Safed (also known as Tzfat ; Hebrew : צְפַת , Ṣəfaṯ ; Arabic : صفد , Ṣafad ) is a city in the Northern District of Israel . Located at an elevation of up to 937 m (3,074 ft), Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel.
158-686: Safed has been identified with Sepph (Σέπφ), a fortified town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman Jewish historian Josephus . The Jerusalem Talmud mentions Safed as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period . Safed attained local prominence under the Crusaders , who built a large fortress there in 1168. It
316-469: A tzadik like Abraham , he would not be considered so righteous. They point out that Noah did not pray to God on behalf of those about to be destroyed, as Abraham prayed for the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah . In fact, Noah is never seen to speak; he simply listens to God and acts on his orders. This led some commentators to offer the figure of Noah as "the righteous man in a fur coat," who ensured his own comfort while ignoring his neighbour. Others, such as
474-460: A Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, also excused Noah by noting that one can drink in two different manners: (1) to drink wine in excess, a peculiar sin to the vicious evil man or (2) to partake of wine as the wise man, Noah being the latter. In Jewish tradition and rabbinic literature on Noah , rabbis blame Satan for the intoxicating properties of the wine. In the context of Noah's drunkenness, relates two facts: (1) Noah became drunken and "he
632-523: A "heavy burden on the Arab war effort". Among them was the family of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas . The city was fully under the control of Jewish paramilitary forces by May 11, 1948. Early in June, Jewish dignitaries from Safed journeyed to Tel Aviv to ask the government to block the return of Arabs to the city, threatening to abandon it if the latter were allowed back. They reasoned that since most of
790-580: A Mesopotamian account." What is particularly noticeable is the way the Genesis flood story follows the Gilgamesh flood tale "point by point and in the same order", even when the story permits other alternatives. The earliest written flood myth is found in the Mesopotamian Epic of Atrahasis and Epic of Gilgamesh texts. The Encyclopædia Britannica says "These mythologies are the source of such features of
948-787: A branch of the Agricultural Bank in the city in 1897, all of its board members were resident Arabs, the most influential of whom were Husayn Abd al-Rahim Effendi, Hajj Ahmad al-Asadi, As'ad Khouri and Abd al-Latif al-Hajj Sa'id. The latter two also became board members of the Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture branch opened in Safed in 1900. In the last decade of the 19th century, Safed contained 2,000 houses, four mosques, three churches, two public bathhouses, one caravanserai, two public sabils , nineteen mills, seven olive oil presses, ten bakeries, fifteen coffeehouses, forty-five stalls and three shops. Safed
1106-410: A decline in the population in Safed from 1348 onward. There is little available information about the city and its dependencies during the last century of Mamluk rule ( c. 1418 – c. 1516 ), though travelers' accounts describe a general decline precipitated by famine, plagues, natural disasters and political instability. The Ottomans conquered Mamluk Syria following their victory at
1264-473: A fief) to Sa'd al-Din Mas'ud ibn Mubarak (d. 1211), the son of his niece, after which it was bequeathed to Sa'd al-Din's son Ahmad. Samuel ben Samson , who visited the town in 1210, mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty there. He also noted that two Muslims guarded and maintained the cave tomb of a rabbi, Hanina ben Horqano, in Safed. The iqta of Safed was taken from the family of Sa'd al-Din by
1422-633: A fortified town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus . Safed is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period . There is scarce information about Safed before the Crusader conquest. A document from the Cairo Geniza , composed in 1034, mentions
1580-543: A fractional proportion of the population, and the statement was generally perceived to be directed at the 1,300 Arab students enrolled at Zefat Academic College . In 2008, the population of Safed was 32,000. According to CBS figures in 2001, the ethnic makeup of the city was 99.2% Jewish and non-Arab, with no significant Arab population. 43.2% of the residents were 19 years of age or younger, 13.5% between 20 and 29, 17.1% between 30 and 44, 12.5% from 45 to 59, 3.1% from 60 to 64, and 10.5% 65 years of age or older. The city
1738-537: A mere human messenger and not an angel ( 10:72-74 ). Moreover, the people mock Noah's words and call him a liar ( 7:62 ), and they even suggest that Noah is possessed by a devil when the prophet ceases to preach ( 54:9 ). Only the lowest of classes in the community join Noah in believing in God's message ( 11:29 ), and Noah's narrative further describes him preaching both in private and public. The Quran narrates that Noah received
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#17330863419371896-498: A municipal council was established along with a number of banks, though the city's jurisdiction was limited to the Upper Galilee. By 1922, Safed's population had dropped to around 8,700, roughly 60% Muslim, 33% Jewish and the remainder Christians. Amid rising ethnic tension throughout Mandatory Palestine , Safed's Jews were attacked in an Arab riot in 1929 . The city's population had risen to 13,700 by 1948, overwhelmingly Arab, though
2054-567: A new era of prosperity, when there was an easing (in Hebrew, naħah נחה) of the curse from Adam's time, when the Earth produced thorns and thistles even where men sowed wheat. It is said that Noah introduced the plow, symbolizing this relief. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia , "The Book of Genesis contains two accounts of Noah." In the first, Noah is the hero of the flood, and in the second, he
2212-612: A part of Operation Yiftach . The first phase of the Palmach plan to capture Safed, was to secure a corridor through the mountains by capturing the Arab village of Biriyya . The Arab Liberation Army placed artillery pieces on a hill adjacent to the Jewish quarter and started its shelling. The Palmach's Third Battalion failed to take the main objective, the "citadel", but "terrified" the Arab population sufficiently to prompt further flight, as well as urgent appeals for outside help and an effort to obtain
2370-575: A popular holiday resort frequented by Israelis and foreign visitors. In 2022 it had a population of 38,029. Legend has it that Safed was founded by a son of Noah after the Great Flood . According to the Book of Judges ( Judges 1:17 ), the area where Safed is located was assigned to the tribe of Naphtali . It has been suggested that Jesus ' assertion that "a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden" referred to Safed. Safed has been identified with Sepph,
2528-600: A pre-flood tradition. Chen provides evidence that the sections of the Sumerian King List that mention references to the flood were all later additions added during the Old Babylonian Period through later updates and edits. The Flood as a watershed in early history of the world was probably a new historiographical concept emerging in the Mesopotamian literary traditions during the Old Babylonian Period, as evident by
2686-508: A resident force of 1,700 in peacetime. The garrison's goods and services were provided by the town or large village growing rapidly beneath the fortress, which, according to Benoit's account, contained a market, "numerous inhabitants" and was protected by the fortress. The settlement also benefited from trade with travelers on the route between Acre and the Jordan Valley, which passed through Safed. The Ayyubids of Egypt had been supplanted by
2844-544: A revelation to build an Ark , after his people refused to believe in his message and hear the warning. The narrative goes on to describe that waters poured forth from both the earth and the Heavens, destroying all the sinners. Even one of his sons disbelieved him, stayed behind, and was drowned. After the Flood ended, the Ark rested atop Mount Judi (Quran 11:44 ). Also, Islamic beliefs deny
3002-537: A series of natural disasters further contributed to Safed's decline during the 17th–mid-19th centuries. An outbreak of plague decimated the population in 1742 and the Near East earthquakes of 1759 left the city in ruins, killing 200 residents. An influx of Russian Jews in 1776 and 1781, and of Lithuanian Jews of the Perushim movement in 1809 and 1810, reinvigorated the Jewish community. In 1812, another plague killed 80% of
3160-668: A six-week siege, Baybars captured Safed in July 1266, after which he had nearly the entire garrison killed. The siege occurred during a Mamluk military campaign to subdue Crusader strongholds in Palestine and followed a failed attempt to capture the Crusaders' coastal stronghold of Acre. Unlike the Crusader fortresses along the coastline, which were demolished upon their capture by the Mamluks, Baybars spared
3318-630: A small proportion of the city's overall Muslim population. Masterman noted that the Muslims of Safed were conservative, "active and hardy", who "dress[ed] well and move[d] about more than the people from the region of southern Palestine". They lived mainly in three quarters of the city: al-Akrad, whose residents were mostly laborers, Sawawin, home to the Muslim a'yan households and the city's Catholic community, and al-Wata, whose inhabitants were largely shopkeepers and minor traders. The entire Jewish population lived in
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#17330863419373476-520: A transaction made in Tiberias in 1023 by a certain Jew, Musa ben Hiba ben Salmun with the nisba (Arabic descriptive suffix) "al-Safati" (of Safed), indicating the presence of a Jewish community living alongside Muslims in Safed in the 11th century. According to the Muslim historian Ibn Shaddad (d. 1285), at the beginning of the 12th century, a "flourishing village" beneath a tower called Burj Yatim had existed at
3634-602: A truce. The secretary-general of the Arab League Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam stated that the goal of Plan Dalet was to drive out the inhabitants of Arab villages along the Syrian and Lebanese frontiers, particularly places on the roads by which Arab regular forces could enter the country. He noted that Acre and Safed were in particular danger. However, the appeals for help were ignored, and the British, now less than
3792-466: A week away from the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, also did not intervene against the second and final Haganah attack, which began on the evening of 9 May, with a mortar barrage on key sites in Safed. Following the barrage, Palmach infantry, in bitter fighting, took the citadel, Beit Shalva and the police fort, Safed's three dominant buildings. Through 10 May, Haganah mortars continued to pound
3950-500: Is a geographical region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon . Part of the larger Galilee region, it is characterized by its higher elevations and mountainous terrain. The term "Upper Galilee" is ancient, and has been in use since the end of the Second Temple period . From a political perspective, the Upper Galilee is situated within the administrative boundaries of the Northern District of Israel. The Upper Galilee
4108-498: Is a major subject in Israeli art, it hosts an Artists' Quarter . Several prominent art movements played a role in the city, most notably the École de Paris . However the Artists' quarter has declined since its golden age in the second half of the 20th century. Due to its high elevation, the city has warm summers and cold, often snowy winters. Its mild climate and scenic views have made Safed
4266-563: Is also spoken of in the commentaries and in Islamic legends. Noah's narratives largely cover his preaching as well the story of the Deluge . Noah's narrative sets the prototype for many of the subsequent prophetic stories, which begin with the prophet warning his people and then the community rejecting the message and facing a punishment. Noah has several titles in Islam, based primarily on praise for him in
4424-541: Is among the best-known stories of the Bible . In this account, God "regrets" making mankind because they filled the world with evil. Noah then labors faithfully to build the Ark at God 's command, ultimately saving not only his own family, but mankind itself and all land animals, from extinction during the Flood . Afterwards, God makes a covenant with Noah and promises never again to destroy
4582-717: Is approximately 470 km . In present-day usage, the toponym mainly refers only to the northern part of the Galilee that is under Israeli sovereignty. That is, the term today does not include the portion of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, or the corresponding stretches of the Israeli Coastal Plain to the west, or the Jordan Rift Valley to the east. These are considered to be separate geographical areas that are not part of “Upper Galilee.” The Upper Galilee
4740-490: Is believed to have been approximately 2700 BC, shortly before the earliest known written stories. The discovery of artifacts associated with Aga and Enmebaragesi of Kish , two other kings named in the stories, has lent credibility to the historical existence of Gilgamesh. The earliest Sumerian Gilgamesh poems date from as early as the Third dynasty of Ur (2100–2000 BC). One of these poems mentions Gilgamesh’s journey to meet
4898-460: Is considered an important prophet of God among Druze, being among the seven prophets who appeared in different periods of history. Noah is a highly important figure in Islam and he is seen as one of the most significant of all prophets . The Quran contains 43 references to Noah, or Nuḥ , in 28 chapters, and the seventy-first chapter, Sūrah Nūḥ ( Arabic : سورة نوح ), is named after him. His life
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5056-752: Is home to a relatively large community of Haredi Jews . The village of Akbara in the city's southwestern outskirts, which had a population of about 500 Arab Muslims, most of whom belonged to a single clan, the Halihal, is under Safed's municipal jurisdiction. The city is located above the Dead Sea Transform , and is one of the cities in Israel most at risk of earthquakes (along with Tiberias, Beit She'an , Kiryat Shmona , and Eilat ). Upper Galilee The Upper Galilee ( Hebrew : הגליל העליון , HaGalil Ha'Elyon ; Arabic : الجليل الأعلى , Al Jaleel Al A'alaa )
5214-729: Is home to numerous significant ancient synagogues , dating from Roman and Byzantine times. Those include the synagogues of Bar'am , Nabratein , Gush Halav , Huqoq , Chorazin , Meron and a few others. Remains of synagogues has also been found in Qision and Alma . Following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the Balfour Declaration in which the British Empire promised to create "A Jewish National Home" in Palestine,
5372-495: Is known for its natural beauty, including lush landscapes, Mediterranean forests , and scenic vistas. Significant natural sites include Nahal Amud and the Keshet Cave . It's also an area where vineyards and wineries thrive, producing quality wines. Mount Meron stands as the highest point in the area, reaching an elevation of 1,208 meters above sea level. Safed is a main city in the region and also hosts an artists' quarter that
5530-530: Is less involved". In addition to the main story in Genesis, the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament ) also refers to Noah in the First Book of Chronicles , Isaiah and Ezekiel . References in the deuterocanonical books include the books of Tobit , Wisdom , Sirach , 2 Esdras and 4 Maccabees . New Testament references include the gospels of Matthew and Luke , and some of the epistles ( Epistle to
5688-455: Is named as Nuraita ( Classical Mandaic : ࡍࡅࡓࡀࡉࡕࡀ ), while his son is named as Shum (i.e., Shem ; [ࡔࡅࡌ] Error: {{Langx}}: invalid parameter: |transl= ( help ) ). 2 Peter 2:5 refers to Noah as a "preacher of righteousness". In the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, Jesus compares Noah's flood with the coming Day of Judgement : "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in
5846-402: Is no ark in this account. According to Elaine Pagels , "Rather, they hid in a particular place, not only Noah, but also many other people from the unshakable race. They entered that place and hid in a bright cloud." The Druze regard Noah as the second spokesman ( natiq ) after Adam , who helped transmit the foundational teachings of monotheism ( tawhid ) intended for the larger audience. He
6004-454: Is one of the major cities in this region". In recent decades, however, this usage has virtually disappeared from the general Israeli discourse, the term "Upper Galilee" being used solely in reference to the part located in Israel. The Upper Galilee region, specifically the city of Safed was a centre of Israeli and Jewish art since 1920 when the School of Paris painter, Yitzhak Frenkel visited
6162-668: Is strange that the table, which assumes that the population is distributed about the Earth, precedes the account of the Tower of Babel , which says that all the population is in one place before it is dispersed. Genesis 5:1–32 transmits a genealogy of the Sethites down to Noah, which is taken from the priestly tradition. A genealogy of the Canites from the Jawhistic tradition is found in Genesis 4:17–26. Biblical scholars see these as variants on one and
6320-428: Is the father of mankind and a husbandman who planted the first vineyard. "The disparity of character between these two narratives has caused some critics to insist that the subject of the latter account was not the same as the subject of the former." The Encyclopedia Judaica notes that Noah's drunkenness is not presented as reprehensible behavior. Rather, "It is clear that ... Noah’s venture into viticulture provides
6478-473: Is unmentioned, Noah is 500 years old before his sons Shem , Ham and Japheth are born. The Genesis flood narrative is encompassed within chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis , in the Bible . The narrative indicates that God intended to return the Earth to its pre-Creation state of watery chaos by flooding the Earth because of humanity's misdeeds and then remake it using the microcosm of Noah's ark . Thus,
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6636-521: The Ahmadiyya understanding of the Quran, the period described in the Quran is the age of his dispensation , which extended until the time of Ibrahim (Abraham, 950 years). The first 50 years were the years of spiritual progress, which were followed by 900 years of spiritual deterioration of the people of Noah. Indian and Greek flood-myths also exist, although there is little evidence that they were derived from
6794-534: The Anglican rite of baptism, which asks God, "who of thy great mercy didst save Noah," to receive into the Church the infant about to be baptised. In medieval Christianity , Noah's three sons were generally considered as the founders of the populations of the three known continents , Japheth /Europe, Shem /Asia, and Ham /Africa, although a rarer variation held that they represented the three classes of medieval society –
6952-496: The Battle of Marj Dabiq in northern Syria in 1516. Safed's inhabitants sent the keys of the town citadel to Sultan Selim I after he captured Damascus. No fighting was recorded around Safed, which was bypassed by Selim's army on the way to Mamluk Egypt. The sultan had placed the district of Safed under the jurisdiction of the Mamluk governor of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali , who defected to
7110-937: The Jebusites , the Amorites , the Girgashites, the Hivites , the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites ;– spread out from Sidon as far as Gerar , near Gaza , and as far as Sodom and Gomorrah (10:15–19). Among Shem's descendants was Eber (10:21). These genealogies differ structurally from those set out in Genesis 5 and 11. It has a segmented or treelike structure, going from one father to many offspring. It
7268-803: The Litani River in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Lower Galilee in the south (from which it is separated by the Beit HaKerem Valley ), and the upper Jordan River and the Hula Valley in the east. According to the first century Jewish historian Josephus , the bounds of Upper Galilee stretched from Bersabe in the Beit HaKerem Valley to Baca (Peki'in) in the north, and from Meloth to Thella . The extent of this region
7426-422: The Ma'n dynasty , was appointed the sanjak-bey (district governor) of Safed, in addition to his governorship of neighbouring Sidon-Beirut Sanjak to the north. In the preceding years, the Safed Sanjak had entered a state of ruin and desolation and was often the scene of conflict between the local Druze and Shia Muslim peasants and the Ottoman authorities. By 1605, Fakhr al-Din had established peace and security in
7584-425: The Mamluks in 1250 and the Mamluk sultan Baybars entered Syria with his army in 1261. Thereafter, he led a series of campaigns over several years against Crusader strongholds across the Syrian coastal mountains. Safed, with its position overlooking the Jordan River and allowing the Crusaders early warnings of Muslim troop movements in the area, had been a consistent aggravation for the Muslim regional powers. After
7742-459: The Ottoman conquest in 1517 ushered in nearly a century of growth and prosperity in Safed, during which time Jewish immigrants from across Europe developed the city into a center for wool and textile production and the mystical Kabbalah movement. It became known as one of the Four Holy Cities of Judaism. As the capital of the Safad Sanjak , it was the main population center of the Galilee, with large Muslim and Jewish communities. Besides during
7900-472: The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 to purchase extensive tracts around Safed. The major Muslim landowning clans were the Soubeh, Murad and Qaddura. The latter owned about 50,000 dunams toward the end of the century, including eight villages around Safed. In 1878 the municipal council of Safed was established. In 1888 the Acre Sanjak, including the Safed Kaza, became part of the new province of Beirut Vilayet , an administrative state of affairs which persisted until
8058-406: The Safed massacre 20 Jewish residents were killed by local Arabs. Safed was included in the part of Palestine recommended to be included in the proposed Jewish state under the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine . By 1948 the city was home to about 12,000 Arabs and about 1,700 Jews, mostly religious and elderly. On 5 January 1948, Arabs attacked the Jewish Quarter. In February 1948, during
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#17330863419378216-408: The Sidon Eyalet , of which Safed was briefly the capital. The province was created by the imperial government to check the power of the Druze of Mount Lebanon, as well as the Shia of Jabal Amil . As nearby Tiberias remained desolate for several decades, Safed gained a key position among Galilean Jewish communities. In 1665, the Sabbatai Sevi movement arrived in Safed. In the 1670s, the account of
8374-602: The Watchers ". In 10:1–3 of the Book of Enoch (which is part of the Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon ) and canonical for Beta Israel , Uriel was dispatched by "the Most High" to inform Noah of the approaching "deluge". There are 20 or so fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls that appear to refer to Noah. Lawrence Schiffman writes, "Among the Dead Sea Scrolls at least three different versions of this legend are preserved." In particular, "The Genesis Apocryphon devotes considerable space to Noah." However, "The material seems to have little in common with Genesis 5 which reports
8532-480: The Zionist Movement presented to the Versailles Peace Conference a document calling for including in the British Mandate of Palestine the entire territory up to the Litani river — with a view to this becoming eventually part of a future Jewish state. However, only less than half this area was actually included in British Mandatory Palestine, the final border being influenced both by diplomatic maneuverings and struggles between Britain and France and by fighting on
8690-449: The civil war , Muslim Arabs attacked a Jewish bus attempting to reach Safed, and the Jewish quarter of the town came under siege by the Muslims. British forces that were present did not intervene. According to Martin Gilbert , food supplies ran short. "Even water and flour were in desperately short supply. Each day, the Arab attackers drew closer to the heart of the Jewish quarter, systematically blowing up Jewish houses as they pressed in on
8848-439: The mamlaka eventually spanned the entire Galilee and the lands further south down to Jenin . The geographer al-Dimashqi , who died in Safed in 1327, wrote around 1300 that Baybars built a "round tower and called it Kullah ..." after leveling the old fortress. The tower was built in three stories, and provided with provisions, halls, and magazines . Under the structure, a cistern collected enough rainwater to regularly supply
9006-440: The 10th century BC. Two of these, the Jahwist , composed in the 10th century BC, and the Priestly source , from the late 7th century BC, make up the chapters of Genesis which concern Noah. The attempt by the 5th-century editor to accommodate two independent and sometimes conflicting sources accounts for the confusion over such matters as how many of each animal Noah took, and how long the flood lasted. The Oxford Encyclopedia of
9164-468: The 120 years of Moses . After the flood, the Bible says that Noah became a farmer and he planted a vineyard . He drank wine made from this vineyard, and got drunk ; and lay "uncovered" within his tent. Noah's son Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his brothers, which led to Ham's son Canaan being cursed by Noah. As early as the Classical era , commentators on Genesis 9:20–21 have excused Noah's excessive drinking because he
9322-415: The 15th and 16th centuries there were several well-known Sufis (mystics) of ibn Arabi living in Safed. The Sufi sage Ahmad al-Asadi (1537–1601) established a zawiya (Sufi lodge) called Sadr Mosque in the city. Safed became a center of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) during the 16th century. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 , many prominent rabbis found their way to Safed, among them
9480-422: The 16th century, Hajj Sa'id, Hijazi, Bisht, Hadid, Khouri, a Christian family whose progenitor moved to the city from Mount Lebanon during the 1860 civil war , and Sabbagh, a long-established Christian family in the city related to Zahir al-Umar's fiscal adviser Ibrahim al-Sabbagh; many members of these families became officials in the civil service, local administrations or businessmen. When the Ottomans established
9638-673: The 19th century, and whose inhabitants mainly were Kurds ; al-Wata (the lower), the southernmost quarter of Safed and situated below the city; and al-Suq, named after the market or mosque located within the quarter. The Jewish quarters were all situated west of the fortress. Each quarter was named for the place of origin of its inhabitants: Purtuqal (Portugal), Qurtubah ( Cordoba ), Qastiliyah ( Castille ), Musta'rib (Jews of local, Arabic-speaking origin), Magharibah (northwestern Africa), Araghun ma' Qatalan ( Aragon and Catalonia ), Majar (Hungary), Puliah ( Apulia ), Qalabriyah ( Calabria ), Sibiliyah ( Seville ), Taliyan (Italian) and Alaman (German). In
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#17330863419379796-463: The Arab neighbourhoods, causing fires in the marked area and in the fuel dumps, which exploded. "The Palmah 'intentionally left open the exit routes for the population to "facilitate" their exodus...' " According to Gilbert, "The Arabs of Safed began to leave, including the commander of the Arab forces, Adib Shishakli (later Prime Minister of Syria). With the police fort on Mount Canaan isolated, its defenders withdrew without fighting. The fall of Safed
9954-531: The Arabs' property had been seized or stolen in the meantime, the Jewish community would be unable to withstand the pressure of the returnees' demands for restitution. In 1974, 25 Israeli Jews (mainly school children) from Safed, were killed in the Ma'alot massacre . Over 1990s and early 2000s, the town accepted thousands of Russian Jewish immigrants and Ethiopian Beta Israel . In July 2006, "Katyusha" rockets fired by Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon hit Safed, killing one man and injuring others. Many residents fled
10112-409: The Ark and the Flood as symbolic. In Baháʼí belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the ark of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead. The Baháʼí scripture Kitáb-i-Íqán endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had a large number of companions, either 40 or 72, besides his family on the Ark, and that he taught for 950 (symbolic) years before the flood. According to
10270-410: The Ark came to be compared to the Church : salvation was to be found only within Christ and his Lordship, as in Noah's time it had been found only within the Ark. St Augustine of Hippo (354–430), demonstrated in The City of God that the dimensions of the Ark corresponded to the dimensions of the human body, which corresponds to the body of Christ ; the equation of Ark and Church is still found in
10428-441: The Ayyubid emir of Damascus , al-Mu'azzam Isa , in 1217. Two years later, during the Crusader siege of Damietta , al-Mu'azzam Isa had the Safed castle demolished to prevent its capture and reuse by potential future Crusaders. As an outcome of the treaty negotiations between the Crusader leader Theobald I of Navarre and the Ayyubid al-Salih Ismail, Emir of Damascus , in 1240 Safed once again passed to Crusader control. Afterward,
10586-455: The Bible, the lifespans "fall far short of the briefest reign mentioned in the related Mesopotamian texts." Also, the name of the hero differs between the traditions: "The earliest Mesopotamian flood account, written in the Sumerian language , calls the deluge hero Ziusudra ." However, Yi Samuel Chen writes that the oldest versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh never mentioned the flood, just mentioning that he went to talk to Utnapishtim to find
10744-405: The Books of the Bible notes that this story echoes parts of the Garden of Eden story: Noah is the first vintner, while Adam is the first farmer; both have problems with their produce; both stories involve nakedness; and both involve a division between brothers leading to a curse. However, after the flood, the stories differ. It is Noah, not God, who plants the vineyard and utters the curse, so "God
10902-583: The Egyptian governor of the Levant. In the following year, the Muslim notables of the city, led by Salih al-Tarshihi, opposed to the Egyptian policy of conscription, joined the peasants' revolt in Palestine . During the revolt, rebels plundered the city for over thirty days. Emir Bashir Shihab II of Mount Lebanon and his Druze fighters entered its environs in support of the Egyptians and compelled Safed's leaders to surrender. The Galilee earthquake of 1837 killed about half of Safed's 4,000-strong Jewish community, destroyed all fourteen of its synagogues and prompted
11060-490: The Empire's fall in 1918. The centralization and stability brought by the imperial reforms solidified the political status and practical influence of Safed in the Upper Galilee. The Ottomans developed Safed into a center for Sunni Islam to counterbalance the influence of non-Muslim communities in its environs and the Shia Muslims of Jabal Amil. Along with the three major landowning families, the Muslim ulema (religious scholarly) families of Nahawi, Qadi, Mufti and Naqib comprised
11218-420: The Galilee in general, though by 1824 Jewish immigrants were steadily moving to the city. The forces of Muhammad Ali of Egypt wrested control of the Levant from the Ottomans in 1831 and in the same year many Jews who had fled the Galilee, including Safed, under Abdullah Pasha returned as a result of Muhammad Ali's liberal policies toward Jews. Safed was raided by Druze in 1833 at the approach of Ibrahim Pasha ,
11376-572: The Gharbieh (western) quarter. Safed's population reached over 15,000 in 1879, 8,000 of whom were Muslims and 7,000 Jews. A population list from about 1887 showed that Safad had 24,615 inhabitants; 2,650 Jewish households, 2,129 Muslim households and 144 Roman Catholic households. Arab families in Safed whose social status rose as a result of the Tanzimat reforms included the Asadi , whose presence in Safed dated to
11534-587: The Hebrews , 1 Peter and 2 Peter ). Noah became the subject of much elaboration in the literature of later Abrahamic religions, including Islam ( Surahs 71 , 7 , 11 , 54 , and 21 of the Quran) and the Baháʼí Faith ( Kitáb-i-Íqán and Gems of Divine Mysteries ). The Book of Jubilees refers to Noah and says that he was taught the arts of healing by an angel so that his children could overcome "the offspring of
11692-400: The Jewish community developed the textile industry in Safed , transforming the town into an important and lucrative wool production and textile manufacturing centre. There were more than 7000 Jews in Safed in 1576 when Murad III proclaimed the forced deportation of 1000 wealthy Jewish families to Cyprus to boost the island's economy. There is no evidence that the edict or a second one issued
11850-545: The Jewish community of Safed was plundered by the Druze under Mulhim ibn Yunus , nephew of Fakhr al-Din. Five years later, Fakhr al-Din was routed by the Ottoman governor of Damascus, Mulhim abandoned Safed, and its Jewish residents returned. The Druze again attacked the Jews of Safed in 1656. During the power struggle between Fakhr al-Din's heirs (1658–1667), each faction attacked Safed. In
12008-507: The Jewish population rose from a mere 233 households in 1525 to 945 households in 1567–1568. The Muslim quarters were Sawawin, located west of the fortress; Khandaq (the moat); Ghazzawiyah, which had likely been settled by Gazans ; Jami' al-Ahmar (the Red Mosque), located south of the fortress and named for the local mosque; al-Akrad, which dated to the Middle Ages and continued to exist through
12166-531: The Jewish population. Following Abdullah Pasha of Acre's ordered killing of his Jewish vizier Haim Farhi , who served the same post under Jazzar and Sulayman, the governor imprisoned the Jewish residents of Safed on 12 August 1820, accusing them of tax evasion under the concealment of Farhi; they were released upon paying a ransom. The war between Abdullah Pasha and the influential Farhi brothers in Constantinople and Damascus in 1822–1823 prompted Jewish flight from
12324-528: The Jezreel Valley and the area of Atlit , part of the larger province of Damascus Eyalet . In 1525/26, the population of Safed consisted of 633 Muslim families, 40 Muslim bachelors, 26 Muslim religious persons, nine Muslim disabled, 232 Jewish families, and 60 military families. In 1549, under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent , a wall was constructed and troops were garrisoned to protect the city. In 1553/54,
12482-623: The Kabbalists Isaac Luria and Moses ben Jacob Cordovero ; Joseph Caro , the author of the Shulchan Aruch ; and Solomon Alkabetz , composer of the Shabbat hymn " Lekha Dodi ". The kabbalistic response to the trauma of the exile varied widely, ranging from a quietistic approach adopted by the Italian and North African kabbalists, to a more activist apocalyptic approach which sought signs of
12640-581: The Mesopotamian flood-myth that underlies the biblical account. The Noah story of the Pentateuch is quite similar to a flood story contained in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh , composed c. 1800 BCE . In the Gilgamesh version, the Mesopotamian gods decide to send a great flood to destroy mankind. Various correlations between the stories of Noah and Gilgamesh (the flood, the construction of
12798-507: The Ottomans. Rumors in 1517 that Selim was slain by the Mamluks precipitated a revolt against the newly appointed Ottoman governor by the townspeople of Safed, which resulted in wide-scale killings, many of which targeted the city's Jews , who were viewed as sympathizers of the Ottomans. Safed became the capital of the Safed Sanjak , roughly corresponding with Mamlakat Safad but excluding most of
12956-523: The Patriarch Abraham had his roots. The Hurrians inherited the Flood story from Babylonia". The encyclopedia mentions another similarity between the stories: Noah is the tenth patriarch and Berossus notes that "the hero of the great flood was Babylonia's tenth antediluvian king." However, there is a discrepancy in the ages of the heroes. For the Mesopotamian antecedents, "the reigns of the antediluvian kings range from 18,600 to nearly 65,000 years." In
13114-417: The Quran, including "Trustworthy Messenger of God" ( 26:107 ) and "Grateful Servant of God" ( 17:3 ). The Quran focuses on several instances from Noah's life more than others, and one of the most significant events is the Flood. God makes a covenant with Noah just as he did with Abraham, Moses , Jesus and Muhammad later on ( 33:7 ). Noah is later reviled by his people and reproached by them for being
13272-710: The Templars in the same year. Theoderich the Monk , describing his visit to the area in 1172, noted that the expanded fortification of the castle of Safed was meant to check the raids of the Turks (the Turkic Zengid dynasty ruled the area east of the Kingdom). Testifying to the considerable expansion of the castle, the chronicler Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240) wrote that it was practically built anew. The remains of Fulk's castle can now be found under
13430-490: The Templars were tasked with rebuilding the Citadel of Safed , with efforts spearheaded by Benedict of Alignan , Bishop of Marseille . The rebuilding is recorded in a short treatise, De constructione castri Saphet , from the early 1260s. The reconstruction was completed at the considerable expense of 40,000 bezants in 1243. The new fortress was larger than the original, with a capacity for 2,200 soldiers in time of war, and with
13588-474: The Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi recorded that Safed contained three caravanserais , several mosques , seven zawiyas, and six hammams . The Red Mosque was restored by Safed's governor Salih Bey in 1671/72, at which point it measured about 120 by 80 feet (37 m × 24 m), had all masonry interior, a cistern to collect rainwater in the winter for drinking and a tall minaret over its southern entrance;
13746-480: The accounts of Jewish pilgrims and chroniclers between 1120 and 1293. Benjamin of Tudela , who visited the town in 1170, does not record any Jews living in Safed proper. Safed was captured by the Ayyubids led by Sultan Saladin in 1188 after a month-long siege , following the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Saladin ultimately allowed its residents to relocate to Tyre . He granted Safed and Tiberias as an iqta (akin to
13904-520: The air conditioner, Safed also attracted artists due to its climatic conditions which were more comfortable than Tel Aviv during the summer. Safed also offered different themes for the artists, from the Klezmer musicians to the Hasidim and the city itself. Mount Meron was also an object in artworks by Jewish artists with artists such as Frenkel and Rolly Schaffer painting serene or fiery scenes of sunset over
14062-456: The ark, the salvation of animals, and the release of birds following the flood) have led to this story being seen as the source for the story of Noah. The few variations include the number of days of the deluge, the order of the birds, and the name of the mountain on which the ark rests. The flood story in Genesis 6–8 matches the Gilgamesh flood myth so closely that "few doubt that [it] derives from
14220-453: The biblical Flood story as the building and provisioning of the ark, its flotation, and the subsidence of the waters, as well as the part played by the human protagonist." The Encyclopedia Judaica adds that there is a strong suggestion that "an intermediate agent was active. The people most likely to have fulfilled this role are the Hurrians , whose territory included the city of Harran , where
14378-455: The biblical account was influenced by earlier Mesopotamian traditions, with notable parallels in plot elements and structure. Comparisons are also drawn between Noah and the Greek hero Deucalion , who, like Noah, is warned of a flood, builds an ark, and sends a bird to check on the flood's aftermath. Tenth and final of the pre-Flood ( antediluvian ) Patriarchs, son to Lamech and a mother whose name
14536-459: The birth of Noah." Also, Noah's father is reported as worrying that his son was actually fathered by one of the Watchers . The righteousness of Noah is the subject of much discussion among rabbis. The description of Noah as "righteous in his generation" implied to some that his perfection was only relative: In his generation of wicked people, he could be considered righteous, but in the generation of
14694-500: The castle-gate...Its suburbs cover three hills... Since the place was conquered by Al Malik Adh Dhahir [Baybars] from the Franks [Crusaders], it has been made the central station for the troops who guard all the coast-towns of that district." The native qadi (Islamic head judge) of Safed, Shams al-Din al-Uthmani, composed a text about Safed called Ta'rikh Safad (the History of Safed) during
14852-425: The central area." On April 16, the same day that British forces evacuated Safed, 200 local Arab militiamen, supported by over 200 Arab Liberation Army soldiers, tried to take over the city's Jewish Quarter. They were repelled by the Jewish garrison, consisting of some 200 Haganah fighters, men and women, boosted by a Palmach platoon. The Palmach ground attack on the Arab section of Safed took place on 6 May, as
15010-442: The citadel excavations, on a hill above the old city. In the estimation of modern historian Havré Barbé, the castellany of Safed comprised approximately 376 square kilometers (145 sq mi). According to Barbé, its western boundary straddled the domains of Acre, including the fief of St. George de la Beyne , which included Sajur and Beit Jann , and the fief of Geoffrey le Tor, which included Akbara and Hurfeish , and in
15168-475: The city by Baybars when he conquered Safed in 1266. Until the late 19th century the Muslims of Safed maintained strong social and cultural connections with Damascus. The government settled Algerian and Circassian exiles in the countryside of Safed in the 1860s and 1878, respectively, possibly in an effort to strengthen the Muslim character of the area. At least two Muslim families in the city itself, Arabi and Delasi, were of Algerian origin, though they accounted for
15326-422: The city was proposed to be part of a Jewish state in the 1947 UN Partition Plan . During the 1948 war , Arab factions attacked and besieged the Jewish quarter which held out until Jewish paramilitary forces captured the city after heavy fighting, precipitating British forces to withdraw. Most of the city's predominantly Palestinian-Arab population fled or were expelled as a result of attacks by Jewish forces and
15484-426: The city's shortcomings to the dearth of generous patrons. A device for transporting buckets of water called the satura existed in the city mainly to supply the soldiers of the citadel; surplus water was distributed to the city's residents. Al-Uthmani praised the natural beauty of Safed, its therapeutic air, and noted that its residents took strolls in the surrounding gorges and ravines. The Black Death brought about
15642-553: The days of the coming of the Son of Man . For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." The First Epistle of Peter compares the power of baptism with the Ark saving those who were in it. In later Christian thought,
15800-490: The descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from whom the nations branched out over the Earth after the flood. Among Japheth's descendants were the maritime nations (10:2–5). Ham's son Cush had a son named Nimrod , who became the first man of might on earth, a mighty hunter, king in Babylon and the land of Shinar (10:6–10). From there Ashur went and built Nineveh . (10:11–12) Canaan's descendants – Sidon, Heth ,
15958-438: The earth with a flood. Noah is also portrayed as a "tiller of the soil" who is the first to cultivate the vine. After the flood, God commands Noah and his sons to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth". The story of Noah in the Pentateuch is similar to the flood narrative in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh , composed around 1800 BC, where a hero builds an ark to survive a divinely sent flood. Scholars suggest that
16116-513: The eating of animal food was permitted, abstinence from blood was strictly enjoined; and the shedding of the blood of man by man was made a crime punishable by death at the hands of man (ib. ix. 3–6). Noah, as the last of the extremely long-lived Antediluvian patriarchs, died 350 years after the flood, at the age of 950, when Terah was 128. The maximum human lifespan, as depicted by the Bible, gradually diminishes thereafter, from almost 1,000 years to
16274-402: The end of the 19th century; it was a mixed city , divided roughly equally between Jews and Muslims with a small Christian community. Its Muslim merchants played a key role as middlemen in the grain trade between the local farmers and the traders of Acre, while the Ottomans promoted the city as a center of Sunni jurisprudence . Safed's conditions improved considerably in the late 19th century,
16432-608: The fact that the flood motif didn't show up in the Ur III copy and that the earliest chronographical sources related to the flood show up in the Old Babylonian Period. Chen concludes that the name of Ziusudra as a flood hero, as well as any hinted references of a flood, in the Old Babylonian Version of the Instructions of Shuruppak were later developments during the Old Babylonian Period, originating from updated information added to
16590-578: The field of psychological biblical criticism , J. H. Ellens and W. G. Rollins have analysed the unconventional behavior that occurs between Noah and Ham as revolving around sexuality and the exposure of genitalia as compared with other Hebrew Bible texts, such as Habakkuk 2:15 and Lamentations 4:21. Other commentaries mention that "uncovering someone's nakedness" could mean having sexual intercourse with that person or that person's spouse, as quoted in Leviticus 18:7–8 and 20. From this interpretation comes
16748-473: The flight of 600 Perushim for Jerusalem; the surviving Sephardic and Hasidic Jews mostly remained. Among the 2,158 residents of Safed who had died, 1,507 were Ottoman subjects, the rest foreign citizens. The Jewish quarter was situated on the hillside and was particularly hard hit; the southern and Muslim section of the town experienced considerably less damage. The following year, in 1838, Druze rebels and local Muslims raided Safed for three days. Ottoman rule
16906-423: The flood hero, as well as a short version of the flood story, although Chen writes that his was included in texts written during the Old Babylonian Period. The earliest Akkadian versions of the unified epic are dated to c. 2000–1700 BC. Due to the fragmentary nature of these Old Babylonian versions, it is unclear whether they included an expanded account of the flood myth; although one fragment definitely includes
17064-501: The flood was no ordinary overflow but a reversal of Creation . The narrative discusses the evil of mankind that moved God to destroy the world by way of the flood, the preparation of the ark for certain animals, Noah, and his family, and God's guarantee (the Noahic Covenant ) for the continued existence of life under the promise that he would never send another flood. After the flood, Noah offered burnt offerings to God. God accepted
17222-616: The following year for removing 500 families, was enforced. In 1584, there were 32 synagogues registered in the town. A Hebrew printing press , the first in West Asia , was established in Safed in 1577 by Eliezer ben Isaac Ashkenazi of Prague and his son, Isaac. By the early part of the 17th century, Safed was a small town. In 1602, the paramount chief of the Druze in Mount Lebanon , Fakhr al-Din II of
17380-479: The fortress of Safed. He likely preserved it because of the strategic value stemming from its location on a high mountain and its isolation from other Crusader fortresses. Moreover, Baybars determined that in the event of a renewed Crusader invasion of the coastal region, a strongly fortified Safed could serve as an ideal headquarters to confront the Crusader threat. In 1268, he had the fortress repaired, expanded and strengthened. He commissioned numerous building works in
17538-444: The fortunate governorship of Fakhr al-Din II in the early 17th century, the city underwent a general decline and by the mid-18th century was eclipsed by Acre . Its Jewish residents were targeted in Druze and local Muslim raids in the 1830s, and many perished in an earthquake in that same decade – through the philanthropy of Moses Montefiore , its Jewish synagogues and homes were rebuilt. Safed's population reached 24,000 toward
17696-574: The garrison. The governor of Safed, Emir Baktamur al-Jukandar (the Polomaster; r. 1309–1311 ), built a mosque later called after him in the northeastern section of the city. The geographer Abu'l Fida (1273–1331), the ruler of Hama , described Safed as follows: [Safed] was a town of medium size. It has a very strongly built castle, which dominates the Lake of Tabariyyah [Sea of Galilee]. There are underground watercourses, which bring drinking-water up to
17854-534: The governor. The simultaneous rise of Acre, established by Zahir as his capital in 1750 and which served as the capital of the Sidon Eyalet under Jazzar Pasha (1775–1804) and his successors, Sulayman Pasha al-Adil (1805–1819) and Abdullah Pasha (1820–1831), contributed to the political decline of Safed. It became a subdistrict center with limited local influence, belonging to the Acre Sanjak . Underdevelopment and
18012-473: The governorship of Safed, which the Ma'n dynasty had lost, after his victory against the governor of Damascus at the Battle of Anjar . In c. 1625 , the orientalist Franciscus Quaresmius spoke of Safed being inhabited "chiefly by Hebrews, who had their synagogues and schools, and for whose sustenance contributions were made by the Jews in other parts of the world." According to the historian Louis Finkelstein,
18170-649: The ground, especially the March 1920 battle of Tel Hai . For a considerable time after the border was defined so to make the northern portion of the territory concerned part of the French mandated territory that became Lebanon, many Zionist geographers — and Israeli geographers in the state's early years — continued to speak of "The Upper Galilee" as being "the northern sub-area of the Galilee region of Israel and Lebanon ". Under this definition, "The Upper Galilee" covers an area spreading over 1,500 km , about 700 in Israel and
18328-414: The idea of Noah being the first person to drink wine and experience the aftereffects of doing so. Quran 29:14 states that Noah had been living among the people who he was sent to for 950 years when the flood started. Indeed, We sent Noah to his people, and he remained among them for a thousand years, less fifty. Then the Flood overtook them, while they persisted in wrongdoing. The Baháʼí Faith regards
18486-407: The imminent redemption. The expulsion was seen by many as the tribulation that would herald the beginning of the messianic age as foretold in rabbinic literature. The spiritualization of religious life culminated in the creative outburst of religious innovation in Safed in the second half of the sixteenth century as a response to the expulsion. This spiritual revolution spread from Safed and transformed
18644-411: The intra-communal turmoil among the Druze following the death of Mulhim, the 1660 destruction of Safed targeted the Jews there and in Tiberias; only a few of the former Jewish residents returned to the city before 1662. Survivors relocated mainly to Sidon or Jerusalem . Safed Sanjak and the neighbouring Sidon-Beirut Sanjak to the north were administratively separated from Damascus in 1660 to form
18802-508: The last half of the 19th century by immigration from Persia , Morocco , and Algeria . Moses Montefiore (d. 1885) visited Safed seven times and financed much of the rebuilding of Safed's synagogues and Jewish houses. In 1864 the Sidon Eyalet was absorbed into the new province of Syria Vilayet . In the new province, Safed remained part of the Acre Sanjak and served as the center of a kaza (third-level subdivision), whose jurisdiction covered
18960-552: The medieval commentator Rashi , held on the contrary that the building of the Ark was stretched over 120 years, deliberately in order to give sinners time to repent. Rashi interprets his father's statement of the naming of Noah (in Hebrew – Noaħ נֹחַ). "This one will comfort us (in Hebrew– yeNaĦamenu יְנַחֲמֵנו) in our work and in the toil of our hands, which come from the ground that the Lord had cursed" Some interpret this as meaning Noah heralded
19118-426: The minaret had been destroyed before the end of the 17th century. The Tiberias-based sheikh Zahir al-Umar of the local Arab Zaydan clan, whose father Umar al-Zaydani had been the governor and tax farmer of Safed in 1702–1706, wrested control of Safed and its tax farm from its native strongman, Muhammad Naf'i, through military pressure and diplomacy by 1740. The Naf'i, Shahin, and Murad families continued to farm
19276-533: The mountain. Noah Noah ( / ˈ n oʊ . ə / ; Hebrew : נֹחַ , romanized : Nōaḥ , lit. 'rest' or 'consolation') appears as the last of the Antediluvian patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions . His story appears in the Hebrew Bible ( Book of Genesis , chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baha'i writings , and extracanonically. The Genesis flood narrative
19434-522: The nearby Ein al-Zeitun massacre , and were not allowed to return after the war, such that today the city has an almost exclusively Jewish population. That year, the city became part of the then-newly established state of Israel. Safed has a large Haredi community and remains a center for Jewish religious studies. Safed today hosts the Ziv Hospital as well as the Zefat Academic College . Safed
19592-519: The people of the Upper Galilee, the Hula Valley , the Golan Heights and parts of modern-day South Lebanon . Through the late 19th century, Safed's merchants served as middlemen in the Galilee grain trade, selling the wheat, pulses and fruit grown by the peasants of the Galilee to the traders of Acre, who in turn exported at least part of the merchandise to Europe. Safed also maintained extensive trade with
19750-456: The population consisted of 1,121 Muslim households, 222 Muslim bachelors, 54 Muslim religious leaders, 716 Jewish households, 56 Jewish bachelors, and 9 disabled persons. At least in the 16th century, Safed was the only kasaba (city) in the sanjak and in 1555 was divided into nineteen mahallas (quarters), seven Muslim and twelve Jewish. The total population of Safed rose from 926 households in 1525–26 to 1,931 households in 1567–1568. Among these,
19908-449: The port of Tyre. The bulk of trade in Safed, which was traditionally dominated by the city's Jews, largely passed to its Muslim merchants during the late 19th century, particularly trade with the local villagers; Muslim traders offered higher credit to the peasants and were able to obtain government assistance for debt repayments. The wealth of Safed's Muslims increased and a number of the city's leading Muslim families made an opportunity from
20066-629: The portions of the Sumerian King List which mention the time before the flood are stylistically different from the King List Proper. Chen writes that Old Babylonian copies tend to show a separate pre-flood tradition which is apart from the King List. Further, the Ur III copy of the King List as well as similar documents indicate that the King List Proper once existed independent of a flood narrative or
20224-405: The practice of Judaism throughout the Jewish world. The influx of Sephardic Jews —reaching its peak under the rule of sultans Suleiman the Magnificent and Selim II —made Safed a global center for Jewish learning and a regional center for trade throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. Sephardi Jews and other Jewish immigrants by then outnumbered Musta'arabi Jews in the city. During this period,
20382-414: The presence of a burgus (tower) in Safed, which he called "Castrum Saphet" or "Sephet", in 1157. Safed was the seat of a castellany (area governed by a castle) by at least 1165, when its castellan (appointed castle governor) was Fulk, constable of Tiberias . The castle of Safed was purchased from Fulk by King Amalric of Jerusalem in 1168. He subsequently reinforced the castle and transferred it to
20540-410: The priests (Shem), the warriors (Japheth), and the peasants (Ham). In medieval Christian thought, Ham was considered to be the ancestor of the people of black Africa. So, in racialist arguments, the curse of Ham became a justification for the slavery of the black races. Isaac Newton , in his religious works on the development of religion, wrote about Noah and his offspring. In Newton's view, while Noah
20698-422: The region and was the first to settle in Safed where he later established an art school. In Safed was established the Artists' quarter of Safed . Safed harbored mysticism and was reminiscent of picturesque villages, which drew artists such as Frenkel, Marc Chagall , Moshe Castel , Mordechai Levanon and others. Artists were drawn to the upper galilee due to its mountainous landscapes and "mysticsm". Prior to
20856-662: The rest in Lebanon. This included the highland region of Belad Bechara in Jabal Amel located in South Lebanon , which was at for some time known in Hebrew as "The Lebanese Galilee". As defined in geographical terms, "it is separated from the Lower Galilee by the Beit HaKerem valley; its mountains are taller and valleys are deeper than those in the Lower Galilee ; its tallest peak is Har Meron at 1,208 m above sea level . Safed
21014-733: The rule of its governor Emir Alamdar ( r. 1372–1376 ). The extant parts of the work consisted of ten folios largely devoted to Safed's distinguishing qualities, its dependent villages, agriculture, trade and geography, with no information about its history. His account reveals the city's dominant features were its citadel, the Red Mosque and its towering position over the surrounding landscape. He noted Safed lacked "regular urban planning", madrasas (schools of Islamic law), ribats (hostels for military volunteers) and defensive walls, and that its houses were clustered in disarray and its streets were not distinguishable from its squares. He attributed
21172-425: The sacrifice, and made a covenant with Noah, and through him with all mankind, that he would not waste the earth or destroy man by another deluge. "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth". As a pledge of this gracious covenant with man and beast the rainbow was set in the clouds (ib. viii. 15–22, ix. 8–17). Two injunctions were laid upon Noah: While
21330-433: The same list. However, if we take the merged text of Genesis as a single account, we can construct the following family tree, which has come down in this form into the Jewish and Christian traditions. According to the documentary hypothesis , the first five books of the Bible ( Pentateuch / Torah ), including Genesis, were collated during the 5th century BC from four main sources, which themselves date from no earlier than
21488-622: The sanjak, with highway brigandage and Bedouin raids having ceased under his watch. Trade and agriculture consequently thrived and the population prospered. He formed close relations with the city's Sunni Muslim ulama (religious scholars), particularly the mufti , al-Khalidi al-Safadi of the Hanafi school of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), who became his practical court historian. The Ottomans drove Fakhr al-Din into European exile in 1613, but his son Ali became governor in 1615. Fakhr al-Din returned to his domains in 1618 and five years later regained
21646-624: The secret of immortality. Starting with the Old Babylonian Period , there were attempts to syncretize Utnapishtim with Ziusudra, even though they were previously seen as different figures. Gilgamesh meeting the flood hero was first alluded to in the Old Babylonian Period in "The Death of Gilgamesh" and eventually was imported and standardized in the Epic of Gilgamesh probably in the Middle Babylonian Period. Gilgamesh 's historical reign
21804-450: The setting for the castigation of Israel’s Canaanite neighbors." It was Ham who committed an offense when he viewed his father's nakedness. Yet, "Noah’s curse, ... is strangely aimed at Canaan rather than the disrespectful Ham." In Mandaeism , Noah ([ࡍࡅ] Error: {{Langx}}: invalid parameter: |transl= ( help ) ) is mentioned in Book 18 of the Right Ginza . In the text, Noah's wife
21962-506: The site of Safed on the eve of the Crusaders' capture of the area in 1101–1102 and that "nothing" about the village was mentioned in "the early Islamic history books". Although Ibn Shaddad mistakenly attributes the tower's construction to the Knights Templar , the modern historian Ronnie Ellenblum asserts that the tower was likely built during the early Muslim period (mid-7th–11th centuries). The Frankish chronicler William of Tyre noted
22120-458: The southwest ran north of Maghar and Sallama . Its northern boundary was marked by the Nahal Dishon (Wadi al-Hindaj) stream, its southern boundary was likely formed near Wadi al-Amud, separating it from the fief of Tiberias, while its eastern limits were the marshes of the Hula Valley and upper Jordan Valley . There were several Jewish communities in the castellany of Safed, as testified in
22278-440: The speculation that Ham was guilty of engaging in incest and raping Noah or his own mother. The latter interpretation would clarify why Canaan, as the product of this illicit union, was cursed by Noah. Alternatively, Canaan could be the perpetrator himself as the Bible describes the illicit deed being committed by Noah's "youngest son", with Ham being consistently described as the middle son in other verses. Genesis 10 sets forth
22436-522: The story of Gilgamesh’s journey to meet Utnapishtim . The "standard" Akkadian version included a long version of the flood story and was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 and 1000 BC. Yi Samuel Chen, analyzing various texts from the Early Dynastic III Period to the Old Babylonian Period, argues that the flood narrative was only added in texts written during the latter Old Babylonian Period. Observations by experts indicate that
22594-432: The taxes of Safed and its countryside into the 1760s as Zahir's subordinates. By the 1760s, Zahir entrusted Safed to his son Ali, who made the town his headquarters. After Zahir was killed by Ottoman imperial forces, the governor of Sidon, Jazzar Pasha , moved to oust Zahir's sons from their Galilee strongholds. Ali made a final, unsuccessful stand against Jazzar Pasha from Safed, which was afterward captured and garrisoned by
22752-458: The text from the burgeoning Antediluvian Tradition. Noah has often been compared to Deucalion , the son of Prometheus and Hesinoe in Greek mythology . Like Noah, Deucalion is warned of the flood (by Zeus and Poseidon ); he builds an ark and staffs it with creatures – and when he completes his voyage, gives thanks and takes advice from the gods on how to repopulate the Earth. Deucalion also sends
22910-586: The time of its capture, the city was made the administrative center of Mamlakat Safad, one of seven mamlakas (provinces), whose governors were typically appointed from Cairo , which made up Mamluk Syria . Initially, its jurisdiction corresponded roughly with the Crusader castellany . After the fall of the Montfort Castle to the Mamluks in 1271, the castle and its dependency, the Shaghur district, were incorporated into Mamlakat Safad. The territorial jurisdiction of
23068-420: The town for the duration of the conflict. On July 22, four people were injured in a rocket attack. The town has retained its unique status as a Jewish studies centre, incorporating numerous facilities. In 2010, eighteen senior rabbis led by the chief rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu , issued an edict urging the city's residents not to rent or sell property to Arabs, warning of an "Arab takeover"; Arabs constitute
23226-483: The town of Safed, including caravanserais , markets and baths, and converted the town's church into a mosque. The mosque, called Jami al-Ahmar (the Red Mosque), was completed in 1275. By the end of Baybars's reign, Safed had developed into a prosperous town and fortress. Baybars assigned fifty-four mamluks , at the head of whom was Emir Ala al-Din Kandaghani, to oversee the management of Safed and its dependencies. From
23384-521: The urban elite ( a'yan ) of the city. The Sunni courts of Safed arbitrated over cases in Akbara , Ein al-Zeitun and as far away as Mejdel Islim . According to the late 19th-century account of British missionary E. W. G. Masterman, the Muslim families of Safed included Kurds, Damascenes, Algerians , Bedouin from the Jordan Valley , and people from the villages around Safed. Many Damascenes had been settled in
23542-434: The villages around the city and the subdistrict of Mount Meron (Jabal Jarmaq). In the Ottoman survey of Syria in 1871, Safed had 1,395 Muslim households, 1,197 Jewish households and three Christian households. The survey recorded a relatively high number of businesses in the city, namely 227 shops, fifteen mills, fourteen bakeries and four olive oil factories, an indicator of Safed's long-established role as an economic hub for
23700-453: Was a blow to Arab morale throughout the region... With the invasion of Palestine by regular Arab armies believed to be imminent – once the British had finally left in eleven or twelve days' time – many Arabs felt that prudence dictated their departure until the Jews had been defeated and they could return to their homes. According to Abbasi, the exodus of the Arabs of Safed had three phases. The first
23858-487: Was a major center of Israeli art . Although historical definitions encompass parts of southern Lebanon within the boundaries of the Upper Galilee, the Lebanese government does not use the term "Galilee" for any part of its territory. Originally, the term "Upper Galilee" referred to a larger region, encompassing the mountainous regions of what is today northern Israel and southern Lebanon . The boundaries of this region were
24016-578: Was a monotheist, the gods of pagan antiquity are identified with Noah and his descendants. An important Gnostic text, the Apocryphon of John , reports that the chief archon caused the flood because he desired to destroy the world he had made, but the First Thought informed Noah of the chief archon's plans, and Noah informed the remainder of humanity. Unlike the account of Genesis, not only are Noah's family saved, but many others also heed Noah's call. There
24174-467: Was conquered by Saladin 20 years later, and demolished by his grandnephew al-Mu'azzam Isa in 1219. After reverting to the Crusaders in a treaty in 1240, a larger fortress was erected, which was expanded and reinforced in 1268 by the Mamluk sultan Baybars , who developed Safed into a major town and the capital of a new province spanning the Galilee. After a century of general decline, the stability brought by
24332-401: Was considered to be the first wine drinker; the first person to discover the effects of wine. John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople , and a Church Father , wrote in the 4th century that Noah's behavior is defensible: as the first human to taste wine, he would not know its effects: "Through ignorance and inexperience of the proper amount to drink, fell into a drunken stupor". Philo ,
24490-476: Was due to the departure of the British compounded by the failure of an attack on the Jewish quarter and a disagreement between the Jordanian and Syrian commanders. The second was due to the fall of nearby Ein al-Zeitun and the massacre that Jewish forces committed there. The third was due to the deliberate creation of panic by Jewish forces. Some 12,000 Arabs, with some estimates reaching 15,000, fled Safed and were
24648-481: Was restored across the Levant in 1840. The Empire-wide Tanzimat reforms, which were first adopted in the 1840s, brought about a steady rise in Safed's population and economy. In 1849 Safed had a total estimated population of 5,000, of whom 2,940-3,440 were Muslims, 1,500-2,000 were Jews and 60 were Christians. The population was estimated at 7,000 in 1850–1855, of whom 2,500-3,000 were Jews. The Jewish population increased in
24806-507: Was the centre of Safad Subdistrict . According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities , Safed had a population of 8,761 inhabitants, consisting of 5,431 Muslims, 2,986 Jews, 343 Christians and others. Safed remained a mixed city during the British Mandate for Palestine and ethnic tensions between Jews and Arabs rose during the 1920s. During the 1929 Palestine riots , Safed and Hebron became major clash points. In
24964-436: Was uncovered within his tent", and (2) Ham "saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without". Because of its brevity and textual inconsistencies, it has been suggested that this narrative is a "splinter from a more substantial tale". A fuller account would explain what exactly Ham had done to his father, or why Noah directed a curse at Canaan for Ham's misdeed, or how Noah realised what had occurred. In
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