Al-Haram, Jaffa

Al-Haram
Sidna Ali Mosque in Al-Haram
Subdistrict	Jaffa
Palestine grid	131/177
Population	520 (1945)
Area	2,681 dunams
Date of depopulation	3 February 1948
Cause(s) of depopulation	Fear of being caught up in the fighting

Al-Haram (El Haram ʿAly Ibn ʿAleim, also Sayyiduna Ali or Sidna Ali "sanctuary of ʿAli [Ibn ʿAleim]"), was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict, the only one with a Jewish majority, in Mandatory Palestine. It was located 16 km north of Jaffa, adjacent to the ruins of the medieval fortress of Arsuf, and its extent was estimated to range between 9,653 and 11,698 dunams of which 5,150 were accounted for in the cadastral registrations. It was depopulated during the 1948 war.

The medieval fortress of Arsuf was captured from the kingdom of Jerusalem by Baibars in 1265, after 40 days of siege. Its inhabitants were killed or sold as slaves and the town completely razed. The site was completely abandoned for about a century, according to the geographer Abulfeda (writing in c. 1330), the site contained no inhabitants ("Tabula Syriæ", 82). It appears that a minor village was re-established in the 16th century in the vicinity of the Sidna Ali Mosque, mentioned by Mujir al-Din (writing c. 1496) as having been dedicated at the site the tomb of the saint, ʿAli Ibn ʿAleim (d. 1081), where he prayed for victory prior to retaking Arsuf.

In 1596, in the Ottoman era, a third of the revenues from nearby Arsuf went to the waqf of ʿAli Ibn ʿAleim.Pierre Jacotin called the village Ali Ebn harami on his map from 1799. In 1880, it was described as a adobe village of moderate size on high ground, with springs to the north, and on the west a mosque. The full name was recorded as El Haram 'Aly Ibn 'Aleim.

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al-Haran had a population of 172, all Muslims increasing the 1931 census to 313, still all Muslims, in a total of 83 houses.

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