al-Mujaydil

The village stood on the gently-sloping, southern slopes of Wadi al-Mujaydil, on the Nazareth–Haifa highway. In 1596, al-Mujaydil was in the nahiya of Tabariyya (liwa' of Safad) with a population of twenty-two. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, fruit trees, goats, and beehives. In the late nineteenth century al-Mujaydil was described as a 'flourishing' village built of stone and mud. It was on the northern side of a small plateau, and olive groves were cultivated to the east and south. The number of its residents was estimated at 800 (in 1859); they cultivated 100 faddans (1 faddan = 100–250 dunums). Several springs flowed in the vicinity of the village, mainly in the southwest. Al-Mujaydil had a triangular outline; its houses were clustered closely together, and were made of stone and mud, stone and cement, or concrete. In 1945 it was the third largest village in the sub-disctrict in terms of population; it had 1,640 Muslims and 260 Christian inhabitants. There were two elementary schools in al-Mujaydil, one for boys and one for girls. The village also had a Roman Catholic church and a monastery, and a local council that administered its affairs.

A Survey of Palestine estimates the council's expenditures at 36 Palestinian pounds (P£) in 1929 but offers no figures for subsequent years. The Palestine Gazette shows that these expenditures amounted to P£80 in 1937 and then fell to P£34 in 1942, although the revenues continued to grow. Agriculture was the backbone of the economy; the most important crop was grain. In 1944/45 a total of 14,982 dunums was allotted to cereals; 1,685 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, the bulk of which (1,600 dunums) was planted with olive trees. AI-Mujaydil was the second largest olive producer in the sub-disctrict and had two mechanical olive presses in operation. Traces of a Roman road were found close to the village, which may indicate that the region was opened to intensive settlement as early as Roman times.