In the 12th and 13th centuries, during the Crusader era, As-Sawiya was inhabited by Muslims, according to Ḍiyāʼ al-Dīn.[6][7] He also noted that followers of Ibn Qudamah lived here.[8] Syrian historian Al-Yunini mentions the village in the context of the 13th-century Mongol invasion.[5]
Ottoman era
As-Sawiya 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 of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 40 households and 2 bachelors, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 8,610 akçe. All of the revenue went to a Waqf.[9]
In the 18th and 19th centuries the village formed part of the highland region known as Jūrat ‘Amra or Bilād Jammā‘īn. Situated between Dayr Ghassāna in the south and the present Route 5 in the north, and between Majdal Yābā in the west and Jammā‘īn, Mardā and Kifl Ḥāris in the east, this area served, according to historian Roy Marom, "as a buffer zone between the political-economic-social units of the Jerusalem and the Nablus regions. On the political level, it suffered from instability due to the migration of the Bedouin tribes and the constant competition among local clans for the right to collect taxes on behalf of the Ottoman authorities."[10]
In 1838 Robinson noted As-Sawiya being situated on a hill,[11] located in the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.[12]
In 1870 Victor Guérin found that it had three hundred inhabitants, and that the villagers had a mosque.[13]
In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus.[14]
In the 1945 statistics Es Sawiya had a population of 820, all Muslims,[18] with 10,787 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[19] Of this, 4,394 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,412 used for cereals,[20] while 40 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[21]
After the 1995 accords, approximately 14% of villageland was classified as Area B, the remaining 86% as Area C. Israel has confiscated 1,551 dunums of village land for the Israeli settlement of Alie, and 376 dunams for Rechalim.[23]
As-Sawiya is entirely dependent on its agricultural land. Prior to the Second Intifada, about 250 of the village's residents worked in Israel, but in 2004 only three continued working there.
The primary crops grown in as-Sawiya are wheat, olives, grapes, figs, and beans. The land is also used for grazing livestock. Some residents produce yoghurt from their cows and sell it. Local residents sell olive oil to nearby villages such as Lubban as well. Stone-cutting is the most important industry in the town after agriculture.[1]
According to locals, village life has been "deeply affected" by harassment from Jewish settlers. "People cannot go and harvest their land. The settlers take our olives, they throw rocks at people."[24]
Khan as-Sawiya (Khirbet Berkit)
Just north-east of the village researchers described the ruins of a khan (caravanserai), at a site known as Khan as-Sawieh or Khirbet Berkit. Byzantine pottery, old tombs and cisterns have been found in the Khan as-Sawieh area.[25]Denys Pringle lists the khan among the Crusader remains in Palestine.[26] In 1838 Robinson found the khan in ruins,[11] and so did de Saulcy in 1850.[27] In the 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as "a small square building, also a ruined Khan; the walls are standing to some height, and drafted stones are used at the corners. Rock-cut tombs exist just south, showing the place to be an ancient site. The name of the site is Khurbet Berkit."[28]
Khirbet Berkit has been described by Charles William Wilson (1836–1905) as likely being identical with first-century CE Borceos, and a nearby ruin called ’Aina with Anuath; Anuath and Borceos are the border town or towns mentioned by Josephus as standing at the border between Samaria and Judea.[29]
Near the spring by the khan, Wilson describes a large oak-tree, ballut in Arabic, of a size very seldom found in what he terms as Southern Palestine.[29]
^Pringle, 1997, p. 61, "Khan as-Sawiya (no. 128)". Quote: "Vaulted building, with thick walls and slit-window near one corner, beside the Jerusalem-Nablus road."
