'an example', In Phænician: 'an image', in old Arabic it means: 'traces of a dwelling which are becoming effaced'[2]
Misilyah (Arabic: مسلية), sometimes spelled Mithilîyeh and Misilîyeh, is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located 14 kilometers south of the city of Jenin. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 2,252 inhabitants in mid-year 2006 and 2,884 by 2017.[1][3] The main agricultural crops cultivated in Misilya are olives, grapes, figs, and vegetables. Roman and Islamic ruins have been found in the village.
Misilyah is situated in a small plain in the foothills of Jabal Faḳu'ah, or Mount Gilboa.[4] The plain, Marj al-Gharaḳ, also spelled Merj el-Ghǔrǔk, which lacks any natural drainage, was described at the beginning of the 20th century as transforming into a large swamp during the rainy season, only to dry up in summer, when the resulting field was cultivated with grain.[5]
It's believed that Misilyah was established sometime after the 16th century. It appears in tax records dating back to 1671. The locals of Qabatiya consider Misilyah to be an offshoot of their village, with some residents originating from nearby villages.[6]
C. R. Conder suggested in the 1880s that Misilyah was ancient Bethulia,[7][8] but Zertal, 2004, found no archeological evidence supporting this.[9]
In 1838, Edward Robinson noted the village when he travelled in the region, as bordering the extremely fertile Marj Sanur.[10] He listed it as part of the District of Haritheh, north of Nablus.[11]
In 1870, Victor Guérin noted it, "sitting on the northern slopes of a hill planted with superb olive trees; at the bottom there is a fertile and well-cultivated plain."[12]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Meselieh: "A small village, with a detached portion to the north, and placed on a slope, with a hill to the south, and surrounded by good olive-groves, with an open valley called Wady el Melek (' the King's Valley') on the north. The water-supply is from wells, some of which have an ancient appearance. They are mainly supplied with rain-water."[13]
In the 1945 statistics the population was 330 Muslims,[16] with a total of 9,038 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[17] Of this, 2,683 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,592 dunams were for cereals,[18] while a total of 23 dunams were built-up, urban land.[19]
^Joseph Jacobs; Immanuel Benzinger; Judah David Eisenstein (1901–1906). "Palestine". The Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk & Wagnalls. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 350
