The Frankish village of Magna Mahomeria

The casale of Bira in which the castrum of Magna Mahomeria was later built is mentioned for the first time as one of the twenty-one villages (casalia) which Duke Godfrey granted to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

A Frankish “castrum” is mentioned there for the first time in a confirmation issued by Pope Honorius II in 1128 for the property of the Chapter of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Only four years earlier the place was called “Birrum” and was described by Fulcher of Chartres as no more than a small village (viculus) with a tower recently built in it.

It is interesting to note that already in 1128 the place was called by its Frankish name. The current use of the Latin name testifies to the existence of Latin settlement. Local villages retained their original or Latinized names till the Latin settlement had taken root and only in later documents were they called only by the Latin names. It is also interesting to note that when the local name of Mahomeria reappears, it is the Syriac form “Byrra” or “Bira” which reappears and not the Arabic form al-Bira. This phenomenon is in no way unique to Mahomeria. The same applies to the local Christian village of Effraon and the village Afarbala, both called in Arabic al-Taiyba, to Hadesse, called in Arabic Kh. 'Adasa, to Beitiumen, called Baytuniya in Arabic, to Turcarme, called Tulkarim in Arabic, to Ramathes, and many others.