Bi'ina
Bi'ina
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 Bi'ina
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| Coordinates: 32°55′46″N 35°16′22″E / 32.92944°N 35.27278°ECoordinates: 32°55′46″N 35°16′22″E / 32.92944°N 35.27278°E | |
| Grid position | 175/259 PAL |
| District | Northern |
| Government | |
| • Type | Local council |
| Population (2015) | |
| • Total | 7,918 |
Bi'ina or al-Bi'na is an Arab town in the Northern District of Israel. It is located east of Akko. In 2003, Bi'ina merged with Majd al-Krum and Deir al-Asad to form the city of Shaghur, but was reinstated as a local council in 2008 after Shaghur was dissolved. Bi'ina has a mostly Muslim population (92%) with a small Christian minority (8%); in 2015 its population was 7,918.
In 1517, Bi'ina, with the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire after it was captured from the Mamluks, and by 1596 appeared in tax registers as belonging to the Nahiya of Akka of the Liwa of Safad. It had a population of 16 Muslim households and 15 Christian households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, cotton, goats or beehives and a press for grapes or olives. A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as "El Bena".
French scholar Victor Guérin visited in the 1870s, and wrote that the population was divided between Druze and Greek Orthodox Christians. He listed a mosque and a Greek church, both of which were built on the sites of older churches. In the late 19th century, it was described as a village of 300 Muslims and 100 Christians, surrounded by olives and arable land. Water was supplied by a spring.
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Wikipedia