Kafr Sur () is a Palestinian town 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 12 kilometers Southeast of Tulkarm. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Kafr Sur had a population of approximately 1,254 inhabitants in mid-year 2006, and 1,288 by 2017. 13.5% of the population of Kafr Sur were refugees in 1997.

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

Al-Ras 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 with 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 ...

, and in a '' sijill'' (royal order) from 941/1535 an unspecified share of the village revenue was given to the waqf for ''Ribat al-Mansuri''
com
in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. In 1596 the village appeared in the tax registers as being in the '' Nahiya'' of Bani Sa'b of the '' Liwa'' 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 ...

. It had a population of 22 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 ...

. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and/or beehives in addition to occasional revenues, a press for olive oil or grape syrup, and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 6,100 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 139 In 1838, Robinson noted ''Kefr Sur'' as a village in ''Beni Sa'ab'' district, west of

. In the 1860s, the Ottoman authorities granted the village an agricultural plot of land called Ghabat Kafr Sur in the former confines of the Forest of Arsur (Ar. Al-Ghaba) in the coastal plain, west of the village. During this British Mandate period, this territory developed into a village called Ghabat Kafr Sur. In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village with 139

Household A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

in the '' nahiya'' (sub-district) of Bani Sa'b. In 1882 the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described ''Kefr Sur'' as: "A small stone village on a knoll, supplied by

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s." Around the turn of the 20th century, Kafr Sur and its Ghaba were areas in which the Hannun Family of Tulkarm/ Saffarin owned extensive estates. The Hannuns fostered close ties with the clans inhabiting Kafr Sur.

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, ''Kufr Sur'' had a population of 271 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Tulkarm, p
27
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 559; 553 Muslims and 6 Christians, living in 128 houses. The 1931 numbers included the Bayarat Hannoun and the Arab el Balawin.Mills, 1932, p
57
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population of Kafr Sur was 460; 450 Muslims and 10 Christians,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
21
/ref> with 10,926

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, 878 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 2,644 were used for cereals, while 14 dunams were built-up (urban) land. File:Kafr Sur 1942.jpg, Kafr Sur 1942 1:20,000 File:Taiyiba 1945.jpg, Kafr Sur 1945 1:250,000

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Kafr Sur came under Jordanian rule. In 1961, the population of Kafr Sur was 656.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, Kafr Sur has been under Israeli occupation.

References

Bibliography

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External links

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