Al-Mirr

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]
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A 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
Palestine grid	142/168
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Jaffa
Date of depopulation	February or March, 1948[2]
Area [3]
• Total	51 dunams (5.1 ha; 13 acres)
Population  (1945)
• Total	170[4][3]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Fear of being caught up in the fighting

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. 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

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 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

During 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,^[4] 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]

Al-Mirr 1941 1:20,000

Al-Mirr 1945 1:250,000 (top centre)

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.^[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

Old mill of Al-Mirr, presently in Yarkon-Tel Afek Park

• 
• 
•