Yajur (, ''Yâjûr'') was a Palestinian Arab village located southeast of

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 25, 1948.

History

Fragments of glass, and tombs with

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek σάρξ ' meaning "flesh", and φ� ...

are located in the old village area today. Yajur was mentioned as part of the domain of the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

during the

hudna A ''hudna'' (from the Arabic meaning "calm" or "quiet") is a truce or armistice. It is sometimes translated as " cease-fire". In his medieval dictionary of classical Arabic, the '' Lisan al-Arab'', Ibn Manzur defined it as: : "''hadana'': he ...

(truce) between the Crusaders based in

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

and the

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

sultan Al Mansur Qalawun declared in 1283.Barag, 1979, p. 208

Ottoman era

1799 Events January–March * January 9 – British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces an income tax of two shillings to the pound, to raise funds for Great Britain's war effort in the French Revolutionary Wars. * January ...

, it was noted on the map that

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

compiled that year, though it was misnamed as ''Beled el Charq'' (=

Balad al-Sheikh Balad al-Sheikh (traditional transliteration) or Balad ash-Shaykh (most recent form of transliteration; ) was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village located just north of Mount Carmel, southeast of Haifa. Currently the town's land is loc ...

). In 1872, the Ottoman authorities sold land in Yajur to two Lebanese businessmen, Sursock and Salim al-Khuri.Khalidi, 1992, p. 202 In 1875,

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

found the village to have about 200 inhabitants, and that it was surrounded by fig and olive trees. A population list from about 1887 showed that Yajur had about 150 inhabitants; all Muslims. In the early twentieth century the village, named ''El-Yadschur'', was noted with 153 inhabitants. The village had a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

. It was also noted that the villagers no longer owned their land, as it was owned by a ''selim el-churi'', who planned to start silk production in the village.

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 ...

Yajur had a population of 202; all

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 ...

s, while in the 1931 census it was counted with Nesher; together they had 1,449 inhabitants; 554 Muslim, 26 Christians and 858 Jews, in addition to 11 with no religion, in a total of 291 houses. The area was acquired by the Jewish community as part of the Sursock Purchase. The Lebanese landowners sold land in Yajur to the Zionists, who in turn established the

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

of Yagur in 1922 on what had traditionally been village land. The village population in the 1945 statistics was 610; 560 Muslims and 50 Christians, with a total of 2,720 dunams of land. Of this, Arabs used 57 dunums of land for plantations and irrigable land, 261 for

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

s, while 18 dunams were classified as built-up land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
142
/ref>

1948 and aftermath

Following the war the area was incorporated into the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. In 1992, the village site was described: "No traces of the houses remain on the site, which is marked by numerous fig trees and a smaller number of olive trees." Kibbutz Yagur uses part of Yajur's former land for agriculture, with cement factories on another part.

Gallery

File:משק יגור - כפר ג'ידרו-JNF029010.jpeg, Yajur 1925 File:יגור - הבניינים של האפנדי הערבי בעל הקרקע הקודם.-JNF043465.jpeg, Yajur 1926 File:Balad al-Sheikh.jpg, Yajur (Yagur)

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 by Royal Engineers of the War Department. The Fund is the oldest known organization i ...

(PEF) map. 1875 File:Balad esh Sheikh 1942.jpg, Yajur 1942 1:20,000 File:Haifa 1945.jpg, Yajur 1945 1:250,000

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * *Mülinen, Egbert Friedrich von 1908,
Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Karmels
' "Separateabdruck aus der Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palëstina-Vereins Band XXX (1907) Seite 117-207 und Band XXXI (1908) Seite 1-258." * *

External links

al-Yajur
Zochrot *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 5
IAAWikimedia commons

from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center {{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Haifa