A burial cave, with pottery dating to the
Early Roman period (first century CE), has been found at Issawiya. Two burial chambers were documented in 2003, one dating to the Roman period, the other to the
Byzantine era (sixth–eighth centuries CE). A burial cave with a 4 line inscription in
Greek have been examined, the inscription ascribes the tomb to the daughters of the
Kyros family.
Ottoman Empire Issawiya, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the 1560s the revenues of al- Issawiya were designated for the
waqf of
Hasseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan (
Roxelana), wife of
Suleiman the Magnificent. In the 1596
tax registers it appeared as Isawiyya, in the
Nahiya of Quds of the
Liwa of
Quds, with a population of 35 households and 3 bachelors, all
Muslim. The villages paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and beehives; a total of 6,940
akçe. In 1838 it was noted as "a little village", located in the
el Wadiyeh region, east of Jerusalem. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that Issawiya had a population of 178, (or 78), in 29 houses, though the population count included only men. In 1883, the
Palestine Exploration Fund's
Survey of Western Palestine described El Aisawiyeh as a "small village on the eastern slope of the chain of Olivet, with a spring to the south and a few olives round it." Another source states the locals grew vegetables, which were sold in Jerusalem. In 1896 the population was estimated to be about 210 persons.
British Mandate In the
1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, 'Isawiyeh had a population of 333, all Muslims, increasing in the
1931 census to a population of 558; 7 Christians and the rest Muslim, occupying 117 houses. In the
1945 statistics the population of Issawiya was 730; 720 Muslims and 10 Christians, who owned 10,108
dunams of land while 235 dunams had Jewish owners, according to an official land and population survey. 3,291 dunams were used for cereals, while 47 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Jordan and Israel The Mount Scopus Agreement signed on July 7, 1948, regulated the demilitarised zone and authorized the
United Nations Truce Supervision Organization to settle disputes between Israel and Jordan. One area of conflict involved two Jewish-owned plots in Issawiya, known as Gan Shlomit or Salomons Garden, which were purchased by V.F. Salomons in 1934 and sold to the Gan Shlomit Company, Ltd. in 1937. In 1961, the population was 1,163, according to a Jordanian census. In 1964, Issawiya had a population of 1,300. It was located at this time within the Mount Scopus demilitarized zone, an unsupervised
demilitarized zone between
Jordan and Israel.
Israel Issawiya has been
occupied by Israel since the
Six-Day War in 1967. In that year Israel expropriated approximately one quarter of Isawiya's lands (2,230 dunams). According to
ARIJ, Issawiya had 1,212 dunums of land confiscated by Israel in order to construct various
Israeli settlements and expand the
Hebrew University: • 568 dunums for the
Hebrew University in 1968, • 394 dunums for
Giv’at Shappira (
French Hill) in 1968, Given the purpose, intensity and modality of these operations, they may amount to collective punishment according to human rights organizations. ==Land registry==