Zawata () is a town 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 the 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 ...

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 ...

, located 6 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 ...

. 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), the town had a population of 2,537 inhabitants in 2017.

Location

Zawata is located 4.4 km north of

. It has

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 ...

and ‘Asira ash Shamaliya to the east, Ijnisinya and An Naqura to the north, An Naqura and Beit Iba to the west, and Beit Iba and Nablus to the south.

History

Clermont-Ganneau Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (19 February 1846 – 15 February 1923) was a noted French Orientalist and archaeologist. Biography Clermont-Ganneau was born in Paris, the son of Simon Ganneau, a sculptor and mystic who died in 1851 when Clerm ...

found here

tessera A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive ''tessella'') is an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a square, used in creating a mosaic. It is also known as an abaciscus or abaculus. Historical tesserae In early antiquity, mo ...

, probably from the

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty *Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining t ...

period. 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 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 the Medieval eras have been found here.

Ottoman era

Zawata, like all of

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 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 The Nablus Sanjak (; ) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman rule in the Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part of Syria Vilayet and then the Beirut Vilaye ...

. It had a population of 11 households, all

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 6,944

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. According to Jaussen, Zawata was resettled in the 19th century. Some of its residents have origins in Ni'ilin.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. 351 In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Zawata ‘’on the hill-side,’’ part of the ''Jurat 'Amra'' district, south 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 ''Zaouata'' as "a village on a high hill with white limestone slopes, some used for quarrying. The number of the inhabitants is 300. Below the hill a rich spring, 'Ain Zawata, supplies water to the village and irrigates a small valley. During our visit large herds of sheep were crowding around the spring." 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 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 Zawata as: "a village of moderate size, on a hill, with springs in the valley to the north."

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, Zawata had a population of 214 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table IX, p
24
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census, to 247 Muslims, in 73 houses.Mills, 1932, p
66
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population was 330 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
19
/ref> while the total land area was 3,558

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, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 13 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 334 for plantations and irrigable land, 1,842 for cereals, while 31 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

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. In 1961, the population of Zawata was 466.

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, Zawata 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 ...

, and according to the Israeli census of that year, the population of ''Zawata'' stood at 591, of whom 28 were registered as having come from Israel. After the 1995 accords, 31% of Zawata land is defined as Area A land, 32% is Area B land, while the remaining 37% is defined 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 ...

. Part of the village land has been confiscated for the construction of an Israeli military road. This road also cuts off Zawata from its northernmost land.Zawata Village Profile
ARIJ, pp. 15-16

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
IAAWikimedia commons

Zawata 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)
Zawata, aerial photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Zawata
ARIJ {{Nablus Governorate Nablus Governorate Villages in the West Bank Municipalities of Palestine