Dayr al-Hawa is not mentioned in 16th centuryrecords, and was likely first settled in a later period.[6]
In 1838,Edward Robinson called it a "lofty" village, on the brink of a valley.[7] It was further noted as aMuslim village, located in the District ofel-Arkub, southwest of Jerusalem.[8] In 1856 the village was namedD. el Hawa onKiepert's map of Palestine published that year.[9]
Victor Guérin, visiting the village in 1863, wrote thatDayr al-Hawa "probably owes its name,monastery of the wind, to its high position".[10]
AnOttoman village list from around 1870 showed thatDer el-Hawa had 32 houses and a population of 103, though the population count included men, only.[11][12]
In 1883, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine described it as "a village standing high, on a knoll rising from a high ridge, with a deep valley to the north. It has several high houses in it. On the west is a good spring. The ground is covered with brushwood all round the place."[13]
In 1896 the population ofDer el-hawa was estimated to be about 162 persons.[14]
In the1945 statistics the village had a population of 60 Muslims,[3] with a total of 5,907dunums of land.[4] Of this, 58 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 1,565 forcereals,[17] while 4 dunams were built-up land.[18]
Amosque was located in the western part of the village and there was ashrine for a localsage known as al-Shaykh Sulayman. Near the ruins of the old village now stands the Israelimoshav,Nes Harim,[19] however, it is not on village land. (It is on the land ofBayt 'Itab.)[20]
^abGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics.Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.56
^Morris, 2004, p.xx, village #339. Also gives cause of depopulation.
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". inShomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 364
^Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, pp.326,340,342,426
^Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.125
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1870s map.jpg)
1940s map.jpg)
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1940s with modern overlay map
