Al-Mirr
| Al-Mirr | |
|---|---|
|
Remains of Mill building | |
  Al-Mirr | |
| Name meaning | "The passage".[1] |
| Subdistrict | Jaffa |
| Coordinates | 32°06′43″N 34°54′57″E / 32.11194°N 34.91583°ECoordinates: 32°06′43″N 34°54′57″E / 32.11194°N 34.91583°E |
| Palestine grid | 142/168 |
| Population | 170[2][3] (1945) |
| Area | 51[2] dunams |
| Date of depopulation | February or March, 1948[4] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
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.
Location
The 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
A mill and dam built at this site in late Roman/early Byzantine period were repaired in Crusader times and some of the remains of both can still be seen.[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
The 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 the late 19th century, al-Mirr was described as "a small mud village, with mill close to the river."[8]
British Mandate era
During the British Mandate for Palestine, the population was recorded as 75 Muslims in the 1922 census,[9] 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.[10]
In 1945 the population numbered 170, and 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][11] 2 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[12]
1948, and aftermath
Before the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, al-Mirr's inhabitants left on February 3, 1948 out of fear of Jewish attack.[13] According to Benny Morris, some of the inhabitants returned on February 15, but fled for the final time one month later.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[15]
See also
| Old mill of Al-Mirr, presently in Yarkon-Tel Afek Park | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
References
- 1 2 Palmer, 1881, p.216
- 1 2 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 52
- ↑ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 27
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #199. Also gives cause of depopulation
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Khalidi, 1992, p.250.
- ↑ Pringle, 1997, p. 72
- ↑ Shkolnik, 1994, p32. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p. 222
- ↑ 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
- 1 2 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
- 1 2 Petersen, 2001, p. 222-223
Bibliography
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Al-Mirr. |
- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, H. H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
- Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Khalidi, Walid (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, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7.
- 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). 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-727011-0.
- Pringle, Denys (1997). Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521 46010 7.
- Shkolnik, Y. (1994); Urban River, EGMI, 34, March–April, pp. 16–34, 71. Cited in Petersen, 2001.
External links
- Welcome To al-Mirr
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13: Wikimedia commons
- Al-Mirr, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
