Yarka, officially Yirka (, ), is a Druze village and local council in the Northern District of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. In 2019 it had a population of 17,171, 98.8% of them members of the

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

community, with a small

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

(1.0%) and

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

(0.1%) minorities.

History

Ancient era

Yarka is an ancient village site, where old

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

and

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s have been found. A Greek inscription here dating from the early Christian era was found by

Clermont-Ganneau Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (19 February 1846 – 15 February 1923) was a noted French Orientalist and archaeologist. Biography Clermont-Ganneau was born in Paris, the son of Simon Ganneau, a sculptor and mystic who died in 1851 when Clerm ...

in 1881.

Crusader period

During the Crusader era, Yarka was known under the name of ''Arket''. In 1220,

Joscelin III Joscelin III (c. 1139 – after 1190) was the titular count of Edessa, who during his lifetime managed to amass enough land to establish a lordship in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Early life Joscelin III was the son of Joscelin II and Beatr ...

's daughter

Beatrix de Courtenay Beatrix de Courtenay (died after 1245) was a Titular Countess of Edessa and Countess consort of Henneberg as the wife of Otto von Botenlauben. She was the eldest daughter of Agnes of Milly and Joscelin III, Count of Edessa, who sold Chastel Ne ...

and her husband

Otto von Botenlauben Otto von Botenlauben or Botenlouben (1177, Henneberg – before 1245, near Bad Kissingen), the Count of Henneberg from 1206, was a German minnesinger, Crusader and monastic founder. Otto von Botenlauben was the fourth son of Count Poppo VI ...

, Count of Henneberg, sold their land, including Arket, to the

Teutonic Knights The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to t ...

Ottoman era

In 1517, Yarka was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

after Palestine was captured from the

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

s. By 1596, Yarka appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as part of the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of Akka of the '' Liwa'' of Safad. It had a population of 174 Muslim households and 24 bachelors. A map by

Pierre Jacotin Pierre Jacotin (1765–1827) was the director of the Surveying, survey for the ''Carte de l'Égypte (Description de l'Égypte)'', the first triangulation-based map of Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The maps were drafted in 1799–1800 during Napole ...

from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the town under the name ''Hierka''. PikiWiki Israel 8721 statue at the entrance to yarka

The French explorer

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

visited Yarka in 1875, and wrote that "cut stones of ancient appearance have been used in building the modern houses. ..About a hundred cisterns cut in rock, a half of which are no longer used, and the other half serve for the wants of the people, reveal the existence in this place of an ancient locality of some importance." In 1881, the

Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem by Royal Engineers of the War Department. The Fund is the oldest known organization i ...

's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described Yarka as a well-built stone village inhabited by 400 Druze who grew olives and figs. A population list from about 1887 showed that ''Yerka'' had about 1,285 inhabitants; virtually all Druze.

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Yarka had a population of 978 residents; 937 Druze, 26 Muslims, and 15 Christians,Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Acre, p
36
/ref> where the Christians were 11 Orthodox, 3 Roman Catholics, and 1 Maronite.Barron, 1923, Table XVI, p
50
/ref> The population increased in the 1931 census to 1,196; 1,138 Druze, 46 Muslims, and 11 Christians living in a total of 343 houses. According to an official land and population survey, Yarka had a population of 1,500 in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat. Events World War II will be ...

; 70 Muslims, 10 Christians, and 1420 Druze, encapsulating with 42,452

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land. Of this, 5,747 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 5,909 used for cereal, while 140 dunams were built-up land in

Religious sites

Yarka contains the ''

maqam Maqam, makam, maqaam or maqām (plural maqāmāt) may refer to: Musical structures * Arabic maqam, melodic modes in traditional Arabic music ** Iraqi maqam, a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq * Persian maqam, a notion in Persian clas ...

'' ("saintly-person tomb") of Shaykh Ghana'im Abu Saraya,Dana, 2003, p. 36. a native of the town and one of the first missionary sheikhs to spread the Druze faith in

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

during the 11th century.Swayd, 2009, p
8
/ref>Abu-Izzedin, 1993, p
131
/ref> He was the principle Druze sheikh in the Acre coastal area. Druze tradition has it that Abu Saraya is buried underneath the floor of the shrine. The town is also the site of the al-Nabi Siddiq ''maqam''. The Druze associate al-Nabi Siddiq with the biblical figure Hushai. According to this tradition, the name "Yarka" derives from "ha-Arki". The Druze prayer house "Khalwah ash-Sheikh Muhammad" is situated just east of Yarka. It was built sometime prior to 1931 by the religious sheikh Muhammad Mu'addi as a center for Druze religious studies.

Economy

Yarka houses Kadmani Metal Works, Inc., now defunct. ''My Baby'', Israel's largest store for children's and baby's supplies, with 11,000 meters of retail space, is also stationed in Yarka. The store has an annual turnover of NIS 100 million ($27.1 million USD).Israel's only American-style baby store, in the heart of a Druze village
/ref>

Notable residents

Jabr Muadi Sheikh Jabr Muadi (; ; 1 April 1919 – 19 May 2009) was an Israeli Druze politician who served as a member of the Knesset for seven different parties between 1951 and 1981. Biography Born in Yirka in British-controlled Palestine, Muadi was fir ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * (p
152
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (p
463

External links

Official website
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Authority control Arab localities in Israel Druze communities in Israel Local councils in Northern District (Israel)