Zir'in

Zir'in (Arabic: زرعين), also spelled Zerin and Zerein, was a Palestinian Arab village of over 1,400 in the Jezreel Valley, located 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) north of Jenin. Identified as the ancient town of Yizre'el (Jezreel), it was known as Zir'in during Islamic rule, and was near the site of the Battle of Ain Jalut, in which the Mamluks halted Mongol expansion southward. Under the Ottomans, it was a small village, expanding during the British Mandate in the early 20th century. After its capture by Israel in 1948, Zir'in was destroyed. The Israeli kibbutz of Yizre'el was established shortly after on the village lands of Zir'in.

Derived from a common Canaanite root meaning to "sow", Yizre'el translates in Hebrew as "God give seed" and its Arabic name "Zir'in" has a similar connotation.

The Crusaders referred to it as "le Petit Gerin" or "the Little Jenin" to distinguish it from Jenin, which they called "le Grand Gerin". In Latin literature of the time it was called "Gezrael", "Iezrael", "Parvum Gerinum" or "Zarain".

Zir'in is identified with the Canaanite and Israelite town of Yizre'el (or Jezreel) mentioned in the Bible, when it was a major royal fortress of the Kingdom of Israel. The site has been extensively excavated by various archaeologists, including Norma Franklin.

A vaulted building and other structures remain from a castle that belonged to the Templars by the 1180s. During the Battle of al-Fule, Saladin has sent skirmishers to raid then Crusader-held Zir'in in October 1183. In September 1184, Saladin and his Ayyubid forces passed through the village on their way to Nablus.

After the Mamluks took control of the area in the late 13th century, the Mamluk sultan Zahir Baybars defeated the Mongols in the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, at a site just west of Zir'in. After the battle, Baybars ordered the renovation of the village mosque. During the Mamluk period the village was one of the stops on the postal route between Jenin and Irbid.

In 1517, Zir'in was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire along 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 Zir'in was a part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jinin, a part of Sanjak Lajjun. A village of 4 Muslim households, it paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on wheat, barley, beehives, and goats; a total of 5,000 akçe. In the 17th and 18th centuries the village was most likely under the control of the Turabay, an Arab tribe that ruled part of northern Palestine on behalf of the Ottomans at the time. In 1799, Pierre Jacotin named the village Zezin on his map from the French campaign in Egypt and Syria.