Cities of Palestine (Safad)

Safad

Safad: is a city in the eastern Galilee, it is one of the oldest cities of historic Palestine.

Overlooking Lake Tiberias and Beit She’an at the prairie east and south side of   the city, and the Jarmak Mount (Mount Meron) to the west to it.

 Location

It’s Located in the Upper Galilee, at the intersection of latitude 32.58 north and   longitude 35.29 east, located 29 kilometers from the Lebanese border, Safad has  a strategic location. all the invasions of foreign powers aimed to invade Safad due to its location on the road that continues north to Damascus, and being, in some cases, the capital of the Galilee, as well as commercial importance, The city has been in the past,  stations of mail between the Levant and Egypt.

The city’s history

In the archaeological excavations on the castle of Safed (Tower orphan) remains of Iron Age construction was found and from the Bronze Age. The city isn’t mentioned in the ancient sources, so apparently it was a small town in the covenants before Christmas. The Book of Judges mentions a Canaanite City called “Safat” (Judges 1:17), but it seems to describe the place in the Negev, which has nothing to do with the contemporary city of Safed.

The first reference to the city of Safed is found in the books of Josephus Flavius, it is mentioned as one of the sites that were fortified in preparation for the failed Jewish rebellion against the Empire Romania in the first century AD.
On the Year 1140 AD the Crusaders conquered the city and established the famous castle of Safed, which controlled the northern Galilee, Acre Road, and the road to Damascus. On the Year 1188 it was seized by Saladin. Year 1266 AD Safad was recovered by Bebars almmluki. Crusaders re-fortified the city in the 12th century AD and it fell into the hands of Baybars in 1266.

In the Ottoman period Safed included 78 Arab villages. The city itself became a center at the time of the Jews who emigrated to the Ottoman Empire after the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain. In the 16th century citizens of the city’s senior rabbis of Jew. Most important Jewish religious books in the modern era were written in Safad.
During the British mandate, Safad included 69 villages, and many tribes.

The city of Safad was a victim of destructive earthquakes along its history; the strongest was in   1759 and in January First, 1837. The 1759 earthquake was a result of the death of Hundreds of  residents of Safad, while the 1837 earthquake resulted in the death of almost 2000 people and  damaged many buildings in the city, as well as the outbreak of epidemics that caused more victims.
Population and economic activity:

Population
The population of the city of Safad in 1922 was 8761 people, this number is 10,000 less of what it was in 1908, due to poor conditions suffered by the city’s population from epidemics and famines, In 1931 the city’s population reached 9441 people, and in 1945 the city’s population was estimated to be 11,930 people, and in the end of the British Mandate the numbers swelled to 13,386 people, while in 1948 it forced the city’s population to migrate as a result the number of the city’s population was only 2317 people, because of the influx of Jews in 1949 the numbers where 4,000 Jews, and then rose to 5500 people in 1950 and then to 15000 people in 1966.
Safad has practiced many economic activities such as:

Agriculture: The mountains and lands surrounding the city of Safad were cultivated with olives, grapes, tobacco and other fruit trees, vegetables and cereals, the most important crops produced by the Safed are olives, grapes, figs, melons, apricots, plums, peaches, pears and oranges.

Industry: The city’s food industry of cigarettes, motorcycles and kitchens.

Trade: Due to the important geographical location of Safad, the trade movement has been active because it is a tourist center and a center for famous summer resorts of Palestine, natural and beautiful trees, places that promote movement and active transport.

Safad is full of markets, which attract the population from many areas to sell and purchase merchandises.

In the Year 1516, Sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluk Sultan Ghouri Qansuh at the battle of Marj glutinous, and in 1517 AD Safad was under the rule of the Ottomans. On 24/4/1948 AD Israeli organizations captured Safad and the city’s Palestinian inhabitants were expelled to Lebanon and Syria.