Shufa ( ar, شوفه) is a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

village in the

Tulkarm Governorate The Tulkarm Governorate ( ar, محافظة طولكرم, Muḥāfaẓat Ṭūlkarm) is an administrative district and one of 16 Governorates of Palestine located in the north-western West Bank. The governorate's land area is 268 square kilometres ...

in the eastern

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, located 6 kilometers South-east of

Tulkarm Tulkarm, Tulkarem or Tull Keram ( ar, طولكرم, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located in the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian cities of N ...

. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ar, الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء الفلسطيني) is the official statistical institution of the State of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures a ...

, Shufa had a population of approximately 1,253 inhabitants in mid-year 2006. 5.4% of the population of Shufa were refugees in 1997. The healthcare facilities for Shufa are at

Kafr al-Labad Kafr al-Labad ( ar, كفراللبد) is a Palestinian village in the Tulkarm Governorate in the northeastern West Bank, located 9 kilometers east of Tulkarm and two kilometers south of Anabta. Its population in 2007 was 4,074 according to the Pale ...

Saffarin Saffarin ( ar, سفارين) is a Palestinian village in the western West Bank, in the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine, located 11 kilometers South-east of Tulkarm. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Saffarin ...

where the facilities are designated as MOH level 2.

History

Ceramics from the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

era have been found here.

Ottoman era

Shufa, like all of

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in 1517. In the 1596 tax registers, it was named ''Sufa'', part of the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

'' ("subdistrict") of Jabal Sami, part of the larger

Sanjak of Nablus The Nablus Sanjak ( ar, سنجق نابلس; tr, Nablus Sancağı) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman rule in the Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part o ...

. It had a population of 8 households, all

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s. The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a press for olive oil or grape syrup, and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 3,202

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...

. In 1838, it was noted as a village, ''Shaufeh'' in the ''Wady esh-Sha'ir'' district, west of Nablus. In 1870

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Mino ...

noted the village on a hilltop, and taking it as equal importance as

. In 1882 the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...

'' (SWP) described ''Shufeh'' as: "A small stone village, in a strong position on a ridge, with steep slopes north and south. It is supplied by a

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

in the village, and has a few olives below it. A good view is obtained from it over the plain, and the country north and south, as well as to the range north of Sebustieh."

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divisi ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Shufeh'' had a population of 207 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Tulkarm, p
27
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 259 Muslims, living in 47 houses.Mills, 1932, p
57
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population of Shufa was 370 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
21
/ref> with 11,690

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

s of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 4,315 dunams were used for cereals, while 6 dunams were built-up (urban) land. File:Shufa 1942.jpg, Shufa 1942 1:20,000 File:Taiyiba 1945.jpg, Shufa 1945 1:250,000

Jordanian era

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. In 1961, the population was 503.Government of Jordan, 1964, p
27
/ref>

Post 1967

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

in 1967, Shufa has been under

Israeli occupation Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Shufa
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Tulkarm Governorate Villages in the West Bank Tulkarm Governorate Municipalities of the State of Palestine