Jarrar (Arabic: جرار) is a large Palestinian family that served as rural landlords and tax-collectors (mutasallims) in the Jenin area during Ottoman rule in Palestine.
[2] The Jarrar family migrated to Marj Ibn Amer (Jezreel Valley) in the Lajjun district from the Balqa region of Transjordan in 1670.
It also marked the border between Galilee and Jabal Nablus, linked the coast to the interior and contained the market town of Jenin, which also served as a storage for collected taxes from the district.
[1] The Jarrars' political power was punctuated by their peasant militia and their heavily fortified, hilltop throne village of Sanur.
[5] In the 18th century, the Jarrar family was at the forefront of various conflicts between the governors of Acre and the rural clans and urban notables of Jabal Nablus.
The first serious battle occurred in 1735 with Sheikh Zahir al-Umar over control over Nazareth, a principal center of trade in the interior between Jabal Nablus and the Levantine regions north of it.
The circumstances of these events placed the Tuqans and the Nimr family as the defenders of Ottoman sovereignty and the Jarrars as the backers of rebels, namely Zahir al-Umar and the resurgent Mamluks of Egypt under Ali Bey Al-Kabir.
Consequently, Abdullah Pasha, with reinforcements from Emir Chehab of Mount Lebanon, besieged the Jarrars' throne village of Sanur, storming it four months later.
[7] A year later, forces dispatched by rebel leader Muhammad Ali of Egypt conquered the Levant and ended Abdullah Pasha's reign.