In 891 CE, during the early centuries of Islamic rule, Nablus had a
religiously diverse population of Samaritans, local Muslims and Christians.
Arab geographer Al-Dimashqi, recorded that under the rule of the Mamluk Dynasty
(Muslim Dynsaty based in Egypt), local Muslims, Samaritans, Orthodox Christians,
Catholics and Jews populated the city. At the 1931 census, the population was
counted as 16,483 Muslims, 533 Christians, 6 Jews, 7 Druses and 160 Samaritans.
The majority of the inhabitants today are Muslim, but there are small Christian
and Samaritan communities as well. Much of the local Palestinian Muslim
