Miska

The village stood on a slightly elevated, sandy hill on the coastal plain, along the north bank of a wadi. It was linked by secondary roads to the highway leading to Tulkarm and to the coastal highway. The village may have been founded by descendants of the Arabian tribe of Miska whose members immigrated to the area prior to, and in the early days of, the Islamic conquest. The identification of the village with this tribe is uncertain, however. Moreover, another village with the same name but at a different location (182187) existed in 1596, in the nahiya of Jabal Shami, liwa' of Nablus. According to the Arab chronicler al-Safadi (d. 1362), a number of Islamic scholars have attributed their origins to Miska, including the grammarian and prosodist 'Abd al-Mun'im al-Miski (al-Iskandarani), who died in Cairo in 1235. According to the Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1228), Miska was also known for its fruit, especially the misk (musk) apple variety which was said to have been transferred to Egypt by the Fatimid vizier al-Hasan al-Yazuri, who died in 1058 (see Yazur, Jaffa sub-disctrict). The French commander Kléber and his troops passed by the village on their way to Acre during the Napoleonic invasion in 1799.

In the late nineteenth century, Miska was a small village whose population was estimated at 300. Olive trees were planted to the north and south, and fig and palm trees were scattered throughout the village. The plan of the village was roughly square and was divided into four unequal sections by two streets that intersected at the village center. New houses, built in the last years of the British Mandate, were located to the north, away from the wadi. The population was Muslim, and maintained a mosque and an elementary school. Some parts of the surrounding lands had been forests but had been cleared and planted with fruit trees. Water resources, especially wells, were relatively abundant around the village. The water supported citrus cultivation over large portions of the village lands. In 1944 a total of 1,115 dunums was devoted to citrus and bananas and 3,245 dunums were allotted to cereals; 304 additional dunums were also irrigated or used for the growing of other fruit trees. Grain, greens, cucumbers, and watermelons were also grown. To the southwest lay a tell, Dhahrat al-Sawwana (142178), which produced evidence of a prehistoric settlement.