Part of the name, al-Khayt, came from the area named as ard al-khayt, located southwest of the lake of Hula.[6]
Al-Dimashqi (d.1327) wrote about Al Khait: "A district of the Upper Ghaur of the Jordan Valley. The country resembles that of Irak in the matter of its rice, its birds, its hot springs, and excellent crops."[7]
In the mid 18th century, The Syrian Sufi teacher and traveller al-Bakri al-Siddiqi (1688-1748/9) noted that he passed by al-Khayt with a judge from Safad.[5]
In the 1945 statistics the village had a population of 200 Muslims,[2] with 6,735 dunams of land, all of which was publicly owned.[3] Of this, 5,052 dunams were used for cereals,[10] while 17 dunams were classified as built-up, public areas.[11]
The village was also known by Mansurat al-Hula to distinguish it from al-Mansura in Safed and had a shrine for a local sage known as al-Shaykh Mansur from which the village was named after.
1948, aftermath
The village was temporarily evacuated after a Haganah attack on 18 January 1948. The Haganah was under order to "eliminate" anyone in the village who resisted.[12] It was noted that "houses and shacks were set alight" during the attack.[13]
In July 1948, a new settlement called Habonim, later renamed Kfar Hanassi, went up on the land of Mansurat al-Khayt.[14]
References
^ abMorris, 2004, p. xvi, village #59. Also gives cause of depopulation