Until the early 20th century, Aqir was thought to lie at the site of the ancient Philistine city of
Ekron ('Aqrūn), that has now been identified as
Tel Mikne, 9 km to the south. The error seems rooted in antiquity; The Romans referred to the village as
Accaron. In the 10th century,
Al-Muqaddasi writes of Aqir (Ekron) as "A large village with a mosque. Its inhabitants are much given to good works. The bread here is not to be surpassed for quality. The village lies on the high road from
Ar-Ramlah to
Makka."
Yakut called it Al Akir, and said it belonged to Ar Ramlah. The village mosque had a construction text, made in
naskhi script, and dating it to 1296–7.
Ottoman era In 1596, Aqir (Amir) appeared in
Ottoman tax registers as being in the
Nahiya of Ramla of the
Liwa of Gaza. It had a population of 31 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, and other produce. The
mihrab in the mosque had an inscription above it dating it to 1701-1702 CE. The scholar
Edward Robinson passed by the village in 1838, and described it as being surrounded by "well-tilled gardens and fields of the richest soil". The village itself was described as being of "considerable size", built of bricks or
adobe. It was further noted that it was a Muslim village, located in the Ramleh region. In the 19th century, Aqir received
Egyptian migrants. In 1857
William McClure Thomson described the village as a "forlorn cluster of low earth-roofed hovels" and "though the village itself is squalid and the people rude, the wide valley below it is extremely fertile" In 1863
Victor Guérin noted Aqir as a large village, with 800 inhabitants. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 counted 155 houses and a population of 512, though the population count included men only. In the mid 1870s
Claude Reignier Conder described Aqir (naming it "Ekron") as "a mud hamlet, with gardens fenced with prickly pears" In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described it as "an
adobe village on low rising ground, with cactus hedges surrounding its gardens, and a
well to the north." Excavations revealed traces of Late Ottoman
infant jar-burials, commonly associated with
nomads or
itinerant workers of
Egyptian origins.
British Mandate era At the time of the
1922 census of Palestine, Aqir had a population of 1155 inhabitants, all Muslims. This had increased to 1689 Muslims and 2 Christians by the
1931 census. Between 1941 and 1948, the
RAF Aqir airfield was located nearby. In 1945, the village had a population of 2,480 Muslims while 46 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.
1948 and afterward The village was depopulated during the
1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on 6 May 1948 during
Operation Barak by the
Givati Brigade. The remaining village houses were taken over by
Kiryat Ekron soon after. According to the Palestinian historian
Walid Khalidi, the village's remaining structures on the village land were, in 1992:
A number of small houses remain, several of which are occupied by Jewish families. One is a cement house with a gabled roof and rectangular doors and windows, another is similar in its features, but its roof is flat. Cypresses, cycamores and cactuses grow on the site. The surrounding lands are cultivated by Israelis. ==References==