Medieval period The
Itinerarium Burdigalense (586) notes "ibi est campus, ubi David Goliat occidit" in reference to a location just before Scythopolis. In the 12th century, a village or a town existed next to the spring and bore its name.
Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, in his
Life of Saladin, wrote that "The Sultan continued his march to el-Jalut, a prosperous village, near which there is a spring (ain), and here he pitched his camp"., surrounded by
Zerin to the northwest,
Qumya to the northeast, and
Nuris and
Rihaniyeh to the southeast
Yaqut al-Hamawi mentions Ain Jalut as "a small and pleasant town, lying between
Nablus and Baisan, in the
Filastin Province. The place was taken by the Rumi (
Crusaders), and retaken by
Saladin in 579 (1183 CE)." In the
Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, the
Mamluks defeated the
Mongol army of
Hulagu Khan under the command of
Kitbuqa. In that battle, the Mamluks used the terrain of Ain Jalut to their advantage, concealing their main army in the trees on adjacent hills before provoking the Mongols with a decoy force. When the Mongols had been lured into the ambush, the main Mamluk army attacked from all sides. Routed, the Mongols were forced to retreat to
Beisan. The battle later influenced
Palestinian nationalism. One of the three original brigades of the
Palestine Liberation Army was named "Ain Jalut", after the battle. In July 1970,
Yasser Arafat referred to the modern area in the context of the historical battle:This will not be the first time that our people has vanquished its enemies. The Mongols came and swept away the Abbasid caliphate, then they came to Ain Jalut in our land – in the same region where we are today fighting the Zionists – and they were defeated at Ain Jalut.
20th century In the early 20th century the spring and the surrounding area were owned by the
Sursock family from
Beirut, who had bought the land from the Ottoman government in 1872 and established a small village in the area. The area was acquired by the Jewish community as part of the
Sursock Purchase. In 1921, when the land was sold by the Sursocks, the nine families who lived here petitioned the new British administration for perpetual ownership, but were only offered a short lease with an option to buy.
Kibbutz Ein Harod map of the area The land, named the "
Nuris Bloc" after a nearby Arab village, was instead bought by the
Zionist activist
Yehoshua Hankin, through the
Palestine Land Development Company. Hankin founded a
kibbutz, which he called
Ein Harod, near the spring. In 1921, Hankin sent members of
Gdud HaAvoda, a Zionist work group, to settle in the territory.
Shlomo Lavi, among the leaders of the Gdud, had envisioned the "Big
Kvutza", a settlement consisting of several farms spread on vast terrain with both agriculture and industry. His plan was approved by the
World Zionist Organization, but with some limitations on his detailed vision. The Gdud began this settlement near the Ain Jalut which was known to Jews as Ein Harod. Yehuda Kopolevitz Almog, one of the Gdud's leaders, describes that in the first day the settlers set up tents and began enclosing their camp with barbwire and defensive trenches. The first 74 members pioneers were split into two groups. One of the
Second Aliyah, former members of
Hashomer and
Kvutzat Kinneret, and the other from the
Third Aliyah. In the first months, the settlers sowed fields, planted a
eucalyptus grove, paved roads and dried swamps. An
Ulpan, a school for learning Hebrew was set up in the camp. In December 1921, a second farm called
Tel Yosef (after
Joseph Trumpeldor) was established by members of the Gdud on the hill of
Qumya. Disagreements on funds and internal politics have led Ein Harod and Tel Yosef to part ways in 1923, with many members leaving the former for the latter. The group that remained in Ein Harod included 110 members and was headed by Lavi,
Yitzhak Tabenkin,
Aharon Zisling and
David Maletz. The group at Ein Harod continued to get little support from the Zionist organizations and after the
1929 Palestine riots, the members chose to move their camp from the area of the spring to the hill of
Qumya, next to Tel Yosef and thus the settlement at the spring was abandoned. The spring continued to be used as a camp site for the pioneers of
Beit HaShita and
Dovrat before their departure to their permanent locations. In 1949 a village named
Gidona was established next to the spring for
Jewish immigrants from
Yemen. In 1952, the
Ein Harod community split into two separate entities,
Ein Harod (Ihud) and
Ein Harod (Meuhad).
21st century National park The spring is now part of a
national park called the
Ma'ayan Harod National Park, which features a recreational swimming pool fed by the spring's waters. The park also contains the house built at the site by the Hankins, which has become a museum. Adjacent to this there is a war memorial for residents of the valley who died in Israel's wars. The park has been described as "well maintained", but visitors to the site "have absolutely no way of knowing that one of the climactic battles of the Middle Ages was fought in it". ==Archaeology==