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Al-Muharraqa

place in Gaza, Mandatory Palestine

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ4702940
Source-derived summary

Al-Muharraqa (Arabic: المحرّقة) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Gaza Subdistrict, located 14.5 kilometers (9.0 mi) east of Gaza city. The village laid on rolling terrain on the southern coastal plain of Palestine, on a bend in the wadi. It had an elevation of 125 meters (410 ft) and a total land area of 4,855 dunams, most of which was public property, while its built-up area of 29 dunams was Arab-owned. Al-Muharraqa was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

History

Although not mentioned in Byzantine sources, al-Muharraqa was inhabited during this period, according to archaeological evidence. Byzantine ceramics, together with fragments of marble columns and a fragmentary mosaic pavement with geometric patterns have been found.

During the Mamluk period from the 13th to 15th centuries, the lands and surplus agricultural produce of al-Muharraqa were dedicated as a waqf for the maintenance of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Great Mosque of Gaza.

Ottoman era

It was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in a sijill (royal order) from 941/1535 all of the revenue from Al-Muharraqa went to Ribat al-Mansuri; a hospital in Jerusalem started by Al-Mansur Qalawun in 1282. In the 1596 tax records, it was under the administration of the nahiya of Gaza, part of the Sanjak of Gaza, with a population of 83 Muslim households, an estimated 457 persons. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, beehives, and goats; a total of 26,600 akçe.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Al-Muharraqa” as place in Gaza, Mandatory Palestine. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1948, 1517, 1535, 1282—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Al-Muharraqa, place and Gaza can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as place in Gaza, Mandatory Palestine. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4702940. VIAF identifies the subject as 316602365. Authority coordinates are 31.467, 34.611. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1517, 1535 and 1282.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Al-Muharraqa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.