The Druze settlement on Mount Carmel: Daliyat al-Karmil as a case study–Archaeological, historical and geographical evidence

ABSTRACT: The arrival date of the Druze at Mount Carmel is still unclear and several claims exist regarding it. None of the Druze villages have been extensively studied, and at present there are only two villages that survived the dismantling of the last two centuries; these are Daliyat al-Karmil and ʿIsifya. The current study will focus on Daliyat al-Karmil as a case study, using geographical, historical and archaeological evidence for dating the Druze arrival at Mount Carmel. The main claim suggests that the town began its journey during the early seventeenth century under the rule of Emir Fakhr al-Din al-Maʿani II; and another claim suggests that the town was built after the rule of Fakhr al-Din II, mostly because of immigration from Lebanon and Syria, as a result of the battle of ʿAyn Dara in 1711. Combining historical, archaeological and geographical evidence has led the present study to suggest that the settling of the town of Daliyat al-Karmil, as well as the other Druze settlements on Mount Carmel, did not begin before the seventeenth century. Moreover, it adds that the Druze inhabitation at Daliyat al-Karmil was among the earliest in the Carmel, and it probably began between 1622 and 1635.