Sir
Municipality type D (Village council)
Arabic transcription(s)
•  Arabic	صير
Sir in the winter
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 grid	179/196
State	State of Palestine
Governorate	Jenin
Government
• Type	Village council
Population  (2017) [1]
• Total	857
Name meaning	The 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

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

Bibliography

External links

• Welcome To Sir
• Sir, Welcome to Palestine
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 12: IAA, Wikimedia commons