Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya has been identified as the
Crusader village named
Mezera, and the possible site of a Crusader church. In 1112,
Arnulf, the
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem granted the
tithes of
Mezera to the abbey of St Mary. In 1154
Mezera was mentioned in Crusader texts together with
Tarphin. In 1183
Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem settled a dispute regarding the
tithes of the village.
Ottoman era In 1517, the village was included in the
Ottoman Empire with the rest of
Palestine, and in the 1596
tax-records it appeared as ''Mazra'at Abu Tasa
, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Quds of the Liwa'' of
Al-Quds. The population was 29 households, all
Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards and fruit trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 3,500
akçe. In 1838 ''el-Mezra'ah
was noted as a Muslim village, part of Beni Murrah'' district, located north of Jerusalem. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that “el-Mezraa” had 177 houses and a population of 641, though the population count included men, only. It also noted that it is located south of
Turmus Ayya. In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya as: "A large village on a hill-top, the hill-sides covered with vineyards; there are also olives and figs. The houses are of stone and
adobe." In 1896 the population of
Mezraa, located in the
Beni Murra region, was estimated to be about 801 persons.
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya had a population of 824 Muslims, increasing in the
1931 census to 1,191, still all Muslims, in a total of 247 houses. In the
1945 statistics the population was 1,400 Muslim, while the total land area was 16,333
dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 7,082 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 3,831 for cereals, while 91 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.
Jordanian era In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya came under
Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,929 inhabitants here.
Post-1967 Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya has been under
Israeli occupation. After the
1995 accords, 10.1% of village land was classified as
Area A, 71% as
Area B, the remaining 18.9% as
Area C. The Israelis have confiscated village land for the construction of Israeli bypass roads, to various Israeli military bases. The town's many enormous and elaborate mansions have led it to be called the "Miami of the West Bank", according to the
BBC. The wealth is not from local sources, but from the Palestinian diaspora. In December 2025 a residential building was damaged in Israeli setttler arson attack
Notable Descendants DJ Khaled's father is originally from Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya. ==Footnotes==