Sam and companions camped at Janin September 21, 1867 and departed the next morning at 2:00am. Mark Twain Project: Quaker City Itinerary
Jênin is a village of some importance, with about 1300 inhab., including a few Christians, situated on the boundary between the mountains of Samaria and the plain of Esdrelon. It is the seat of a Kâimmakâm, and possesses a bazaar, two Muslim schools, and two mosques, one of which may formerly have been a church. An excellent spring, rising to the E., is conducted through the village. In the environs are productive gardens, where a few palms also occur.
See Bædeker (1898) Route 23. From Nâbulus to Jênin and Haifá
Jenîn, the ancient En-gannim, is beautifully situated just where the glen opens into the plain of Esdraelon. It is high enough to overlook the plain, and low enough to have its houses swept by its verdure. The hills rise up behind it steeply but not precipitously; dotted with bushes, and here and there clothed with olives. Rich gardens, hedged with prickly-pear, skirt their base; and a few palm-trees give an eastern look to the whole scene. The population of the town numbers from 2000 to 3000, including a few families of Christians. An Agha resides here with a force of 50 horsemen to protect the district and keep the roads clear—duties which are very indifferently performed. The houses are all of stone, and solidly built. “The Fountain,” from which the place appears originally to have taken its name, rises in the hills just behind the gardens, and the water is brought by a covered aqueduct to a reservoir of stone in the midst of the town. It was built about 40 yrs. ago by a certain Husein 'Abd-el-Hady, Mudir of 'Akka, and head of one of the first families in the country. It is one of the very few indications of anything like a public spirit existing among the rulers of Syria. En-gannim signifies the “Fountain of Gardens,” a name peculiarly applicable to this spot; and still retained in the modern Jenin. It was a Levitical city of Issachar (Josh. xix. 21; xxi. 29), and is mentioned by Josephus, under the name Ginæa, as situated in the great plain on the northern border of Samaria.