Muqeible, named Meqbeleh on the map by Pierre Jacotin from 1799
During the Roman-era, a town called "Muqeibleh" stood at the site. Byzantine-era settlement is attested to archaeologically by a well and pottery workshops from that period near the present village.[3][4]
Ottoman era
According to a local inhabitant, the villagers moved here from the al-Haram-Sidna Ali-area in the latter part of the Ottoman period.[3]
In 1838 Edward Robinson noted Mukeibileh as a “village in the plain, on the direct route from Jenin to Nazareth.”[5] He placed Mukeibileh as being in the District of Jenin, also called "Haritheh esh-Shemaliyeh".[6]
Victor Guérin, who visited in 1870, noted that the village contained 400 inhabitants and had a number of cisterns.[7] In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Shafa al-Qibly.[8]
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Muquibleh had a population of 201; 181 Muslims and 20 Christians,[10] where all the Christians were Orthodox.[11] In the 1931 census the population had increased to 270; 244 Muslims and 26 Christians, in a total of 67 houses.[12]
By the 1945 statistics Muqeible had 460 inhabitants, all classified as Muslims.[13] They owned a total of 2,687 dunams of land, while 4,441 dunams were public, a total of 7,128.[14] Of this, 174 dunams were used for plantations or irrigable land, 6,421 for cereals,[15] while 22 dunams were built-up land.[16]
In 1994, Andrew Petersen, an archaeologist specializing in Islamic architecture, examined the "Hawsh"; a large, square courtyard building, resembling a khan, in the center of the village. The central courtyard of the "Hawsh" measures approximately 30m per side. On the east side there is a small gateway, leading into a tall iwan. Petersen noted that the masonry suggested that it was built either in late Ottoman or early Mandate Period.[3]
