page_title: Lajjun
section_title: Later Ottoman rule
hierarchical_section_title: Lajjun / History / Ottoman era / Later Ottoman rule
caption_attribution_description: Lajjun, Palestine
context_page_description: Lajjun was a large Palestinian Arab village in Mandatory Palestine, located 16 kilometers northwest of Jenin and 1 kilometer south of the remains of the biblical city of Megiddo. The Israeli kibbutz of Megiddo, Israel was built on the land from 1949.
  Named after an early Roman legion camp in Syria Palaestina province called "Legio", predating the village at that location, Lajjun's history of habitation spanned some 2,000 years. Under Abbasid rule it was the capital of a subdistrict, during Mamluk rule it served as an important station in the postal route, and during Ottoman rule it was the capital of a district that bore its name. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire towards the end of World War I, Lajjun and all of Palestine was placed under the administration of the British Mandate. The village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when it was captured by Israel. Most of its residents subsequently fled and settled in the nearby town of Umm al-Fahm.
context_section_description: Much of the Lajjun district territories were actually taxed by the stronger families of Sanjak Nablus by 1723. Later in the 18th century, Lajjun was replaced by Jenin as the administrative capital of the sanjak which now included the Sanjak of Ajlun. By the 19th century it was renamed Sanjak Jenin, although Ajlun was separated from it. Zahir al-Umar, who became the effective ruler of the Galilee for a short period during the second half of the 18th century, was reported to have used cannons against Lajjun in the course of his campaign between 1771–1773 to capture Nablus. It is possible that this attack led to the village's decline in the years that followed. By that time, Lajjun's influence was diminished by the increasing strength of Acre's political power and Nablus's economic muscle.
  Edward Robinson visited in 1838, and noted that the khan, which Maundrell commented on, was for the accommodation of the caravans passing on the great road between Egypt and Damascus which comes from the western plain along the coast, over the hills to Lajjun, and enters the plain of Esdraelon. When the British consul James Finn visited the area in the mid-19th century, he did not see a village. The authors of the Survey of Western Palestine also noticed a khan, south of the ruins of Lajjun in the early 1880s. Gottlieb Schumacher saw caravans resting at the Lajjun stream in the early 1900s.
  Andrew Petersen, inspecting the place in 1993, noted that the principal extant buildings at the site  are  the khan and a bridge. The bridge, which crosses a major tributary of the Kishon River, is approximately 4 meters (13 ft) wide and 16 meters (52 ft) to 20 meters (66 ft) long. It is carried on three arches, the north side has been robbed of its outer face, while the south side is heavily overgrown with vegetation. According to Petersen, the bridge was already in ruins when drawn by Charles William Wilson in the 1870s. The khan is located on a low hill 150 meters (490 ft) to the southwest of the bridge. It is a square enclosure measuring approximately 30 meters (98 ft) per side with a central courtyard. The ruins are covered with vegetation, and only the remains of one room is visible.
  In the late 19th century, Arabs from Umm al-Fahm started to make use of the Lajjun farmland, settling for the season. Gradually, they settled in the village, building their houses around the springs. In 1903–1905, Schumacher excavated Tell al-Mutasallim (ancient Megiddo) and some spots in Lajjun. Schumacher wrote that Lajjun ("el-Leddschōn") is properly the name of the stream and surrounding farmlands, and calls the village along the stream Ain es-Sitt. Which, he noted, "consists of only nine shabby huts in the midst of ruins and heaps of dung." and a few more fellahin huts south of the stream. By 1925 some of the inhabitants of Lajjun reused stones from the ancient structure that had been unearthed to build new housing. At some point in the early 20th century the four hamulas ("clans") of Umm al-Fahm divided the land among themselves: al-Mahajina, al-Ghubariyya, al-Jabbarin and al-Mahamid clans.
caption: A herd of camels near a stream in Lajjun, 1908[61]
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