Iksal

In 536 a Council was held in Jerusalem to condemn Severus of Antioch and his followers. Present at that Council were 45 bishops from Palestine, including one Parthenius, bishop of Exalus, which is identified with Iksal.[10] Thus we know the town had enough Christians in the 6th Century to warrant a bishop.

On December 22, 946, the forces of the Egyptian Ikhshidid dynasty defeated those of Sayf al-Daula at Iksal. The latter retreated to Aleppo, while the Ikshidid forces advanced onto Damascus.[11]

During the period of Crusader or Mamluk rule in Palestine, a castle was built in Iksal, the ruins of which remain visible today.[8] The Crusaders probably added to a much older structure which had been constructed first in the Abbasid, and then in the Fatimid era.[12] A large cemetery by the village was named Mukbarat el Afranj ("Cemetery of the Franks").[13]

Yaqut al-Hamawi described the place (which he called Aksal), as "A village in the Jordan Province, lying 5 leagues from Tiberias towards Ar Ramlah. The river Abu Futrus is in the neighbourhood."[14]

Building remains from the Mamluk period have also been excavated.[8] One excavation revealed three constructions with pottery remains, all dating from the Mamluk era, 14th and 15th century CE.[15]

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as Ksal, located in the Nahiya of Tabariyya of the Safad Sanjak. The population was 17 households and 1 bachelor, all Muslim. They paid a tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, summer crops, fruit trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 6,633 Akçe.[16][17]

In 1738 Richard Pococke passed by the place, which he called Zal. He noted that near it was "many sepulchres cut in the rock, some of them are like stone coffins above-ground, others are cut into the rock, like graves, some of them have stone covers over them, so that formerly this might be no inconsiderable place."[18] A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as Iksad.[19]

Edward Robinson, who passed by the village in 1838, repeated Pocockes assertion that Iksal had many sepulchres.[20]

In 1863 Henry Baker Tristram saw the remains of a "Crusader" tower in Iksal,[21] while in 1875, Victor Guérin found it to have 400 inhabitants, all Muslim.[22] In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Iksal as "a large stone village, built in the plains, with a conspicuous square tower, surrounded by gardens and containing about 400 Moslims, many caves and cisterns."[23]

A population list from about 1887 showed that Iksal had about 600 Muslim inhabitants.[24]

At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine Iksal had a population of 621 Muslims,[25] increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 752, still all Muslims, in a total of 166 houses.[26]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,110, all Muslims,[27] while the total land area was 16,009 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[28] Of this, 581 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 13,029 for cereals,[29] while 47 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[30]

Like many other Arab towns and villages in the Galilee that were left standing after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Iksal surrendered to Israeli forces without putting up a fight. Individuals who had collaborated with Zionist officials prior to Israel's establishment, negotiated the terms of surrender and transition to rule under the new military government.[31]