'Ayn Karim

The village was divided into a terraced upper section and a lower section that lay in a valley, below and west of the upper section. The terrace projected from hills that rose above the site to the east. Below the site to the west was a broad, flat valley; the hills themselves faced west (see photos). The westward-flowing Wadi Ahmad crossed the village and irrigated the olive orchards in the village's northern lands. 'Ayn Karim was considered a suburb of Jerusalem and was linked by a paved road to the Jerusalem−Jaffa highway, which passed 3 km to the north of it. Archaeological evidence indicates that the village site was occupied as early as the second millenium B.C. Tradition identifies 'Ayn Karim as the birthplace of John the Baptist, and it is also said that Christ and the Virgin Mary visited 'Ayn Karim several times. It is believed that the third caliph, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, passed by the village and held prayers in it at some time during the Islamic conquest. During the Crusades the village was called St. Jehan de Bois. Ottoman records indicate that in 1596 'Ayn Karim was a village in the nahiya of Jerusalem (liwa' of Jerusalem) and had a population of 160. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as on other types of produce and property, such as goats, beehives, molasses, and vineyards.

In the early nineteenth century the British traveler James Buckingham reported that there were Christians in this small village, and that the valleys in its vicinity abounded with olive trees. Later in that century, travelers noted the presence of the Franciscan Church of St. John, which was housed in a convent to the east. Another convent (for the Sisters of Zion) and a recently built chapel flanked the village on the west and south. The Survey of Western Palestine notes that, further to the west, a Russian hospice was under construction in 1882, that the Franciscans had established a school for boys, and that the Sisters of Zion ran a school and an orphanage for girls. At the turn of the century, several people who were born in the village went on to achieve positions of prominence, including Shaykh 'Isa Mannun, who at one point was dean of the College of Islamic Foundations at al-Azhar University in Egypt. 'Ayn Karim is said to have been the secret operations center for the forces of the well-known Palestinian leader 'Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni from 1936 to 1939.

'Ayn Karim was the largest village in the Jerusalem sub-disctrict, both in area and population. Its houses were built of limestone and chalk and with typically arched frames over their doors and windows. Of the estimated 3,180 people who lived in 'Ayn Karim in 1945, 2,510 were Muslims and 670 were Christians. The population was made up of five clans or hamulas ; each had a courtyard where members of the hamula and their guests gathered to socialize and celebrate special occasions. Drinking water was supplied by a number of springs. The village had two elementary schools (one for boys and another for girls), a bookstore, and a pharmacy. It also had several athletic and social clubs, including a boy scouts organization. The villagers attended theatrical performances, including plays by the Palestinian artist and singer Nuh Ibrahim, who had been exiled to 'Ayn Karim from his hometown in northern Palestine because he had been active in the struggle against the British Mandate. Other sources of entertainment and information in the village included an open air movie theater and a radio in the village cafe, which was hooked up to loudspeakers so that large numbers of people could listen to it. ['Atiyya, forthcoming]"

'Ayn Karim had a local council which ran its administrative affairs. Although the village was situated in a mountainous area, there were some flat lands to the north (especially in an area called al-Marj), where vegetables and fruit trees were planted. The villagers built terraces on the slopes in order to maximize agricultural production. Olive and fruit trees and vineyards were planted on the mountain slopes. In 1944 a total of 1,175 dunums was allocated to cereals; 7,953 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. In addition to agriculture, the people of 'Ayn Karim engaged in handicrafts and a few small-scale industries; for example, the village had a plant for bottling mineral water. There were several monasteries and churches, the most prominent among them the Church of John the Baptist (also called the Church of St. Johanna) which is said to be built on the grotto where he was born. Other Christian institutions included the Franciscan monastery, the Church of the Visitation, the Convent of Saint Zecharia, and the Church of the Lady of Sahyun and her tombs. There was also a mosque, named after 'Umar, the second Muslim caliph, with a minaret near 'Ayn Maryam.