Shufa () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village in the Tulkarm Governorate in the eastern

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, located 6 kilometers South-east of Tulkarm. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Shufa had a population of approximately 1,253 inhabitants in mid-year 2006 and 1,350 by 2017. 5.4% of the population of Shufa were refugees in 1997. The healthcare facilities for Shufa are at Kafr al-Labad or Saffarin where the facilities are designated as MOH level 2.

History

Ceramics from the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

era have been found here.

Ottoman era

Shufa, like all of

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

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

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, 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 divisi ...

'' ("subdistrict") of Jabal Sami, part of the larger Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of 8 households, all

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

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. In 1838, it was noted as a village, ''Shaufeh'' in the ''Wady esh-Sha'ir'' district, west of Nablus. In the 1860s, the Ottoman authorities granted the village an agricultural plot of land called Ghabat Shufa in the former confines of the Forest of Arsur (Ar. Al-Ghaba) in the coastal plain, west of the village. In 1870

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

noted the village on a hilltop, and taking it as equal importance as Saffarin. In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the ''

'' (sub-district) of Wadi al-Sha'ir. In 1882 the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' (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 on the earth 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." Around the turn of the 20th century, Shufa was one of the villages in which the Hannun Family of Tulkarm/Saffarin owned extensive estates. The Hannuns fostered close ties with the clans inhabiting the village.

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 divis ...

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: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

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 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Shufa came under 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, also known as the June War, 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, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, Shufa has been under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

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 Palestine