Sarta

For the village in Iran, see Sarta, Iran.
Sarta
Other transcription(s)
  Arabic سرطّه
  Also spelled Sarta (official)
Sarta

Location of Sarta within Palestine

Coordinates: 32°06′15″N 35°05′25″E / 32.10417°N 35.09028°ECoordinates: 32°06′15″N 35°05′25″E / 32.10417°N 35.09028°E
Palestine grid 158/167
Governorate Salfit
Government
  Type Village council
Population (2007)
  Jurisdiction 2,530
Name meaning Serta[1]

Sarta (Arabic: سرطّه) is a Palestinian town located in the Salfit Governorate in the northern West Bank, 22 kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of approximately 2,530 in 2007.[2]

History

Sarta is situated on an ancient site, where cisterns and columbariums carved into rock have been found.[3]

Ottoman era

The village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the nahiya of Jabal Qubal in the liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 6 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives.[4]

French explorer Victor Guérin travelled through the village in 1870, and found it to have around 40 houses, some better built than in the average village. The stones of the houses were alternately red and white. Several ancient cisterns dug into the rock provided water for the residents.[5] In the 1882 "Survey of Western Palestine", Serta was described as a small stone village.[6]

British Mandate era

In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Sarta had a population of 275 Muslims and 1 Jew,[7] while in the 1931 census it had 76 occupied houses and a population of 317, all Muslim.[8] In 1945 the population was 420 Arabs, while the total land area was 5,584 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[9] Of this, 1,858 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 766 for cereals,[10] while 23 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[11]

1948-1967

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Sarta came under Jordanian rule.

Post-1967

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Sarta has been under Israeli occupation.

References

  1. Palmer 1881, p. 241
  2. 2007 PCBS Census Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p. 112.
  3. Dauphin, 1998, p. 811
  4. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 135.
  5. Guérin, 1875, p. 146
  6. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 287
  7. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p. 26
  8. Mills, 1932, p. 65
  9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 61
  10. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 107
  11. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 158

Bibliography

External links