History of Nabulus

esolve a dispute with her son Baldwin III. Crusaders began building Christian institutions in Nablus, including a church dedicated to the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, and in 1170 they erected a hospice for pilgrims.

Ayyubid and Mamluk rule

Crusader rule came to an end in 1187, when the Ayyubids led by Saladin captured the city. According to a liturgical manuscript in Syriac, Latin Christians fled Nablus, but the original Eastern Orthodox Christian inhabitants remained. Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179–1229), wrote that Ayyubid Nablus was a "celebrated city in Filastin (Palestine)... having wide lands and a fine district." He also mentions the large Samaritan population in the city.

After its recapture by the Muslims, the Great Mosque of Nablus, which had become a church under Crusader rule, was restored as a mosque by the Ayyubids, who also built a mausoleum in the old city. In 1242, the Great Mosque was burnt by the Templar Knights during a three-day raid in which they killed 1,000 people and took many women and children who were then sold in the slave markets of Acre. The Samaritan synagogue, built in 362 CE by the high priest Akbon and converted into a church by the Crusaders, was converted into al-Khadra Mosque in 1244; and two other Crusader churches became the an-Nasr Mosque and al-Masakim Mosque during that century.

The Mamluk dynasty gained control of Nablus in 1260 and during their reign, they built numerous mosques and schools. Under Mamluk rule, Nablus possessed running water, many Turkish bathes and exported olive oil and soap to Egypt, Syria, the Hejaz, several Mediterranean islands, and the Arabian Desert. The city's olive oil was also used in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Ibn Battuta, the Arab explorer, visited Nablus in 1355, and described it as a city "full of trees and streams and full of