'Awlam

The village was situated on the slopes of the westward-flowing Wadi 'Awlam (a tributary of Wadi al-Bira) and faced the northwest. It was linked by a secondary road to a highway that led to Tiberias and some neighboring villages. 'Awlam is identified with the important Roman city of Oulamma, which the Crusaders referred to later as Heulem. In 1596, 'Awlam was a village in the nahiya of Tiberias (liwa' of Safad) with a population of eighty-three. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as on other types of property, such as goats and beehives.

In the late nineteenth century, 'Awlam was described as a village built of adobe bricks and was situated on elevated ground. The village's 120 residents cultivated 30 faddans (1  faddan = 100-250 dunums). During the British Mandate the village had an irregular shape, with its longest axis running from east to west. Most of the houses (which were built very close to each other) were built of stones and adobe brick. Their roofs were made of timber and reeds covered with a layer of mud. A small number of houses, however, were built of stone and cement, or concrete. The villagers, all of whom were Muslims, included members of a Bedouin tribe called the 'Arab al-Muwaylhat. The village had a mosque and an elementary school that was founded in the Ottoman period but was closed during the Mandate.

The villagers drew their drinking and domestic water from more than six springs. They relied on agriculture and cattle breeding for their livelihood. They planted various kinds of grain; vegetables and fruits (such as figs, grapes, and pomegranates) also were cultivated. Fruit orchards were planted to the north, northwest, and west of the village. In 1944/45 a total of 6,623 dunums were allotted to cereals; 202 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. As mentioned above, historical documents indicate that the village was built on at least part of the site of an earlier town. This is confirmed by the many examples of reused building materials and the unused fragments of earlier construction that were found in the village.