Ein Mahil (Arabic: عين ماهل; Hebrew: עֵין מָהִל) is an Arablocal council in the Northern District of Israel, located about five kilometers north-east of Nazareth. It was declared a local council in 1964. In 2022 it had a population of 13,931,[1] the majority of which are Muslims.
History
Ottoman Empire
In 1596, Ein Mahil appeared in Ottomantax registers as being in the Nahiya of Tabariyya, part of Safad Sanjak. It had a population of 28 Muslim households. They paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, fruit trees, and goats or beehives; a total of 1,355 akçe.[3] A map by Pierre Jacotin, from 1799 showed the place named Ain el Mahel.[4]
In 1838 it was noted as a Muslim village in the Nazareth district.[5][6]
The French explorer Victor Guérin passed by the village in the 1875, and described it as having 10 poor dwellings, surrounded by gardens of olives, figs and pomegranates.[7] In 1881 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as a "Stone village, situated on very high ground, surrounded by figs and olives and arable land. It contains about 200 Moslems, and has near it a fine group of springs."[8]
A population list from about 1887 showed that ’Ain Mahil had about 195 Muslim inhabitants.[9]
In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,040 Muslims,[12] with 13,390 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[13] Of this, 1,486 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 6,748 for cereals,[14] while 35 dunams were built-up land.[15]
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