The first part of the village name,
Dayr ("monastery") suggest that the village might have had a monastery and a Christian population. However, in modern times the population was
Muslim. According to the residents of the village, ancient artifacts from the Canaanite, Israelite and Roman period were unearthed in the Ottoman and
British Mandate period. In the
Crusader era it was known as
Cassie, and in 1183 it was noted that
Godfrey de Tor sold the land of the village to
Joscelin III. In 1220 Jocelyn III's daughter
Beatrix de Courtenay and her husband
Otto von Botenlauben,
Count of Henneberg, sold their land, including
Cassie and the nearby
Roeis (
Khirbet Tell ‘er-Ruwesah/Tel Rosh), to the
Teutonic Knights. Remains from the
Mamluk era have been found in the area.
Ottoman Empire Dayr al-Qassi was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire in 1517 and it belonged to the
nahiya (subdistrict) of
Jira, part of the
Safad Sanjak (District of Safed). In the 1596
tax records Dayr al-Qassi had a population of 24
Muslim household; an estimated 132 persons. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rated of 25% on a number of crops, including
wheat and
barley, as well as on goats and beehives; a total of 345
akçe. In the early 18th century, Dayr al-Qassi was a fortified village controlled by a local
sheikh (chief) named Abd al-Khaliq Salih. In 1740, Sheikh
Daher al-Umar, a local
multazim (tax farmer) from the
Banu Zaydan family whose strength was growing throughout the
Galilee, struggled to gain control of Dayr al-Qassi. Later that year, he made the village part of his domain by marrying Sheikh Salih's daughter, thereby sealing an alliance with the latter's family. In late 1767, Daher's son Ali of Safed requested control of Dayr al-Qassi from his father after his request for
Dayr Hanna was rejected. Daher refused and the two entered into an armed conflict, which Daher won. Nonetheless, Daher pardoned Ali and ultimately ceded the village to him. In 1838, Dayr al-Qassi was noted as a Muslim village in the Jabal subdistrict, located west of Safed.
Victor Guérin visited Dayr al-Qassi in 1875, and he estimated that the village had 350 Muslim inhabitants. A population list from about 1887 showed Dayr al-Qassi to have about 945 inhabitants, all Muslims.
British Mandate At the time of the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate, Dayr al-Qassi had a population of 663 Muslims. increasing in the
1931 census, when Dayr al-Qassi had a population of 865, still all Muslims, living in a total of 169 houses. Later, Dayr al-Qassi was mostly Muslim but had a large
Palestinian Christian minority. According to the
1945 census it had 1,250 inhabitants; 370 Christians and 880 Muslims. Together with the two villages of
Fassuta and
al-Mansura, the population was 2,300 and their total land area was 34,011 dunums. 1,607 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 6,475 used for cereals, while 247 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
The Arab-Israeli War (1948-1949) and Israel During the
1948 Arab-Israeli War Dayr al-Qassi was defended by the
Arab Liberation Army but the village was occupied by the
Israeli Army during its offensive
Operation Hiram on October 30, 1948. In December 1948, there was a suggestion of sending new Jewish immigrants to settle
al-Bassa, Dayr al-Qassi and
Tarshiha, but
Aharon Zisling objected to sending militarily untrained immigrants there. However, in January 1949, the
Cabinet voted to "encourage introducing ‘
olim into all the abandoned villages in the Galilee". The village's residents were (again) expelled on 27 May 1949 and most migrated north into
Lebanon.
Elkosh was established in 1949, and occupies part of the village site.
Netu'a, founded in 1966,
Mattat, founded in 1979 and
Abirim, founded in 1980, are also on village land. Netu'a is near the neighboring village of
al-Mansura. In 2000, a book about the village history was published by Ibrahim Khalil Uthman. ==Notable people==