising to 978 in the 1931 census. According to Sami Hadawi's population survey, Zir'in had a population of 1,420,[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
55
/ref> an increase of roughly 1.5% since 1931. All of the inhabitants were 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 ...
s. Refugees from Zir'in and their descendants numbered 10,116 in 1998.
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
* (p
311
323
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
p.172
*
* (pp
276
278)
*
* ( pp
269
272)
*
*
*
External links
Zir'in
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 9
IAA
Wikimedia commons
at 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 ...
Zir'in
by Rami Nashashibi (1996), Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society.
Zir'in, ''circa'' 1900
{{Authority control
Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Jenin