Ma'ayan Harod
[3] This was a major turning point in world history that saw the Mamluks inflict the first of two defeats on the Mongols that ultimately halted their invasion of the Levant and Egypt.
Other associations have also been suggested, including in the 1841 Biblical Researches in Palestine, which linked it to the "spring in Jezreel" where Saul pitched his tent before his final battle, but this was rejected in 1847 and has gained little traction since.
[15] In the 14th century, the Jewish geographer Ishtori Haparchi identified Ain Jalut with the biblical "Spring which is in Jezreel", as well as where the Israelite king Saul prepared his army before the Battle of Gilboa, in which he and his son were ultimately killed.
[16] Haparchi dismissed the connection of the spring to Goliath, suggesting that the biblical battle took place between Sokho and Azekah, in Judea, not the Jezreel Valley.
[16] In the 19th century, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, in his 1856 book Sinai and Palestine, similarly associated Ain Jalut with the "Spring of Jezreel", and also suggested that this could be the same site as En Harod, a place mentioned in the story of Gideon's battle with the Midianites.
[18] Stanley noted that the then modern name, "Ain Jahlood" or "Spring of Goliath" may have originated, as observed by Carl Ritter in his 1866 geography of Palestine, from a confused recollection of the earlier stories, but "more probably arose from a false tradition in the 6th century".
[19] In 2017, Israel Finkelstein and Oded Lipschits also rejected a link between En Harod and Ain Jalut, asserting that the Battle of Gilboa actually took place near Shechem (modern day Nablus), after which the Israelites chased the Midianites to Succoth, which is east of the Jordan River.
Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, in his Life of Saladin, wrote that "The Sultan continued his march to el-Jalut, a prosperous village, near which there is a spring (ain), and here he pitched his camp".
In that battle, the Mamluks used the terrain of Ain Jalut to their advantage, concealing their main army in the trees on adjacent hills before provoking the Mongols with a decoy force.
In 1921, when the land was sold by the Sursocks, the nine families who lived here petitioned the new British administration for perpetual ownership, but were only offered a short lease with an option to buy.
Shlomo Lavi, among the leaders of the Gdud, had envisioned the "Big Kvutza", a settlement consisting of several farms spread on vast terrain with both agriculture and industry.
Yehuda Kopolevitz Almog, one of the Gdud's leaders, describes that in the first day the settlers set up tents and began enclosing their camp with barbwire and defensive trenches.
The group that remained in Ein Harod included 110 members and was headed by Lavi, Yitzhak Tabenkin, Aharon Zisling and David Maletz.
[38] The park has been described as "well maintained", but visitors to the site "have absolutely no way of knowing that one of the climactic battles of the Middle Ages was fought in it".
[3] An archaeological survey conducted in the 20th century found flour mills and the remains of an aqueduct dated to Islamic times (either before or after the Crusades) in the immediate vicinity of the spring.
[39] In July 1970, Yasser Arafat referred to the modern area in the context of the historical battle:[40][non-primary source needed] This will not be the first time that our people has vanquished its enemies.
