History
According to the Muslim historian al-Maqrizi, Umm al-Fahm was established in 1265. Its name means "Mother of Charcoal" in Arabic,) the village was surrounded by natural forests which were used to produce charcoal. Several archaeological sites around the city date to the Iron Age, as well as Muslim, Roman and Hellenistic periods.
In the late 19th century, Umm al-Fahm was described as having around 500 inhabitants, of which some 80 people were Christians. The place was well-built of stone, and the villagers were described as being very rich in cattle, goats and horses. A Muqam for a Sheik Iskander was noted on a hill above.
In 1948, there were 4,500 inhabitants, mostly farmers, in the Umm al-Fahm area. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Lausanne Conference of 1949 awarded the entire Little Triangle to Israel, which wanted it for security purposes. On 20 May 1949, the city's leader signed an oath of alliegiance to the State of Israel. Following its absorption into Israel, the town's population grew rapidly. By 1960, Umm al-Fahm was given local council status by the Israeli government. In 1965-1985, it was governed by elected councils. In 1985, Umm al-Fahm was given official city status.
Read more about this topic: Umm Al-Fahm
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations ... all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)