Mazra'a
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|---|---|
| Hebrew transcription(s) | |
| • ISO 259 | Mazraˁa |
| • Also spelled | "El Masar",[1] "el Mezrah",[2] Mazraʻih, Mazra'ah (official) |
![House in Mazra'a, where Baha'u'llah lived 1877-1879. During 1932-1949 it was the home of General and Mrs. McNeill[3]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMazraihHouseRoses.jpg) House in Mazra'a, whereBaha'u'llah lived 1877-1879. During 1932-1949 it was the home of General and Mrs. McNeill[3] | |
  Mazra'a | |
| Coordinates:32°58′59″N35°5′51″E / 32.98306°N 35.09750°E /32.98306; 35.09750 | |
| Grid position | 159/265PAL |
| Country |  Israel |
| District | Northern |
| Government | |
| • Head of Municipality | Fuaad Awad (since 11/2013) |
| Population (2023)[4] | |
• Total | 3,874 |
| Ethnicity | |
| • Arabs | 99.7% |
| • Jews and others | 0.3% |
| Name meaning | "The sown land"[5] |
Mazra'a (Arabic:المزرعة,Hebrew:מַזְרַעָה) is anArab village andlocal council in northernIsrael, situated betweenAcre andNahariyya east of the Coastal Highway that runs along theMediterranean coast. The local council was founded in 1896 and was incorporated into theMatte Asher Regional Council in 1982, before proclaiming itself an independent local council again in 1996. In 2023 it had a population of 3,874.[4]
TheArabical-mazra'a (p.mazari'), meaning "the sown land" or "farm", is a relatively commonplace name used to refer to cultivated lands outside of and dependent upon a primary settlement.[6][7] In Crusader times, the village was known asle Mezera, according toVictor Guérin, while toArabs in medieval times, it was known asal-Mazra'ah.[8][9]
In 1253, during theCrusader era,John Aleman, theLord of Caesarea, leased Mazra'a to theHospitalliers.[10]Mazra'a is mentioned in the 1283treaty between theMamluk SultanQalaun and theLatin Kingdom of theCrusaders that controlled some territories in theLevant between 1099 and 1291. At the time of the treaty, Mazra'a was said to be still underCrusaders control.[11][12] A 50 metre long wall to the west of the village centre, dating from the period, is thought to be the remnants of a fortified structure, mentioned by travel writers.[9]
Mazra'a was incorporated into theOttoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine and in 1596, thetax registers listed Mazra'a as forming part of thenahiya (subdistrict) of Acca (Acre). The population is recorded as 27Muslim households, and the villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% onwheat,barley,cotton, in addition to "occasional revenues," goats, beehives, and water buffaloes; a total of 5,352akçe. 14/24 of the revenue went to awaqf.[13]
In the 1760s, Mazra'a was one of five villages innahiya ("subdistrict") ofSahil Akka ("Acre coast"), which was under the direct rule ofDaher al-Umar, the independent governor of theGalilee, as one of hisViftlik estates. As such, villagers were exempt from paying the usual Ottoman taxes. (Other Viftlik estates wereJudayda,Samiriyya,al-Makr, andJulis.) After the death of Daher al-Umar in 1775, these villages were abandoned for a time, becoming known as places of lawlessness.Jezzar Pasha, the new governor ofAcre, first returned the villages to their local sheiks, later dividing the income collected from them between himself and the local official.[14]
A map byPierre Jacotin fromNapoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named asEl Masar,[15] whileNapoleon Bonaparte himself described El-Mazara as a village of hundreds of Christians.[16]
Victor Guérin, who visited the place in 1875, describedMezra'a as a village with a very small number of inhabitants, sepulchral grottos,cisterns, and a number of houses built of stone. The remains of a small castle fort are dated by him to theMiddle Ages, if not earlier. Not far from it lay a number of columns that once ornamented a church. Close to the village was akhan said to have been built by Jezzar Pasha from which anaqueduct traveled through the valley under high arches.[8]
In 1881, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the place as "A stone and conglomerate village, having 200 Moslems, situated on the plain, witholives,pomegranates,mulberries, and arable land; the aqueduct supplies good water."[17]
A population list from about 1887 showed thatel Mazra'h had about 185 inhabitants, all Muslim.[18]
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authoritiesMazra'a had a population of 218; all Muslims,[19] increasing in the1931 census to a population of 320; 307 Muslims, 5 Christians and 8Baháʼís, in a total of 78 houses.[20]
In the1945 statistics the population of Mazra was 430; 410 Muslims, 10 Christians and 10 classified as “others”.[21]The land area was counted together with those ofShavei Zion, Ein Sara andGa'aton and totalled 7,407dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[21][22] A total of 737 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 1,631 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 4,033 used for cereals,[23] while 113 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[24]
Mazra'a is one of the fewPalestinianArab coastal towns in theWestern Galilee to have remained populated after the1948 Arab–Israeli war.[25] It served as a collection point for villagers expelled from the neighbouring villages ofal-Zeeb andal-Bassa, assaulted and depopulated duringOperation Ben-Ami beginning on 13 May 1948, two days before the official outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[25] This caused the population to increase from 460 in 1946 to 620 in 1951.[26]
The land area of 312 hectares owned by Mazra'a in 1945 was reduced to 30 hectares in 1962, for reasons that included an expropriation of 155 hectares by the Israeli government in 1953–54.[27]
In 2022, 98% of the population was Muslim and 2% was Christian.[28]
The medieval building is located on the east side of theaqueduct, in the old part of the village. Themasonry, composed of large (average size 1m x 0.5m) blocks, is consistent with a medieval date. Petersen, who visited the place in 1991 and 1994 and examined it, found two chambers, one long (11.4 x 6.35m) chamber aligned east-west, and one smaller chamber aligned north-south. Rock-cuttroughs found in the smaller room indicated that it might have been astable.[9][29]
The building is a square enclosure, located about 800 m. north of the village, and it is associated with the construction of theKabriaqueduct at the beginning of the nineteenth century.[30] On the NE and the NW corners of thecourtyard are staircases leading to the flat roof. The south part of the building consists of avaulted hall, with anarcade of sixarches facing the courtyard.[30]
This building is located about 1 km north-east of the village, just south of the Kabri aqueduct. The design is very similar to the Khan al Waqif, and it is assumed that they date from the same age.[31]
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