Ara (; ) is a village in the

Haifa District Haifa District () is an administrative district surrounding the city of Haifa in Israel. The district is one of the seven administrative districts of Israel, and its capital is Haifa. The district land area is 864 km2 (299.3 mi2). D ...

in northern Israel, located in the

Wadi Ara Wadi Ara (, ) or Nahal 'Iron (), is a valley and its surrounding area in Israel populated mainly by Arab citizens of Israel, Arab Israelis. The area is also known as the "Triangle (Israel), Northern Triangle". Wadi Ara is located northwest of t ...

valley. Since 1985, 'Ara has been part of the Ar'ara local council. It is located north of highway 65, between Ar'ara and Kfar Qara. Its population of 4,600 (as of 2004) is almost entirely

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

History

Burial caves along with white

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

pavements have been excavated at the village.Dauphin, 1998, p. 748 Pottery remains from the Middle Bronze IIb and forward have been found here.Zertal, 2016, pp
108113
/ref> Some of the burial caves have been dated to the Middle and Late Bronze Ages and the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

.Massarwa, 2010
Khirbat ‘Ara
/ref>

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

lamps, glass vases and ceramics have also been found. A building from the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

era have been excavated in the village. It included many pottery objects and a glass jar, all from the same period.

Ottoman era

'Ara, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1517, and in the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 1596, the village appeared in the tax registers as being in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, 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 divisi ...

'' of Shara of the '' Liwa'' of

Lajjun Lajjun (, ''al-Lajjūn'') was a large Palestine (region), Palestinian Arab village located northwest of Jenin and south of the remains of the biblical city of Tel Megiddo, Megiddo. The Israeli kibbutz of Megiddo, Israel was built 600 metres ...

. It had a population of 2

households and paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on wheat, barley, vines, and goats or beehives; a total of 1,800

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. In 1882, PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' noted "traces of ruins on a prominent mound with a well."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, p
57
/ref>

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 divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Arah'' had a population 372, all MuslimsBarron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p
34
/ref> This had increased at the time of the 1931 census to 673 Muslims, in 115 occupied houses.Mills, 1932, p
87
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, 'Ara was counted with Ar'ara, together they had a population of 2,290 Muslims,Department of Statistics, 1945, p
13
/ref> of which 800 were in 'Ara.Department of Statistics, 1945, p
15
note A File:'Ara 1942.jpg, 'Ara 1942 1:20,000 File:Qannir 1945.jpg, 'Ara 1945 1:250,000

Israel

'Ara was merged with the neighboring Ar'ara in 1985.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To 'Ara
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8
IAAWikimedia commons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ara Haifa District Arab villages in Israel Populated places in Haifa District Wadi Ara