Nablus
Nablus is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Nablus Governorate. It is located approximately north of Jerusalem, between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim with a population of 156,906. The city is a commercial and cultural centre of Palestine, home to An-Najah National University, one of the largest institutions of higher learning in Palestine, and the Palestine Stock Exchange. Nablus is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority.
Nablus has been traditionally associated with the ancient city of Shechem. However, Shechem is now identified with the nearby site of Tell Balata in the Balata al-Balad suburb of the West Bank.
The modern name of the city can be traced back to the Roman period, when it was named Flavia Neapolis by Roman emperor Vespasian in 72 CE. During the Byzantine period, conflict between the city's Samaritan and newer Christian inhabitants peaked in the Samaritan revolts that were eventually suppressed by the Byzantines by 573, which greatly dwindled the Samaritan population of the city. Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century, the city was given its present-day Arabic name of Nablus. After the First Crusade, the Crusaders drafted the laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Council of Nablus, and its Christian, Samaritan, and Muslim inhabitants prospered. The city then came under the control of the Ayyubids and the Mamluk Sultanate. Under the Ottoman Turks, who conquered the city in 1517, Nablus served as the administrative and commercial centre for the surrounding area corresponding to the modern-day northern West Bank. Much of Nablus' history is preserved in its Old City, which contains more than 100 monumental buildings.
After the city was captured by British forces during World War I, Nablus was incorporated into Mandatory Palestine in 1922. The 1948 Arab–Israeli War saw the entire West Bank, including Nablus, occupied and annexed by Transjordan. Since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the West Bank has been occupied by Israel; since 1995, it has been governed by the Palestinian Authority as part of Area A of the West Bank. Today, the population is predominantly Muslim, with small Christian and Samaritan minorities.
History
Classical antiquity
Flavia Neapolis was named in 72 CE by the Roman emperor Vespasian and applied to an older Samaritan village, variously called Mabartha or Mamorpha. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, the new city lay west of the Biblical city of Shechem which was destroyed by the Romans that same year during the First Jewish–Roman War. Holy places at the site of the city's founding include Joseph's Tomb and Jacob's Well. Because of the city's strategic geographic position and the abundance of water from nearby springs, Neapolis prospered, accumulating extensive territory, including the former Judean toparchy of Acraba.Insofar as the hilly topography of the site would allow, the city was built on a Roman grid plan and settled with veterans who fought in the victorious legions and other foreign colonists. In the 2nd century CE, Emperor Hadrian built a grand theater in Neapolis that could seat up to 7,000 people. Coins found in Nablus dating to this period depict Roman military emblems and gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon such as Zeus, Artemis, Serapis, and Asklepios. Neapolis was entirely pagan at this time. Justin Martyr who was born in the city c. 100 CE, came into contact with Platonism, but not with Christians there. The city flourished until the civil war between Septimius Severus and Pescennius Niger in 198–9 CE. Having sided with Niger, who was defeated, the city was temporarily stripped of its legal privileges by Severus, who designated these to Sebastia instead.
In 244 CE, Philip the Arab transformed Flavius Neapolis into a Roman colony named Julia Neapolis. It retained this status until the rule of Trebonianus Gallus in 251 CE. The Encyclopaedia Judaica speculates that Christianity was dominant in the 2nd or 3rd century, with some sources positing a later date of 480 CE. It is known for certain that a bishop from Nablus participated in the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. The presence of Samaritans in the city is attested to in literary and epigraphic evidence dating to the 4th century CE. As yet, there is no evidence attesting to a Jewish presence in ancient Neapolis.
Si'on suggested that Neapolis was about in size during the Byzantine period, making it three times larger than it was when it was first established as a Roman colony. Magen estimates that around 20,000 people lived there during this period.
Conflict among the Christian population of Neapolis emerged in 451. By this time, Neapolis was within the Palaestina Prima province under the rule of the Byzantine Empire. The tension was a result of Monophysite Christian attempts to prevent the return of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Juvenal, to his episcopal see. However, the conflict did not grow into civil strife.
As tensions among the Christians of Neapolis decreased, tensions between the Christian community and the Samaritans grew dramatically. In 484, the city became the site of a deadly encounter between the two groups, provoked by rumors that the Christians intended to transfer the remains of Aaron's sons and grandsons Eleazar, Ithamar and Phinehas. Samaritans reacted by entering the cathedral of Neapolis, killing the Christians inside and severing the fingers of the bishop Terebinthus. Terebinthus then fled to Constantinople, requesting an army garrison to prevent further attacks. As a result of the revolt, the Byzantine emperor Zeno erected a church dedicated to Mary on Mount Gerizim. He also forbade the Samaritans to travel to the mountain to celebrate their religious ceremonies, and expropriated their synagogue there. These actions by the emperor fueled Samaritan anger towards the Christians further.
Thus, the Samaritans rebelled again under the rule of emperor Anastasius I, reoccupying Mount Gerizim, which was subsequently reconquered by the Byzantine governor of Edessa, Procopius. A third Samaritan revolt which took place under the leadership of Julianus ben Sabar in 529 was perhaps the most violent. Neapolis' bishop Ammonas was murdered and the city's priests were hacked into pieces and then burned together with the relics of saints. The forces of Emperor Justinian I were sent in to quell the revolt, which ended with the slaughter of the majority of the Samaritan population in the city.
Early Muslim period
Neapolis, along with most of Palestine, was conquered by the Muslims under Khalid ibn al-Walid, a general of the Rashidun army of Umar ibn al-Khattab, in 636 after the Battle of Yarmouk. The city's name was retained in its Arabicized form, Nabulus. The town prevailed as an important trade center during the centuries of Islamic Arab rule under the Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid dynasties.Under Muslim rule, Nablus contained a diverse population of Arabs and Persians, Muslims, Samaritans, Christians and Jews. In the 9th century CE, Al-Yaqubi reported that Nablus had a mixed population of Arabs, Ajam, and Samaritans. In the 10th century, the Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi, described it as abundant of olive trees, with a large marketplace, a finely paved Great Mosque, houses built of stone, a stream running through the center of the city, and notable mills. He also noted that it was nicknamed "Little Damascus." At the time, the linen produced in Nablus was well known throughout the Old World.
Crusader period
The city was captured by Crusaders in 1099, under the command of Prince Tancred, and renamed Naples. Though the Crusaders extorted many supplies from the population for their troops who were en route to Jerusalem, they did not sack the city, presumably because of the large Christian population there. Nablus became part of the royal domain of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Muslim, Eastern Orthodox Christian, and Samaritan populations remained in the city and were joined by some Crusaders who settled therein to take advantage of the city's abundant resources. In 1120, the Crusaders convened the Council of Nablus out of which was issued the first written laws for the kingdom. They converted the Samaritan synagogue in Nablus into a church. The Samaritan community built a new synagogue in the 1130s. In 1137, Arab and Turkish troops stationed in Damascus raided Nablus, killing many Christians and burning down the city's churches. However, they were unsuccessful in retaking the city. Queen Melisende of Jerusalem resided in Nablus from 1150 to 1161, after she was granted control over the city in order to resolve a dispute with her son Baldwin III. Crusaders began building Christian institutions in Nablus, including a church dedicated to the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, and in 1170 they erected a hospice for pilgrims.Ayyubid and Mamluk rule
Crusader rule came to an end in 1187, when the Ayyubids led by Saladin captured the city. According to a liturgical manuscript in Syriac, Latin Christians fled Nablus, but the original Eastern Orthodox Christian inhabitants remained. Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, wrote that Ayyubid Nablus was a "celebrated city in Filastin... having wide lands and a fine district." He also mentions the large Samaritan population in the city. After its recapture by the Muslims, the Great Mosque of Nablus, which had become a church under Crusader rule, was restored as a mosque by the Ayyubids, who also built a mausoleum in the old city.In October 1242, Nablus was raided by the Knights Templar. This was the conclusion of the 1242 campaign season in which the Templars had joined forces with the Ayyubid emir of Kerak, An-Nasir Dawud, against the Mamluks. The Templars raided Nablus in revenge for a previous massacre of Christians by their erstwhile ally An-Nasir Dawud. The attack is reported as a particularly bloody affair lasting for three days, during which the Mosque was burned and many residents of the city, Christians alongside Muslims, were killed or sold in the slave markets of Acre.
The successful raid was widely publicized by the Templars in Europe; it is thought to be depicted in a late 13th-century fresco in the Templar church of San Bevignate, Perugia.
The Samaritan synagogue, built in 362 by the high priest Akbon, and later converted into a church by the Crusaders, was converted into al-Khadra Mosque in 1244. Two other Crusader churches became the An-Nasr Mosque and al-Masakim Mosque during that century.
The Mamluk dynasty gained control of Nablus in 1260 and during their reign, they built numerous mosques and schools. Under Mamluk rule, Nablus possessed running water, many Turkish baths and exported olive oil and soap to Egypt, Syria, the Hejaz, several Mediterranean islands, and the Arabian Desert. The city's olive oil was also used in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Ibn Battuta, the Arab explorer, visited Nablus in 1355, and described it as a city "full of trees and streams and full of olives." He noted that the city grew and exported carob jam to Cairo and Damascus.