Nablus Governorate

The Nablus Governorate (Arabic: محافظة نابلس‎ Muḥāfaẓat Nāblus; Hebrew: נפת שכם Napat Šəḵem) is an administrative district of the 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 governorate. The governor of the district is Mahmoud Aloul.

Municipalities

Cities

Towns

The following localities have populations over 4,000 and municipal councils of 11-15 members.

Village councils

The following localities have populations above 1,000 and village councils of 3 to 9 members.

Refugee camps

See also

Sources

Coordinates: 32°14′26″N 35°17′13.50″E / 32.24056°N 35.2870833°E / 32.24056; 35.2870833

Nablus

Nablus (Arabic: نابلس‎ Nāblus [næːblʊs], Hebrew: שכם‎ Šəḵem, Biblical Shechem ISO 259-3 Škem, Greek: Νεάπολις Νeapolis) is a city in the northern West Bank, approximately 49 kilometers (30 mi) north of Jerusalem, (approximately 63 kilometers (39 mi) by road), with a population of 126,132. Located in between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center, containing the An-Najah National University, one of the largest Palestinian institutions of higher learning, and the Palestinian stock-exchange.

Founded by the Roman Emperor Vespasian in 72 CE as Flavia Neapolis, Nablus has been ruled by many empires over the course of its almost 2,000-year-long history. In the 5th and 6th centuries, conflict between the city's Christian and Samaritan inhabitants climaxed in a series of Samaritan revolts against Byzantine rule, before their violent quelling in 529 CE drastically dwindled that community's numbers in the city. In 636, Neapolis, along with most of Palestine, came under the rule of the Islamic Arab Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab; its name Arabicized to Nablus. In 1099, the Crusaders took control of the city for less than a century, leaving its mixed Muslim, Christian and Samaritan population relatively undisturbed. After Saladin's Ayyubid forces took control of the interior of Palestine in 1187, Islamic rule was reestablished, and continued under the Mamluk and Ottoman empires to follow.