Mazra'a

The Arabic al-mazra'a (p. mazari'), meaning "the sown land" or "farm", is a relatively common place name used to refer to cultivated lands outside of and dependent upon a primary settlement.Pringle, 1998, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y0tA0xLzwEC&pg=PA30 30].R. Marom, “S[https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0zf1p3d1 ukayk and al-Summāqah: Mamluk Rural Geography in the Northern Jawlān/Golan Heights in the Light of Qāytbāy’s Endowment Deeds],” in K. Raphael and M. Abbasi (ed.s), The Golan in the Mamluk and Ottoman Periods: an Archaeological and Historical Study: Excavations at Naʿarān and Farj, In Honour of Moshe Hartal, Yigal Ben Ephraim and Shuqri ‘Arraf, Annual of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion Volume xiv (2024): 60 In Crusader times, the village was known as le Mezera, according to Victor Guérin, while to Arabs in medieval times, it was known as al-Mazra'ah.Guérin, 1880, p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr00gugoog#page/n203/mode/1up 163].

In 1253, during the Crusader era, John Aleman, the Lord of Caesarea, leased Mazra'a to the Hospitalliers.Delaville Le Roulx, 1883, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/lesarchiveslabib00dela#page/185/mode/1up 185]-186, No. 82, cited in Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. [https://archive.org/stream/regestaregnihie00rhgoog#page/n330/mode/1up 324], No. 1233; cited in Pringle, 2009, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tKwienZI03MC&pg=PA242 242]

Mazra'a is mentioned in the 1283 treaty between the Mamluk Sultan Qalaun and the Latin Kingdom of the Crusaders that controlled some territories in the Levant between 1099 and 1291. At the time of the treaty, Mazra'a was said to be still under Crusaders control.Barag, 1979, p. 205, #25; Cited in Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21620056/Gazetteer_5_K-R 216]Khamisy, 2013, p. 94, #33 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.Pringle, 1997, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC&pg=PA70 70]

Mazra'a was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine and in 1596, the tax registers listed Mazra'a as forming part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Acca (Acre). The population is recorded as 27 Muslim households, and the villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on wheat, barley, cotton, in addition to "occasional revenues," goats, beehives, and water buffaloes; a total of 5,352 akçe. 14/24 of the revenue went to a waqf.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 194. Also cited in Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21620056/Gazetteer_5_K-R 218]

In the 1760s, Mazra'a was one of five villages in nahiya ("subdistrict") of Sahil Akka ("Acre coast"), which was under the direct rule of Zahir al-Umar, the independent governor of the Galilee, as one of his Viftlik estates. As such, villagers were exempt from paying the usual Ottoman taxes. (Other Viftlik estates were Judayda, Samiriyya, al-Makr, and Julis.) After the death of Zahir al-Umar in 1775, these villages were abandoned for a time, becoming known as places of lawlessness. Jezzar Pasha, the new governor of Acre, first returned the villages to their local sheiks, later dividing the income collected from them between himself and the local official.Cohen, 1973, pp. 133-135. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21620056/Gazetteer_5_K-R 218]

File:AcreNE1799.jpg, 1826. See also Siege of Acre (1799)]]

A map by Pierre Jacotin from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named as El Masar,Karmon, 1960, p. [http://www.jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,_Y_1960_Jacotin_Map_(IEJ_10).pdf 162]. while Napoleon Bonaparte himself described El-Mazara as a village of hundreds of Christians.Correspondance inédite officielle et confidentielle de Napoléon Bonaparte (Paris, 1819), vol. 4, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cGsPAAAAQAAJ&q=muthualis&pg=PA290 290]

Victor Guérin, who visited the place in 1875, described Mezra'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 the Middle Ages, if not earlier. Not far from it lay a number of columns that once ornamented a church. Close to the village was a khan said to have been built by Jezzar Pasha from which an aqueduct traveled through the valley under high arches.

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the place as "A stone and conglomerate village, having 200 Moslems, situated on the plain, with olives, pomegranates, mulberries, and arable land; the aqueduct supplies good water."Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/147/mode/1up 147]

A population list from about 1887 showed that el Mazra'h had about 185 inhabitants, all Muslim.Schumacher, 1888, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n197/mode/1up 172]

File:Mansion-Mazraih.jpg

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities Mazra'a had a population of 218; all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Acre, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n38/mode/1up 36] increasing in the 1931 census to a population of 320; 307 Muslims, 5 Christians and 8 Baháʼís, in a total of 78 houses.Mills, 1932, p. [https://web.archive.org/web/20111201210326/http://www.archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 102]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Mazra was 430; 410 Muslims, 10 Christians and 10 classified as “others”.Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [https://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p04.jpg 4]

The land area was counted together with those of Shavei Zion, Ein Sara and Ga'aton and totalled 7,407 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [https://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Acre/Page-040.jpg 40] A total of 737 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 1,631 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 4,033 used for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [https://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Acre/Page-080.jpg 80] while 113 dunams were built-up (urban) land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [https://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Acre/Page-131.jpg 131]

Mazra'a is one of the few Palestinian Arab coastal towns in the Western Galilee to have remained populated after the 1948 Arab–Israeli war.Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA253 253] It served as a collection point for villagers expelled from the neighbouring villages of al-Zeeb and al-Bassa, assaulted and depopulated during Operation Ben-Ami beginning on 13 May 1948, two days before the official outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. This caused the population to increase from 460 in 1946 to 620 in 1951.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1080/00263208708700721 | author = Charles S. Kamen | title = After the Catastrophe I: The Arabs in Israel, 1948–51 | journal = Middle Eastern Studies | volume = 23 | year = 1987 | pages = 453–495 | issue = 4}}

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.{{cite journal | author = Sabri Jiryis | author-link = Sabri Jiryis | title = The Land Question in Israel | journal = MERIP Reports | issue = 47 | year = 1976 |pages = 5–20, 24–26}}

The medieval building is located on the east side of the aqueduct, in the old part of the village. The masonry, 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-cut troughs found in the smaller room indicated that it might have been a stable.Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21620056/Gazetteer_5_K-R 218]

The building is a square enclosure, located about 800 m. north of the village, and it is associated with the construction of the Kabri aqueduct at the beginning of the nineteenth century.Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21620056/Gazetteer_5_K-R 219] On the NE and the NW corners of the courtyard are staircases leading to the flat roof. The south part of the building consists of a vaulted hall, with an arcade of six arches facing the courtyard.

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.Petersen, 2001, pp. [https://www.academia.edu/21620056/Gazetteer_5_K-R 219]-220.

• Arab localities in Israel
• Bahá'í World Centre buildings

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{{refend}}

• [https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/il-lcmzr.html Mazra'a (Israel)]
• [https://www.palestineremembered.com/GeoPoints/al_Mazra_a_746/index.html Welcome To al-Mazra'a]
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8366 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.03.jpg Wikimedia commons]

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