Nablus lies between the older settlements of Shechem to the east and Sebaste to the north-west.
In this strategic location at the centre of a pass linking the Mediterranean coastal plain in the west
to the Jordan Valley in the east, with an abundant water supply and a productive hinterland, the
Romans founded a new town in AD 71 for veteran legionaries to settle. It was named Flavia
Neapolis (from which the present name derives) in honour of the Emperor Flavius Vespasian. The
town acquired all the civil and religious structures of a Graeco-Roman city: agora, hippodrome,
aqueducts, fountains, colonnaded, streets, temples and, later, basilicas, ramparts and, on the
slopes of Mount Ebal, a necropolis. Traces of this Roman city have been excavated recently, and a
length of aqueduct survives to the west of the town.
From the fourth century Neapolis became the seat of a bishop, but the early Christians had to struggle constantly against the Samaritans. The Emperor Zeno expelled the Samaritans from Mount Gerizim and built a church on its summit in about 485. In 521 the Samaritans murdered the bishop, massacred priests and monks and burned the churches and monasteries. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian restored Zeno's church in 531; remains of this octagonal church were excavated in 1928. After suffering several repulses from Justinian, the Samaritans eventually took refuge to the east of the River Jordan where in a last battle they were virtually annihilated. Nowadays only a small community of about 200 Samaritans lives on the lower slopes of the mountain. The present day Samaritans celebrate their feasts of passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles on top of Gerizim.
In 636 the Arabs captured the town for Islam. The famous tenth-century geographer al-Muqaddasi wrote that the town abounded in olives and was named "the little Damascus" and that its market place was very extensive. It had a Great Mosque very finely paved, the houses were built of stone and a stream of running water flowed through the town.
In 1099, when the Crusaders took possession of the Holy Land, Tancred received the submission of the town called by then Naples. The Hospitaller knights built churches and a royal palace, which was the residence of Queen Melisend from 1152 to 1161. In the middle of the town was a fortified tower, remains of which survive today, where the citizens sought refuge when under attack. The town was badly damaged in 1187 when Saladin recaptured it for Islam. The damage done then was compounded by the effects of an earthquake in 1202. Yet Crusader buildings remained sufficiently intact to be adapted to Muslim use, mostly by the conversion of churches into mosques (Jami' al-Kabir, Jami' al-Nasr). A hospital built by the Crusaders continued to be used as such.
The town was again sacked in 1260, this time by invading Mongols, and in 128O by marauding nomad tribesmen. Nevertheless the period of Mamlok rule (126O-1516) was generally a prosperous one. Local produce was exploited in the manufacture of cotton goods, sweet and soap. Today cotton is no longer manufactured, but Nablus is renowned for its sweets and most of all for its soap made with pure olive oil. Several buildings survive from the Mamlok period, some attested by foundation inscriptions still in place. These include Jami' al-Khadra' (the Green Mosque, which may be a converted Crusader building), the tomb of Shaykh Badr, and the Baydari Hamman.
Following the arrival of Ottoman power in Palestine, Nablus became capital of a district (sanjak) under the control of a local governor in the province of Damascus. As the power of local governors increased they came to build palaces for themselves and their families. Prominent among these are the palaces of the 'Abd alHadi, Hashim, Nimr and Tuqqan families, descnbed by nineteenth-century travellers as:
"fortresses with iron gates. . . to be compared to the medieval family palaces in Italian cities".It was said that the largest building, the Tuqqan Palace, could accomodate l ,OOO soldiers. Many of the religious buildings in Nablus also date from this period, as do the soap factories, of which there were no fewer than thirty by 1882. All are built of stone with vaulted ceilings, for at this time timber was very scarce in Palestine.
On 15 July 1927 the town suffered a major earthquake. Much of the consequent damage to buildings was never repaired and the ruinous condition of many of them may well have encouraged the inhabitants to move outside the old city to build their new houses.
The arrival of the motor car has increased emigration to the slopes of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal where new roads allow vehicles the easy access denied them in the hilly and partly stepped streets of the old city. The maze of narrow lanes and dead-end alleys, vaulted in places to afford shelter from the sun in summer and the rain in winter, give the old city a picturesque but confusing character. Periodically a minaret or an ornamental doorway provides a landmark to help orient the visitor. The boundaries of the old city are now indistinct. There is no city wall but there are gates in the streets leading into the city.
Immediately surrounding the old city and along the main roads from Jerusalem and Tulkarm lie modern commercial and industrial areas of the town and the grim buildings of the town prison and the Israeli Military Governorate. These unattractive areas do little to rouse the visitor's awareness of the old city within.
Only a century ago H.B. Tristram could write of Nablus that:
"Its beauty can hardly be exaggerated... Clusters of white-roofed houses nestling in the bosom of a mass of trees, olive, palm, orange, apricot, and many other varying the carpet with every shade of green. . . Everything fresh, green, soft and picturesque, with verdure, shade and water everywhere. There is a softness in the colouring, a rich blue haze from the many springs and streamlets, which mellows every hard outline".
It is impossible now to recapture the charms of that bygone age but much could be done to restore the old city of Nablus to some of its former glory.