Al-Mirr, also named Mahmudiyeh ("the property of Mahmud"),[1] was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict, which was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on February 1, 1948.
Al-Mirr
المرّ / المحمودية Molendina desubter Mirabellum | |
|---|---|
 Remains of Mill building | |
| Etymology: "The passage".[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map .jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map .jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Al-Mirr (click the buttons) | |
  Al-Mirr Location within Mandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 32°06′43″N 34°54′57″E / 32.11194°N 34.91583°E | |
| Palestine grid | 142/168 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Jaffa |
| Date of depopulation | February or March, 1948[4] |
| Area | |
• Total | 51 dunams (5.1 ha or 13 acres) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 170[2][3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
Location
editThe village was located 16.5 kilometers (10.3 mi) northeast of Jaffa, on the southern bank of the al-'Awja river. A short, secondary track linked it to the railway line running between Ras al-Ayn and Petah Tikva.[5]
History
editA mill and dam built at this site in late Roman/early Byzantine period were repaired in Crusader times. The mill was mentioned in Crusader sources in 1158/9 C.E.[6]
Excavations of the mill have recovered several 14th-century coins, which indicate that it was in use in the Mamluk period.[7]
Ottoman era
editThe modern village was founded during the reign of the Mahmud II (1808–39), the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and was also known as "Al Mahmudiyya".[5] In 1856 the village was named el Mir on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.[8]
In 1870 Victor Guérin visited and described the village (which he called Ma'moudieh): "It contains at most two hundred inhabitants, who live in houses built of adobe. Several mills are set in motion by the cascading waterfalls along the Nahr el-A'oudjeh. A small bridge over the river makes it possible to cross it at this point".[9] An Ottoman village list from about the same year indicated 30 houses and a population of 69, though the population count included men only.[10][11]
The PEF's Survey of Western Palestine in 1882 described al-Mirr as "a small mud village, with mills close to the river."[12]
British Mandate era
editDuring the British Mandate for Palestine, the population was recorded as 75 Muslims in the 1922 census,[13] and the village was classified as a hamlet in the Palestine Index Gazetteer.[5] In the 1931 census Mahmudiya had 101 inhabitants, still all Muslims, in 25 houses.[14]
In the 1945 statistics the population numbered 170 Muslims,[2] who worked in agriculture and with transportation. Cultivated lands in the village in 1944-45 included 2 dunums planted with citrus and bananas, and 31 dunums planted with cereals.[5][15] 2 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[16]
1948, and aftermath
editBefore the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, al-Mirr's inhabitants left on February 3, 1948, out of fear of Jewish attack.[17] According to Benny Morris, some of the inhabitants returned on February 15, but fled for the final time one month later.[17] However, according to Walid Khalidi, citing The New York Times, the villagers apparently returned yet again, as Jewish forces attacked the village in mid-May.[18] The 13 May attack would have occurred around the same time as an attack into the area by Irgun.[5]
The remains of a Turkish bridge lies where the village was.[5]
Andrew Petersen, an archaeologist specializing in Islamic architecture, visited the mill in 1991. He found that it had probably been built in several phases. Presently, it consists of a rectangular building, 60 m. NS x 10 m EW, on two levels.[19] At the lower level are at least 13 parallel water inlets. These inlets are of two different types, (indicating different construction date); a flat slab roof, and pointed vaulted roof. Between the two levels are holes in the floor, presumably this is where the millstones were connected to the turbines.[19]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ a b Palmer, 1881, p.216
- ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 27
- ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 52
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #199. Also gives cause of depopulation
- ^ a b c d e f Khalidi, 1992, p.250.
- ^ Röhricht, 1893, RRH No 330; cited in Pringle, 1997, p. 72
- ^ Shkolnik, 1994, p32. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p. 222
- ^ Kiepert, 1856, Map of Southern Palestine
- ^ Guérin, 1875, p. 371
- ^ Socin, 1879, p. 157
- ^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 137, noted 26 houses
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, II:252
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. 20
- ^ Mills, 1932, p. 14
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 96
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 146
- ^ a b Morris, 2004, p. 129
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 250, citing The New York Times, 13.05.1948 and 13.05.1948. The NYT statement is based on British Army statement, which, according to Khalidi, incorrectly refers to the village of Antipatris
- ^ a b Petersen, 2001, p. 222-223
Bibliography
edit- Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Clermont-Ganneau, C.S. (1895). Études d'archéologie orientale (in French). Paris: E. Bouillon. (pp. 192−196: "Les Trois−Ponts, Jorgilia")
- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
- Guérin, V. (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center. Archived from the original on 2018-12-08. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
- Hartmann, M. (1883). "Die Ortschaftenliste des Liwa Jerusalem in dem türkischen Staatskalender für Syrien auf das Jahr 1288 der Flucht (1871)". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 6: 102–149.
- Khalidi, W. (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
- Morris, B. (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Petersen, Andrew (2001). A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology). Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-727011-0.
- Pringle, D. (1997). Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521-46010-7.
- Röhricht, R. (1893). (RRH) Regesta regni Hierosolymitani (MXCVII-MCCXCI) (in Latin). Berlin: Libraria Academica Wageriana.
- Shkolnik, Y. (1994); Urban River, EGMI, 34, March–April, pp. 16–34, 71. Cited in Petersen, 2001.
- Socin, A. (1879). "Alphabetisches Verzeichniss von Ortschaften des Paschalik Jerusalem". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 2: 135–163.
External links
edit- Welcome To al-Mirr
- al-Mirr (Mahmudiya), Zochrot
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13: IAA, Wikimedia commons
- Al-Mirr, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
