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. Nablus is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
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 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 . 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
thumb|A 1st century CE statue of [[Silenus discovered in Nablus]]
('new city of the emperor Flavius') was named in 72 CE by the Roman emperor Vespasian and applied to an older Samaritan village, variously called ('the passage') or . 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. Neapolis was entirely pagan at this time. The presence of Samaritans in the city is attested to in literary and epigraphic evidence dating to the 4th century CE. Magen estimates that around 20,000 people lived there during this period.
thumb|right|Ruins from antiquity (foreground) in a residential area in Nablus, 2008
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. 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."
Crusader period
The city was captured by Crusaders in 1099, under the command of Prince Tancred, and renamed Naples. 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. 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.
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. During the 16th century, the population was predominantly Muslim, with Jewish, Samaritan and Christian minorities.]]
In the mid-18th century, Daher al-Umar, the autonomous Arab ruler of the Galilee became a dominant figure in Palestine. To build up his army, he strove to gain a monopoly over the cotton and olive oil trade of the southern Levant, including Jabal Nablus, which was a major producer of both crops. In 1771, during the Egyptian Mamluk invasion of Syria, Daher aligned himself with the Mamluks and besieged Nablus, but did not succeed in taking the city. In 1773, he tried again without success. Nevertheless, from a political perspective, the sieges led to a decline in the importance of the city in favor of Acre. Daher's successor, Jezzar Pasha, maintained Acre's dominance over Nablus. After his reign ended in 1804, Nablus regained its autonomy, and the Tuqans, who represented a principal opposing force, rose to power.
Egyptian rule in Palestine resulted in the destruction of Acre and thus, the political importance of Nablus was further elevated. The Ottomans wrested back control of Palestine from Egypt in 1840–41. However, the Arraba-based Abd al-Hadi clan which rose to prominence under Egyptian rule for supporting Ibrahim Pasha, continued its political dominance in Jabal Nablus.
World War I and British Mandate
thumb|right|Nablus in 1918
Between 19 September and 25 September 1918, in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War the Battle of Nablus took place, together with the Battle of Sharon during the set piece Battle of Megiddo. Fighting took place in the Judean Hills where the British Empire's XX Corps and Royal Flying Corps attacked the Ottoman Empire's Yildirim Army Group's Seventh Army which held a defensive position in front of Nablus, and which the Eighth Army had attempted to retreat to, in vain.
The 1927 Jericho earthquake destroyed many of the Nablus' historic buildings, including the An-Nasr Mosque. Though they were subsequently rebuilt by Haj Amin al-Husayni's Supreme Muslim Council in the mid-1930s, their previous "picturesque" character was lost. During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, the British authorities demolished buildings in the Old City quarter of Qaryun suspected of harboring insurgents or hiding weapons. Jewish immigration did not significantly impact the demographic composition of Nablus, and it was slated for inclusion in the Arab state envisioned by the United Nations General Assembly's 1947 partition plan for Palestine.
Jordanian occupation
During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Nablus came under Jordanian occupation. Thousands of Palestinian refugees displaced from areas captured by Israeli forces arrived in Nablus, settling in refugee camps in and around the city. Its population doubled, and the influx of refugees put a heavy strain on the city's resources. Three such camps are still located within the city limits today: Ein Beit al-Ma', Balata and Askar. During the Jordanian occupation, the adjacent villages of Rafidia, Balata al-Balad, al-Juneid and Askar were annexed to the Nablus municipality. Nablus was occupied and annexed by Jordan in 1950.
Israeli period
thumb|2018 [[United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs|United Nations map of the area, showing the Israeli occupation arrangements.]]
The Six-Day War ended with the Israeli occupation of Nablus. Many Israeli settlements were built around Nablus during the 1980s and early 1990s. The restrictions placed on Nablus during the First Intifada were met by a back-to-the-land movement to secure self-sufficiency, and had a notable outcome in boosting local agricultural production.
In response to the murder of two Israeli teachers on 21 July near Jenin and the killing of another Israeli on 30 July, the Israeli army imposed a 5-day curfew on the city on 29 July 1985 that was lifted 2 hours a day. Najah University was closed for two months for hanging PLO propaganda posters.
The Israeli administration ended in January 1986 with the appointment of Zafer al-Masri as mayor. A popular leader of the Nablus Chamber of Commerce, al-Masri began a program of improvements in the town. Despite maintaining that he would have nothing to do with Israeli autonomy plans, he was assassinated on 2 March 1986, widely believed to be the work of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Palestinian control
thumb|right|View of [[Huwwara checkpoint with Palestinians waiting to travel south, 2006]]
Jurisdiction over the city was handed over to the Palestinian National Authority on 12 December 1995, as a result of the Oslo Accords Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Nablus is neighbored by Israeli settlements, and was site of regular clashes with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the First Intifada when the local prison was known for torture. After the controversy over the Muhammad cartoons in Jyllands-Posten, published in Denmark in late September 2006, militias kidnapped two foreigners and threatened to kidnap more as a protest. Noa Meir, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said in 2008 that the city remains "capital of terror" of the West Bank.
From the start of the Second Intifada, which began in September 2000, Nablus became a flash-point of clashes between the IDF and Palestinians. The city has a tradition of political activism, as evinced by its nickname, jabal al-nar (mountain of fire) and, located between two mountains, was closed off at both ends of the valley by Israeli checkpoints. For several years, movements in and out of the city were highly restricted. The city and the refugee camps of Balata and Askar constituted the center of "knowhow" for the production and operation of the rockets in the West Bank.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 522 residents of Nablus and surrounding refugee camps, including civilians, were killed and 3,104 injured during IDF military operations from 2000 to 2005. In April 2002, following the Passover massacre—an attack by Palestinian militants that killed 30 Israeli civilians attending a seder dinner at the Park Hotel in Netanya—Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield, a major military operation targeting in particular Nablus and Jenin. At least 80 Palestinians were killed in Nablus during the operation and several houses were destroyed or severely damaged.
The operation also resulted in severe damage to the historic core of the city, with 64 heritage buildings being heavily damaged or destroyed. IDF forces reentered Nablus during Operation Determined Path in June 2002, remaining inside the city until the end of September. Over those three months, there had been more than 70 days of full 24-hour curfews.
The Old City of Nablus became a site of fierce clashes in August 2016 between a militant group and Palestinian police. Two Palestinian Police officers were killed by terrorists in the city on 18 August. Shortly after, the police raid on the suspected areas in the Old City deteriorated into a gun battle, in which three armed militants were killed, including one killed by beating following his arrest. The city stands at an elevation of around above sea level, in a narrow valley running roughly east–west between two mountains: Mount Ebal, the northern mountain, is the taller peak at , while Mount Gerizim, the southern mountain, is high.
Nablus is located east of Tel Aviv, Israel, west of Amman, Jordan and north of Jerusalem.
Old City
In the center of Nablus lies the old city, composed of six major quarters: Yasmina, Gharb, Qaryun, Aqaba, Qaysariyya, and Habala. Habala is the largest quarter and its population growth led to the development of two smaller neighborhoods: al-Arda and Tal al-Kreim. The old city is densely populated and prominent families include the Nimrs, Tuqans, and Abd al-Hadis. The large fortress-like compound of the Abd al-Hadi Palace built in the 19th century is located in Qaryun. The Nimr Hall and the Tuqan Palace are located in the center of the old city. There are several mosques in the Old City: the Great Mosque of Nablus, An-Nasr Mosque, al-Tina Mosque, al-Khadra Mosque, Hanbali Mosque, al-Anbia Mosque, Ajaj Mosque and others.
There are six (Turkish baths) in the Old City, the most prominent of them being al-Shifa and al-Hana. Al-Shifa was built by the Tuqans in 1624. Al-Hana in Yasmina was the last hamaam built in the city in the 19th century. It was closed in 1928 but restored and reopened in 1994.
|source 2 = Palestinian Meteorological Department (extremes, sunshine, days with rain)