Nablus olive soap for your souvenir.
Nablus is also famous for knafeh, a Palestinian pastry. Don’t miss trying a piece of freshly-baked knafeh at a local cake shop!
Nablus was mentioned in the Bible as a city of Shechem.
Shechem was a commercial center of grapes or olives.
After several battles, Shechem was destroyed in the period of John Hyrcanus.
The new city named Flavia Neapolis was built near Shechem by the Roman emperor Vespasian.
Neapolis means new city in Greek, which later became the origin of the name Nablus.
Nablus developed as a Roman city, with a new Colosseum, a theater, a racetrack, and paving roads that remain in its old city or environs.
Once Constantine the Great declared religious tolerance for Christianity, the conflict between the Christians and the Samaritans got deeper. The Samaritans were then got persecuted and excluded.
The Muslims conquered Palestine.
Neapolis was then rapidly Islamized and Arabized.
The churches were changed into mosques. During this period, the city started to be called Nablus with Arabic pronunciation.
Nablus was developed like the Umayyad capital Damascus, called Little Damascus.
The Crusades conquered Palestine. Christian and Samaritan communities were accepted again. Christian and Samaritan communities were accepted again.
Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria, retook Palestine, Islamic system was redeveloped.
Getting caught by a big earthquake and the attacks by the Mongol Empire or the invasion by the Bedouin, Palestine came under the control of The Mamluk Sultanate, then The Ottoman Empire.
During these periods, the production of olive oil soap or the pastries (such as knafeh) was developed in Nablus.
Because its olive oil soap was a favorite of England Queen, Nablus became well known throughout the Arab world and Europe, also as a commercial center.
Nationalism got growing in Nablus as well as other Ottoman cities.
The Ottoman Empire fell in World War I. Palestine came under the control of the UK.
Nablus became the center of the independent Arab state movement through the rise in the momentum toward Zionism.
After World War II, Jordan reigned over West Bank cities.
After the Six-Day War, West Bank came under the occupation of Israel.
During Israeli occupation, the mayor of Nablus got seriously injured in a car bombing by Israeli militants.
As a result of the Oslo Accords, Nablus was designated as Area A, which allowed Palestinian Authority its administrative and police power.
However, there remain settlements around the city, and economic activity has been limited.