Meiron

For the modern Israeli village, see Meron, Israel.

Meiron
Meiron
Arabic	ميرون
Also Spelled	Mirun, Meron, Meroon, Marun, Meirun, Mairun
District	Safad
Coordinates	32°58′55.51″N 35°26′17.09″E / 32.9820861°N 35.4380806°E / 32.9820861; 35.4380806Coordinates: 32°58′55.51″N 35°26′17.09″E / 32.9820861°N 35.4380806°E / 32.9820861; 35.4380806
Population	290 (1945)
Area	14,114 dunums
Date of depopulation	May 10-12, 1948[1]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Influence of nearby town's fall
Current localities	Meron[2]

Meiron (Arabic: ميرون‎, Mayrûn) was a Palestinian village, located 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) west of Safad. Associated with the ancient Canaanite city of Merom, excavations at the site have found extensive remains from the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. The remains include a 3rd century synagogue, and Meiron served as a prominent local religious centre at the time.^[3]

From the 13th century onward, Meiron was a popular site for Jewish pilgrims.^[3][4] During Ottoman rule in Palestine, only a small number of Jews lived in Meiron, its inhabitants being predominantly Arab Muslims. Landownership in the village was nonetheless split almost evenly between Arabs and Jews. Depopulated in two waves over the course of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the moshav of Meron was founded in its place in 1949 by Israeli soldiers who fought in that war.

History

Ancient

The association of Meiron with the ancient Canaanite city of Merom or Maroma is generally accepted, though the absence of hard archaeological evidence means other sites a little further north, such as Marun as-Ras or Jebel Marun, have also been considered.^[5][6] Merom is mentioned in 2nd milleniun BCE Egyptian sources, and in Tiglath-pileser III's accounts of his expedition to the Galilee in 733-732 BCE (where it is transcribed as Marum).^[5][6]

Soundings conducted below the floors of houses excavated in the 1970s indicate the presence of even earlier structures with a different layout. While these lower levels have not yet been excavated, the possibility that they date back to the Early Bronze Age was not ruled out by the archaeologists. A handful of artifacts dating to the Early Bronze Age, including seal impressions and a basalt bowl, were also found during the digs.^[7]

According to Avraham Negev, an Israeli archaeologist, by the Second Temple period, Merom was known as Meiron.^[7] It is mentioned in the Talmud as being a village in which sheep were reared, that was also renowned for its olive oil.^[8][9] The Reverend R. Rappaport ventured that merino, the celebrated wool, may have its etymological roots in the name for the village.^[8]

Classical Antiquity

Excavations at Meiron found artifacts dating to the Hellenistic period at the foundation of the site.^[10] The economic and cultural affinities of the inhabitants of the Meiron area at this time were directed toward the north, to Tyre and southern Syria in general.^[10] Josephus fortified Meiron in the 1st century CE and called the town Mero or Meroth; however, Negev writes that Meroth, another ancient town, was located further north, possibly at the site of Marun as-Ras.^[7]

A tower which still stands at a height of 18 feet (5.5 m) was constructed in Meiron in the 2nd century CE.^[9] In the last decade of the 3rd century CE, a synagogue was erected in the village. Known as the Meiron synagogue, it survived an earthquake in 306 CE, though excavations at the site indicate that it was severely damaged or destroyed by another earthquake in 409 CE.^[11][12] "One of the largest Palestinian synagogues in the basilica style," it is the earliest example of the so-called 'Galilean' synagogue, and consists of a large room with eight columns on each side leading to the facade and a three-doored entrance framed by a columned portico.^[11][13] Artifacts uncovered during digs at the site include a coin of Probus (276-282 CE) and African ceramics dating to the latter half of the 3rd century, indicating that the city was commercially prosperous at the time.^[11] Coins found in Mieron are mostly from Tyre, though a large number are also from Hippos, which lay on the other side of Lake Tiberias.^[13] Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell write that Meiron was a prominent local religious centre in the period of late Antiquity.^[3] Some time in the 4th century CE, Meiron was abandoned for reasons as yet unknown.^[14]

Islamic era

Denys Pringle describes Meiron as a "[f]ormer Jewish village," with a synagogue and tombs dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries, noting the site was later reoccupied between 750 and 1399.^[15]

In the 12th century, Benjamin de Tudela, a Navarrese rabbi, visited Meiron and described a cave of tombs located there believed to hold the remains of Hillel, Shammai, and "twenty of their disciples and other Rabbis."^[16] On his visit to Meiron in 1210, Samuel ben Samson, a French rabbi, located the tombs of Shimon Bar Yochai and his son Eleazar there.^[16] A contemporary of the second Jewish revolt against Rome (132-135 CE), Bar Yochai is venerated by Moroccan Jews, whose veneration of saints is thought to be an adaptation of local Muslim customs.^[17] From the 13th century onward, Meiron became the most frequented site of pilgrimage for Jews in Palestine.^[3]

In the early 14th century, Arab geographer al-Dimashqi mentioned Meiron as falling under the administration of Safad. He reported that it was located near a "well-known cave" where Jews and possibly non-Jewish locals traveled to celebrate a festival, which involved witnessing the sudden and miraculous rise of water from basins and sarcophagi in the cave.^[18]

Palestine was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and by 1596, Meiron was a large village of 715 located in the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jira, part of Sanjak Safad. The village paid taxes on goats, beehives, and a press that processed either grapes or olives.^[19]

Meiron suffered relatively minor damage in the Galilee earthquake of 1837. It was reported that during the earthquake the walls of the tombs of Rabbi Eleazer and Rabbi She-Maun were dislodged, but did not collapse.^[20]

Jewish pilgrims in Meiron, c. 1920.

A number of European travellers came to Meiron over the course of the 19th century and their observations from the time are documented in travel journals. Edward Robinson, who visited Meiron during his travels in Palestine and Syria in the mid-19th century, describes it as "a very old looking village situated on a ledge of bristling rocks near the foot of the mountain. The ascent is by a very steep and ancient road [...] It is small, and inhabitated only by Muhammedans."^[16] The tombs of Shimon bar Yochai, his son R. Eleazar, and those of Hillel and Shammai are located by Robinson as lying within a khan-like courtyard underneath low-domed structures that were usually kept closed with the keys held in Safad. Robinson indicates that this place was the focal point of Jewish pilgrimage activities by his time; the synagogue is described as being in ruins.^[16]

Laurence Oliphant also visited Meiron sometime in the latter half of the 19th century. His guide there was a Sephardic rabbi who owned the land that made up the Jewish quarter of the village. Oliphant writes that the rabbi had brought 6 Jewish families from Morocco to till the land, and that they and another 12 Muslim families made up the whole of the village's population at the time.^[21] Karl Baedeker described it as a small village that appeared quite old with a Muslim population. By the late 19th century, Meiron was a small village of 50 people who cultivated olives.^[19]

British Mandate Palestine

Jewish Pilgrims on the way to Meiron, c. 1920.

Towards the end of World War I, the ruins of the Meiron synagogue were acquired by the "Fund for the Redemption of Historical Sites" (Qeren le-Geulat Meqomot Histori'im), a Jewish society headed by David Yellin.^[22] Until at least 1931, Meiron consisted of an Arab and Jewish quarter, with the former being the larger one and the latter being built around the tomb of bar Yochai. That year, there were 259 Arabs and 31 Jews. Sami Hadawi's 1945 survey, conducted toward the end of the British Mandate in Palestine, depicted an entirely Arab population. Meiron had a boy's elementary school. Agriculture and livestock was the dominant economic sectors of the village, with grain being the primary crop, followed by fruits. Around 200 dunams of land were planted with olive trees, and there were two presses in the village used to process olives.^[19]

1948 War

Meiron's villagers were driven out in two waves: one shortly after the capture of Safad by Haganah on 10-11 May 1948, and the other at the end of October 1948, after Meiron itself was occupied.^[23] According to Nazzal, three Israeli planes bombed Meiron, together with the villages of Tarshiha, Safsaf and Jish during Operation Hiram on October 28, and many villagers were killed.^[24]

Modern day

The Israeli moshav of Meron, established in 1949, currently sits on the lands of the former Palestinian village. Excavations were carried out in ancient Meiron in 1971-72, 1974-75, and 1977 by Eric M. and Carol L. Meyers.^[25]

Jewish pilgrimages to Meiron continue to be held annually on Lag ba'Omer, which falls between Passover and Shavuot, at which time hundreds of thousands of Sephardic Jews gather at the tomb of Shimon bar Yochai to partake in days of festivities, that include the lighting of bonfires at night.^[17]

See also

• List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

References

1. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #56. Also gives cause of depopulation, but with two question-marks.
2. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xxii, settlement #159
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Horden and Purcell, p. 446.
4. ^ Vilnay, 2003, p. 389.
5. ^ ^{a b} Aharoni and Rainey, 1979, p. 225.
6. ^ ^{a b} Bromiley, 1995, p. 326.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Negev and Gibson, 2005, p. 332.
8. ^ ^{a b} Ben Jonah et al., 1841, pp. 107-108.
9. ^ ^{a b} Negev and Gibson, 2005, p. 330.
10. ^ ^{a b} Zangenberg et al., 2007, p. 155.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Urman and Flesher, 1998, pp. 62-63.
12. ^ Safrai, 1998, p. 83.
13. ^ ^{a b} Stemberger and Tuschling, 2000, p. 123.
14. ^ Groh, in Livingstone, 1987, p. 71.
15. ^ Pringle, 1997, p. 67.
16. ^ ^{a b c d} Robinson, 1856, p. 73.
17. ^ ^{a b} Friedland and Hecht, 1996, p. 86.
18. ^ al-Dimashqi quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.476.
19. ^ ^{a b c} Khalidi, 1992, p.477.
20. ^ Neman, 1971, cited in "The earthquake of 1 January 1837 in Southern Lebanon and Northern Israel" by N. N. Ambraseys, in Annali di Geofisica, Aug. 1997, p.933,
21. ^ Oliphant, 1886, p.75.
22. ^ Fine, 2005, p. 23.
23. ^ Kahlidi, p.477
24. ^ Nazzal, p.96
25. ^ Carol L. Meyers and Eric M. Meyers. "Eric M. and Carol L. Meyers Papers, 1970 - 1980". University Archives, Duke University. http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/uameyers/inv/. Retrieved 2008-12-19. 

Bibliography

• Aharoni, Yohanan; Rainey, Anson F. (1979), The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 0664242669, 9780664242664 
• Ben Jonah, Tudela Benjamin (1841), The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, Asher 
• Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1995), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: A-Z, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, ISBN 0802837859, 9780802837851 
• Fine, Steven (2005), Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521844916, 9780521844918 
• Friedland, Roger; Hecht, Richard D. (1996), To Rule Jerusalem, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521440467, 9780521440462 
• Horden, Peregrine; Purcell, Nicholas (2000), The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0631218904, 9780631218906 
• Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0887282245 
• Groh, D.E. (1989), Elizabeth A. Livingstone, ed., Papers Presented to the Tenth International Conference on Patristic Studies Held in Oxford 1987, Peeters Publishers, ISBN 9068312316, 9789068312317 
• Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521009677 
• Nazzal, Nafez (1978), The Palestinian Exodus from Galilee 1948, The Institute for Palestine Studies 
• Oliphant, Laurence (1887), Haifa, or Life in Modern Palestine, archive.org, http://www.archive.org/details/haifaorlifeinmod00olipuoft 
• Negev, Avraham; Gibson, Shimon (2005), Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0826485715, 9780826485717 
• Pringle, Denys (1997), Secular Buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Archaeological Gazetteer, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521460107, 9780521460101, http://books.google.com/?id=-_NbE5obqRMC 
• Robinson, Edward (1856), Later Biblical Researches in Palestine, and in the Adjacent Regions: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1852. Drawn Up from the Original Diaries, with Historical Illustrations, with New Maps and Plans, Crocker & Brewster, http://books.google.com/?id=MZ7y9UfiOp4C 
• Safrai, Zeev (1998), The Missing Century: Palestine in the Fifth Century : Growth and Decline, Peeters Publishers, ISBN 906831985X, 9789068319859 
• Stemberger, Günter; Tuschling, Ruth (2000), Jews and Christians in the Holy Land: Palestine in the Fourth Century, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0567086992, 9780567086990 
• Urman, Dan; Flesher, Paul Virgil McCracken (1998), Ancient Synagogues: Historical Analysis and Archaeological Discovery, BRILL, ISBN 9004112545, 9789004112544 
• Vilnay, Zev (2003), Legends of Palestine, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 0766141284, 9780766141285 
• Zangenberg, Jürgen; Attridge, Harold W.; Martin, Dale B. (2007), Religion, Ethnicity, and Identity in Ancient Galilee: A Region in Transition, Mohr Siebeck, ISBN 3161490444, 9783161490446 

External links

• Welcome to Mirun,
• Mirun, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
• Mirun, Dr. Khalil Rizk
• Miroun photos from Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh