An-Naqura (, also spelled al-Nakura) 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

Nablus Governorate The Nablus Governorate () is an administrative district of Palestine located in the Central Highlands of the West Bank, 53 km north of Jerusalem. It covers the area around the city of Nablus which serves as the ''muhfaza'' (seat) of the go ...

in northern

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 10 kilometers northwest of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

and adjacent to the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

Shavei Shomron Shavei Shomron (, ''lit.'' Returnees of Samaria) is an Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank. Built on lands confiscated from the neighboring State of Palestine, Palestinian villages of An-Naqura and Deir Sharaf, it is located to the west ...

. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

(PCBS) census, the village had a population of 1,545 in 2007 and 1,786 in 2017.2007 PCBS Census

. p. 108. An-Naqura is administered by a ten-member

village council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counci ...

headed by Muhammad Hashish.

Location

An Naqura is located 7.57 km northwest of

. It is bordered by

Zawata Zawata () is a town in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, Palestinian territories, Palestine, located 6 kilometers northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2, ...

to the east,

Ijnisinya Ijnisinya (, ''‘Ijnisinyâ'') is a Palestinian village located six kilometres northwest of Nablus in the Nablus Governorate. Most of the working-age inhabitants live as farmers or governmental workers. Iron Age II and the Persian eras have been ...

to the east and north, Sabastiya to the north,

Deir Sharaf Deir Sharaf () is a Palestinian territories, Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northern West Bank, located northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town h ...

to the west and south, and Beit Iba to the south.

History

Pottery

sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

s from the Early Bronze I,

Iron Age II The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

, late

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

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 ...

, early

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 ...

and Medieval eras have been found here.

Ottoman era

It has been suggested that An-Naqura was the village named ''Aqbara'' or ''Aquira'', in the 1596 Ottoman tax records. It had 23 households and 5 bachelors, all Muslim. In 1667, ''Anthimus'' mentions a Christian population in this village, though it had no church. In 1838

Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 19 ...

noted the village as ''en-Nakurah'' in the ''Wady esh-Sha'ir'' district, west of Nablus. 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 it as a village on a hill, with 300 inhabitants, where ancient stones were used in the house-walls. In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in 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 ...

'' (sub-district) of Wadi al-Sha'ir. 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 completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' (SWP) described ''En Nakurah'': "A small stone village on the slope of the hill. It has olives, which appear to grow half wild, and a spring of good water, apparently perennial, in the valley to the north, near which are vegetable gardens. A small Mukam stands above the village, on the south."

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, ''Nakura'' had a population of 233 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
24
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 247, still all Muslims, in a total of 69 houses. In the 1945 statistics ''En Naqura'' had a population of 350 MuslimsGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
19
/ref> and a total of 5,507

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, 591 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,444 were used for cereals, while 27 dunams were built-up land.

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 The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 487 inhabitants.

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, An-Naqura has been held 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 ...

. A census recorded by the Israeli Civil Administration that same year recorded 610 persons, of whom 37 were refugees from Israel. After the 1995 accords, 14% of village land was classified as

Area A Area A (; ) is an area under the civil and security control of the Palestinian National Authority. It represents about 18% of the area and 55% of the population of the West Bank. The largest cities in Area A include the following cities and thei ...

, 51% was classified as Area B, while the remaining 35% was classified as

Area C Area C (; ) is the fully Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank, defined as the whole area outside the Palestinian enclaves (Areas A and B). Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the West Bank territory, containing most Israeli settle ...

. Israel has “ confiscated” 680 dunums of village land for the

Demography

Local origins

Some of an-Naqura's inhabitants have origins in

Burqa A burqa or burka (; ) is an enveloping outer garment worn by some Muslim women which fully covers the body and the face. Also known as a chadaree (; ) or chaadar (Dari: چادر) in Afghanistan, or a ''paranja'' (; ; ) in Central Asia, the Ara ...

and a few nearby khirbets.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 352

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *Perlmann, Joel:
The 1967 Census of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: A Digitized Version
'. Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.:

Levy Economics Institute Founded in 1986 as the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy think tank. The purpose of its research and other activities is to enable scholars and leaders in busin ...

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

. November 2011 – February 2012. [Digitized from: Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, ''Census of Population and Housing, 1967 Conducted in the Areas Administered by the IDF'', Vols. 1–5 (1967–70), and ''Census of Population and Housing: East Jerusalem, Parts 1 and 2'' (1968–70).] * *

External links

Welcome To al-Naqura
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
IAAWikimedia commons

An Naqura Village profile

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ)
al-Naqura, aerial photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in An Naqura
ARIJ {{DEFAULTSORT:Naqura, an Nablus Governorate Villages in the West Bank Municipalities of Palestine