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Ijzim

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Ijzim

Ijzim (Arabic: إجزم) was a Palestinian village in the Haifa Subdistrict of British Mandate Palestine, 19.5 kilometers south of Haifa, that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Many residents resettled in Jenin after Operation Shoter on 24 July 1948.

Families from Ijzim include the Madis, the Nabhanis and the Alhassans. Collectively, these families owned over 40,000 dunams (40 km2) of land, making the village one of the richest in Palestine.

The site of the village shows evidence of habitation since prehistoric times. It flourished especially in the Byzantine and Mamluk periods. Multiple oil presses indicate a rural economy with olives as a major product.

In 1517 Ijzim was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine. During the 16th and 17th centuries, it belonged to the Turabay Emirate (1517-1683), which encompassed also the Jezreel Valley, Haifa, Jenin, Beit She'an Valley, northern Jabal Nablus, Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe, and the northern part of the Sharon plain.

In 1596, Ijzim was a village in the nahiya of Shafa (liwa' of Lajjun), with a population of 10 Muslim households; an estimated 55 persons. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and olives as well as on other types of produce, such as goats and beehives; a total of 12,000 akçe.

The village appeared as Egzim on the map that Pierre Jacotin compiled during Napoleon's invasion of 1799.

Ijzim was the home of the Madi family and the largest locality in the region during part of the 18th and first half of the 19th century. The Madi family hailed from the coastal region south of Mount Carmel and the western slopes of Jabal Nablus. At the time, the Madi were the most influential family in the southern Galilee and on the coast. The family was particularly influential between the end of Jazzar Pasha´s rule (1804) and the Egyptian occupation (1831). Mas'ud al-Madi was the governor of Gaza at the time of the Egyptian invasion. He was killed in the peasant revolt in 1834, while other clan members were imprisoned. Some fled to Constantinople. After the return of the Ottomans, some family members were appointed as sheikhs or governors in Ijzim, Haifa, and Safad. By the 1850s, the al-Madi family of Ijzim no longer constituted a local power like some families of Nablus or Hebron.

In 1859 British Consul Rodgers visited the village and estimated that there were 1,000 inhabitants cultivating 64 feddans of land. The French explorer Victor Guérin visited in 1870 and found "an ancient marble column at the door of a mosque; in the valley below the village a large square well, built with regular stones and surmounted by a vaulted construction. Near the well a birket, no longer used, and partly filled up, and close at hand the foundations of an ancient tower, measuring 15 paces by 10, and built with large masonry." In 1873, the Survey of Western Palestine surveyed three ancient rock-cut tombs north of the village. The most known native families there was the (Zidan and Awaga (the largest family of the village) Ammar, Jizmawi, Bani Hermas (Beit Madi, Beit Khadish), Al-Awasi and Al-Zayd [and among them Mishnish], Al-Azayza Abd Al-Hadi, Al-Wishahi, Al-Balwata, Al-Tawafshah, Eid, Awad, Mohsen, Abu Hamda, Abu Shuqur, Abu Shuqair, Al-Wawi, Al-Jabr, Jiyab, Abu Omar, Abu Shakra and the heart of The Abd al-Mu’ti family: the family of Nawfal, al-Darawsheh, Abu Hamed, Abu Sariya, Abu Khalifa, al-Farayza, Asaad, al-Nabhani, Ghuraify, and Abu Harb).

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