Sir
Municipality type D (Village council)
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicصير
Sir in the winter
Sir in the winter
Sir is located in State of Palestine
Sir
Sir
Location of Sir within Palestine
Coordinates: 32°21′49″N 35°18′52″E / 32.36361°N 35.31444°E / 32.36361; 35.31444
Palestine grid179/196
StateState of Palestine
GovernorateJenin
Government
 • TypeVillage council
Population
 (2017)[1]
 • Total857
Name meaningThe fold[2]

Sir (Arabic: صير) is a Palestinian town in the Jenin Governorate of Palestine, in the West Bank, located 18 kilometers south of Jenin. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 769 inhabitants in mid-year 2006 and 857 by 2017.[1][3]

Location

Sir is located on the southern part of Marj Sanur, together with Meithalun.[4]

History

El nabi Theeb, Sir

SWP noted: "The ruin west of the village has the appearance of an ancient site. Foundations, cisterns cut in the rock, and heaps of stones among bushes."[5]

Pottery sherds from the Persian,[6] early and late Roman,[6] and Byzantine[6][7] eras have been found here.

Sir is identified with Kfar Zir (Hebrew: כפר ציר), mentioned in the 6th-7th century Mosaic of Reḥob as a Jewish village in the region of Sebastia inhabited mostly by non-Jews and, therefore, agricultural produce obtained from the area could be taken by Jews without the normal restrictions imposed during the Sabbatical years, or the need for tithing.[8]

A Crusader estate named Casale Syrorum, whose rights were affirmed in the year 1165/1166 CE by Amalric of Jerusalem, was located here.[9][10]

Ottoman era

Sir, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596 it was a part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jabal Sami which was under the administration of the Nablus Sanjak. The village had a population of 31 households and 4 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, beehives and/or goats, in addition to occasional revenues, a tax for people of liwa Nablus, and a press for olive oil or grape syrup; a total of 7,832 akçe.[11]

In 1870, Victor Guérin noted it as a small village on a high hill. There were many cisterns and tombs cut out from the rock, which convinced Guérin that the place was ancient. The inhabitant, which numbered 150, had a mosque.[12]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Sir as: "A small village on a knoll amid brushwood, with a large house on the west."[13]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sir had 194 Muslims inhabitants,[14] increasing in the 1931 census to 233; 2 Christians and 231 Muslims, in a total of 42 houses.[15]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Sir was 290, all Muslims,[16] with 12,499 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[17] Of this, 1,908 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 6,045 dunams for cereals,[18] while 10 dunams were built-up (urban) land and 4,536 dunams were classified as "non-cultivable".[19]

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Sir came under Jordanian rule.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 470 inhabitants.[20]

Post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Sir has been under Israeli occupation.

References

  1. 1 2 Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
  2. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 207
  3. ↑ Projected Mid -Year Population for Jenin Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006 Archived 2008-09-20 at the Wayback Machine Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
  4. ↑ Saulcy, 1854, vol 1, p. 87
  5. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 245
  6. 1 2 3 Zertal, 2007, p. 147
  7. ↑ Dauphin, 1998, pp. 757-8
  8. ↑ Zertal, Adam (2007). The Manasseh Hill Country Survey. Volume 2, The Eastern Valleys and the Fringes of the Desert. Leiden: Brill. p. 105. ISBN 978-90-474-2387-4. OCLC 310354878. During the Middle Ages a fortress named Casale Syrorum stood here. The name and the finds support the identification of Sir with כפרציר from the Rehov Inscription (line 27); see previous site
  9. ↑ Röhricht, 1904, RRH Ad, pp. 25 -26, #422a
  10. ↑ Zertal, 2007, p. 146
  11. ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 125
  12. ↑ Guérin, 1874, p. 353
  13. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 228
  14. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Jenin, p. 29
  15. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 71
  16. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 17
  17. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 55
  18. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 99
  19. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 149
  20. ↑ Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 25

Bibliography

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