Bronze and Iron Ages Lajjun is about south of
Tel Megiddo, Arabic name: Tell al-Mutasallim, which is identified with ancient Megiddo. However, both
Na'aman and
Zertal suggested alternative locations for Qina. This stream may be the "
Waters of Megiddo" in the
Song of Deborah In the same context, attests to the presence of a branch of the
Kenite clan somewhere in the area; relating this name to Thutmose's
Annals, scholars like
Shmuel Yeivin theorized that the name Qina derives from
qyni ().
Donald B. Redford noted that the Egyptian transliteration might be of "qayin".
Roman era Modern-day historical geographers have placed the
Second Temple period village of
Kefar ʿUthnai () in the confines of the Arab village, and which place-name underwent a change after a Roman Legion had camped there. It appears in Latin characters under its old name
Caporcotani in the
Tabula Peutingeriana Map, and lay along the Roman road from
Caesarea to Scythopolis (
Beit Shean).
Ptolemy (
Geography V, 15: 3) also mentions the site in the second century CE, referring to the place under its Latin appellation, Caporcotani, and where he mentions it as one of the four cities of the Galilee, with
Sepphoris,
Julias and
Tiberias. Among the village's famous personalities was
Rabban Gamliel. After the
Bar Kochba Revolt—a Jewish uprising against the
Roman Empire—had been suppressed in 135 CE, the Roman emperor
Hadrian ordered a second
Roman legion,
Legio VI Ferrata (6th "Ironclad" Legion), to be stationed in the north of the country to guard the
Wadi Ara region, a crucial line of communication between the
coastal plain of
Palestine and the
Jezreel Valley. The place where it established its camp was known as
Legio. In the 3rd century CE, when the army was removed, Legio became a city and its name was augmented with the adjectival
Maximianopolis.
Early Muslim period Some Muslim historians believe the site of the
Battle of Ajnadayn between the
Muslim Arabs and the
Byzantines in 634 CE was at Lajjun. Following the Muslim victory, Lajjun, along with most of Palestine, and
southern Syria were incorporated into the
Caliphate. According to medieval geographers
Estakhri and
Ibn Hawqal, Lajjun was the northernmost town of
Jund Filastin (military district of Palestine). A hoard of
dinars dating from the
Umayyad era have been found at Lajjun. The 10th-century Persian geographer
Ibn al-Faqih wrote of a local legend related by the people of Lajjun regarding the source of the abundant spring used as the town's primary water source over the ages: there is just outside al-Lajjun a large stone of round form, over which is built a dome, which they call the
Mosque of
Abraham. A copious stream of water flows from under the stone and it is reported that Abraham struck the stone with his staff, and there immediately flowed from it water enough to suffice for the supply of the people of the town, and also to water their lands. The spring continues to flow down to the present day. The
Mosque of Ibrahim, referred to in Ibn al-Faqīh's account, was a famous 10th–15th century Islamic
shrine. The mosque was attributed to a miracle by the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), who is said to have struck the rock with his staff to bring forth water. This association made the site a regional place of
pilgrimage for centuries. The mosque disappeared from the historical record by the 16th century, but its memory survived in local
oral traditions and place-names. Recent archaeological and historical research has proposed that the mosque may be identified with monumental remains above the ʿAyn al-Sitt spring, including a
domed structure with vaulted chambers and reused Roman elements. Scholars interpret the shrine as part of a broader
Islamization of sacred geography in the
Levant, incorporating local water traditions into the Islamic Abrahamic narrative. In 940,
Ibn Ra'iq, during his conflict over control of Syria with the
Ikhshidids of
Egypt, fought against them in an indecisive battle at Lajjun. During the battle, Abu Nasr al-Husayn—the Ikhshidid general and brother of the Ikhshidid ruler,
Muhammad ibn Tughj—was killed. Ibn Ra'iq was remorseful at the sight of Husayn's dead body and offered his seventeen-year-old son, Abu'l-Fath Muzahim, to Ibn Tughj "to do with him whatever they saw fit". Ibn Tughj was honored by Ibn Ra'iq's gesture; instead of executing Muzahim, he gave the latter several gifts and robes, then married him to his daughter Fatima. In 945, the
Hamdanids of
Aleppo and the Ikhshidids fought a battle in Lajjun. It resulted in an Ikhshidid victory putting a halt to Hamdanid expansion southward under the leadership of
Sayf al-Dawla. Moreover, it was the center of a
nahiya (subdistrict) of
Jund al-Urdunn (military district of Jordan), which also included the towns of
Nazareth and
Jenin.
Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods When the Crusaders invaded and conquered the
Levant from the
Fatimids in 1099, al-Lajjun's Roman name,
Legio, was restored and the town formed a part of the lordship of
Caesarea. During this time, Christian settlement in Legio grew significantly.
John of Ibelin records that the community "owed the service of 100 sergeants". Bernard, the archbishop of Nazareth granted some of the
tithes of Legio to the hospital of the monastery of St. Mary in 1115, then in 1121, he extended the grant to include all of Legio, including its church as well as the nearby village of
Ti'inik. By 1147, the de Lyon family controlled Legio, but by 1168, the town was held by Payen, the lord of
Haifa. Legio had markets, a town oven and held other economic activities during this era. In 1182, the
Ayyubids raided Legio, and in 1187, it was captured by them under the leadership of
Saladin's nephew Husam ad-Din 'Amr and consequently its Arabic name,
Lajjun, was restored. A number of Muslim kings and prominent persons passed through the village, including Ayyubid sultan
al-Kamil, who gave his daughter 'Ashura' in marriage to his nephew while visiting the town in 1231.). In the 14th century members of a
Yamani tribe lived there. Shams al-Din al-'Uthmani, writing probably in the 1370s, reported it was the seat of Marj ibn Amer, and had a great
khan for travellers, a "terrace of the sultan" and the
Maqam (shrine) of Abraham. The Mamluks fortified it in the 15th century and the town became a major staging post on the
postal route (
braid) between
Egypt and
Damascus. When the Mamluks were completely uprooted and Selim returned to
Istanbul, the Tarabays were granted the territory of Lajjun. The town eventually became the capital of the
Sanjak ("District") of Lajjun, which was a part of the province of
Damascus, and encompassed the
Jezreel Valley, northern
Samaria, and a part of the north-central coastline of Palestine as its territory. It was composed of four
nahiyas ("sub-districts") (Jinin, Sahel Atlit, Sa'ra, and Shafa), and encompassed a total of 55 villages, including
Haifa, Jenin, and
Baysan. After a short period in which the Tarabays were in a state of rebellion, tensions suddenly died down and the Ottomans appointed Ali ibn Tarabay as the governor of Lajjun in 1559. His son Assaf Tarabay ruled Lajjun from 1571 to 1583. During his reign, he extended Tarabay power and influence to
Sanjak Nablus. In 1579, Assaf, referred to as the "
Sanjaqbey of al-Lajjun," is mentioned as the builder of a mosque in the village of
al-Tira. Assaf was deposed and banished in 1583 to the island of
Rhodes. Six years later, in 1589, he was pardoned and resettled in the town. At the time, an impostor also named Assaf, had attempted to seize control of Sanjak Lajjun. Known later as Assaf al-Kadhab ("Assaf the Liar"), he was arrested and executed in Damascus where he traveled in attempt to confirm his appointment as governor of the district. Assaf Tarabay was not reinstated as governor, but Lajjun remained in Tarabay hands, under the rule of Governor Tarabay ibn Ali who was succeeded upon his death by his son Ahmad in 1601, who also ruled until his death in 1657. Ahmad, known for his courage and hospitality, The Ottoman authorities of Damascus expanded Ahmad's fief as a token of gratitude. Ahmad's son Zayn Tarabay ruled Lajjun for a brief period until his death in 1660. He was succeeded by Ahmad's brother Muhammad Tarabay, who—according to his French secretary—had good intentions for governing Lajjun, but was addicted to
opium and as a result had been a weak leader. After his death in 1671, other members of the Tarabay family ruled Lajjun until 1677 when the Ottomans replaced them with a government officer. Later during this century, Sheikh Ziben, ancestor to the
Arrabah-based Abd al-Hadi clan, became the leader of Sanjak Lajjun.
Later Ottoman rule and old bridge at Lajjun, 1870s Much of the Lajjun district territories were actually taxed by the stronger families of Sanjak Nablus by 1723. Later in the 18th century, Lajjun was replaced by Jenin as the administrative capital of the
sanjak which now included the Sanjak of
Ajlun. By the 19th century it was renamed Sanjak Jenin, although 'Ajlun was separated from it.
Zahir al-Umar, who became the effective ruler of the
Galilee for a short period during the second half of the 18th century, was reported to have used cannons against Lajjun in the course of his campaign between 1771–1773 to capture
Nablus. It is possible that this attack led to the village's decline in the years that followed.
Edward Robinson visited in 1838, and noted that the
khan, which Maundrell commented on, was for the accommodation of the caravans passing on the great road between Egypt and Damascus which comes from the
western plain along the coast, over
the hills to Lajjun, and enters the plain of
Esdraelon. When the British
consul James Finn visited the area in the mid-19th century, he did not see a village. The authors of the
Survey of Western Palestine also noticed a
khan, south of the ruins of Lajjun in the early 1880s.
Gottlieb Schumacher saw caravans resting at the Lajjun stream in the early 1900s. s near a stream in Lajjun, 1908 The modern village of Lajjun was a satellite village Umm al-Fahm. During its existence it came to eclipse its mother settlement in infrastructure and economic importance. Originally, in the late 19th century, Arabs from
Umm al-Fahm started to make use of the Lajjun farmland, settling for the season. and calls the village along the stream
Ain es-Sitt. Which, he noted, "consists of only nine shabby huts in the midst of ruins and heaps of dung." and a few more
fellahin huts south of the stream. By 1925 some of the inhabitants of Lajjun reused stones from the ancient structure that had been unearthed to build new housing. At some point in the early 20th century the four
hamulas ("clans") of Umm al-Fahm divided the land among themselves: al-Mahajina, al-Ghubariyya, al-Jabbarin and al-Mahamid clans. Lajjun thus transformed into three ‘Lajjuns’, or administratively separate neighbourhoods reflecting the Hebronite/Khalīlī settlement pattern of its founders.
British Mandate period More people moved to Lajjun during the
British mandate period, particularly in the late thirties, due to the British crackdown on participants in the
1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. During 1940–1941, a police station belonging to the
Tegart forts system was constructed at the road intersection outside Lajjun by the British Mandate government. Lajjun's economy grew rapidly as a result of the influx of the additional population. As the village expanded, it was divided into three quarters, one to the east, one to the west, and the older one in the north. Each quarter was inhabited by one or more
hamula ("clan"). map of Lajjun, 1946 Lajjun had a school that was founded in 1937 and that had an enrollment of 83 in 1944. It was located in the quarter belonging to the al-Mahajina al-Fawqa clan, that is, in Khirbat al-Khan. In 1943, one of the large landowners in the village financed the construction of a mosque, built of white stone, in the al-Ghubariyya (eastern) quarter. Another mosque was also established in the al-Mahamid quarter during the same period, and was financed by the residents themselves. In
1945, Lajjun, Umm al-Fahm and seven hamlets had a total land area of , of which was Arab-owned, and the remainder being public property. There was a total of of land that was cultivated; were used for plantations and irrigated, and were planted with cereals (wheat and barley). The built-up area of the villages was , most of it being in Umm al-Fahm and Lajjun. Former villagers recall they grew wheat and corn in the fields, and irrigated crops such as eggplant, tomato, okra, cowpea and watermelon. A survey map from 1946 shows most of the buildings in the eastern and western quarters as built from stone and mud, but some used mud over wood. Many houses had neighbouring small plots marked as "orchards". In addition to agriculture, residents practiced
animal husbandry which formed was an important source of income for the town. In 1943, they owned 512 heads of
cattle, 834
sheep over a year old, 167
goats over a year old, 26
camels, 85
horses, 13
mules, 481
donkeys, 3822
fowls, 700
pigeons, and 206
pigs.
1948 War Lajjun was allotted to the Arab state in the 1947 proposed
United Nations Partition Plan. The village was defended by the
Arab Liberation Army (ALA),
Palmach units of the Haganah raided and blew up much of Lajjun on the night of April 15–16. On April 17, it was occupied by the Haganah. According to the newspaper, Lajjun was the "most important place taken by the Jews, whose offensive has carried them through ten villages south and east of Mishmar Ha'emek." The report added that women and children had been removed from the village and that 27 buildings in the village were blown up by the Haganah. However, al-Qawuqji states that attacks resumed on May 6, when ALA positions in the area of Lajjun were attacked by Haganah forces. The ALA's Yarmouk Battalion and other ALA units drove back their forces, but two days later, the ALA commander reported that the Haganah was "trying to cut off the Lajjun area from
Tulkarm in preparation of seizing Lajjun and Jenin".
State of Israel On May 30, 1948, in the first stage of the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, Lajjun was captured by
Israel's
Golani Brigade in
Operation Gideon. The capture was particularly important for the Israelis because of its strategic location at the entrance of the
Wadi Ara, which thus, brought their forces closer to Jenin. During the second truce between Israel and the Arab coalition, in early September, a
United Nations official fixed the permanent truce line in the area of Lajjun, according to press reports. A 500-yard strip was established on both sides of the line in which Arabs and Jews were allowed to harvest their crops.
Kibbutz Megiddo was built on some of Lajjun's village lands starting in 1949. Lajjun's buildings were demolished in the following months. It was later
planted with forest trees. In 1992
Walid Khalidi described the remains: "Only the white stone mosque, one village mill, the village health center, and a few partially destroyed houses remain on the site. The mosque has been converted into a carpentry workshop and one of the houses has been made into a chicken coop. The health center and grain mill are deserted, and the school is gone. The cemetery remains, but it is in a neglected state; the tomb of Yusuf al-Hamdan, a prominent nationalist who fell in the 1936 revolt, is clearly visible. The surrounding lands are planted with almond trees, wheat, and barley; they also contain animal sheds, a fodder plant, and a pump installed on the spring of 'Ayn al-Hajja. The site is tightly fenced in and entry is blocked." In 2000
Meron Benvenisti restated the information about the 1943 white mosque. By 2007 it was evacuated and sealed up. and the supreme court held the decision in 2010. Lajjun is among the Palestinian villages for which commemorative Marches of Return have taken place, typically as part of
Nakba Day, such as the demonstrations organized by
the Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced. In 2013, architect Shadi Habib Allah presented a proposal for a Palestinian village to be rebuilt on Lajjun in areas that are currently a park and inhabited by descendants of its displaced residents. The presentation was made for the "From Truth to Redress" conference organized by
Zochrot. ==Demographics==