Zir'in (, also spelled Zerein) was a Palestinian Arab village of over 1,400 in the Jezreel Valley, located north of Jenin. Identified as the ancient town of Yizre'el (Jezreel), it was known as Zir'in during Islamic rule, and was near the site of the Battle of Ain Jalut, in which the Mamluks halted Mongol expansion southward. Under the Ottomans, it was a small village, expanding during the British Mandate in the early 20th century. After its capture by Israel in 1948, Zir'in was destroyed. The Israeli kibbutz of Yizre'el was established shortly after on the village lands of Zir'in. Etymology Derived from a common Canaanite root meaning to "sow", Yizre'el translates in Hebrew as "God give seed" and its Arabic name "Zir'in" has a similar connotation. The Crusaders referred to it as "le Petit Gerin" or "the Little Jenin" to distinguish it from Jenin, which they called "le Grand Gerin". In Latin literature of the time it was called "Gezrael", "Iezrael", "Parvum Gerinum" or "Zarain". History Bronze and Iron Ages Zir'in is identified with the Canaanite town of Yizre'el mentioned in the Bible. Crusader period A vaulted building and other structures remain from a castle that belonged to the Templars by the 1180s. During the Battle of al-Fule, Saladin has sent skirmishers to raid then Crusader-held Zir'in in October 1183. In September 1184, Saladin and his Ayyubid forces passed through the village on their way to Nablus. Mamluk period After the Mamluks took control of the area in the late 13th century, the Mamluk sultan Zahir Baybars defeated the Mongols in the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, at a site just west of Zir'in. After the battle, Baybars ordered the renovation of the village mosque. During the Mamluk period the village was one of the stops on the postal route between Jenin and Irbid. Ottoman period In 1517, Zir'in was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire along with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596 it was a part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jinin, a part of Sanjak Lajjun. A village of 4 Muslim households, it paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on wheat, barley, beehives, and goats; a total of 5,000 akçe. In the 17th and 18th centuries the village was most likely under the control of the Turabay, an Arab tribe that ruled part of northern Palestine on behalf of the Ottomans at the time. In