from the Hejaz. The village mosque was built by a resident of al-Damun, Ali ibn Salih, who was also Zahir's uncle, in 1722–23. Inscriptions on the mosque entailed the genealogy of the Zaydani family and included a poem dedicated Ibn Salih. In the late 1700, :it:Giovanni Mariti noted that around Al-Damun and Mi'ar were two "delightful valleys, ornamented with groves and wild shrubs. The peasants who live in the hamlets around, enjoy a most pleasant situation." A map by Pierre Jacotin from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named as Damoun. In 1875, al-Damun was prosperous and had roughly 800, mostly Muslim inhabitants and two mosques. In addition to the possible tomb of Dhul-Kifl, there was a shrine dedicated to a certain Sheikh Abdallah on an adjacent hill. An elementary school for boys was founded by the Ottomans in 1886. A population list from about 1887 showed that Kh. ed Damun had about 725 inhabitants; all Muslims. British Mandate At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine, al-Damun had a population of 727, of whom 687 were Muslims and 40 were Christians. All the Christians were Roman Catholic. The population increased in the 1931 census to 917; 870 Muslims and 47 Christians, living in a total of 183 houses. At the beginning of the 20th century, al-Damun's houses were clustered along one road and starting in 1935, the residents started to build them with reinforced concrete. The inhabitants drew their drinking water from nearby springs and irrigated some of their crops from the Na'amin River. They also engaged in allied activities, particularly plaiting mats and baskets from esparto grass. The chief crops of al-Damun were wheat, sorghum, barley, and olives, but it was also well known for its watermelons and cantaloupes. In the 1945 statistics the population of al-Damun was 1,310; 1,240 Muslims and 70 Christians, The village's total land area was 20,357 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. 709 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 17,052 used for cereals, while 111 dunams were built-up (urban) land. Prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Haganah kept files on all the Palestinian villages. The 1947 entry for al-Damun listed 25 individuals suspected of involvement with the Palestinian nationalist movement. In April 1948, Haganah reports say that the son of the main local land-owner, Sadiq Karaman, paid the local ALA garrison P£5000 to leave, presumably