Salim is located 6.63 kilometers (4.12 mi) east of Nablus. It is bordered by Beit Dajan to the east, Deir al Hatab to the north and west, Beit Dajan and Beit Furik to the south.[3]
Salem was large and ancient Samaritan village.[8] According to Samaritan tradition, Salim was founded by the biblical figure of Jared son of Mahalalel, and this is where 4th-century High PriestBaba Rabba built his sixth synagogue.[9] Samaritan texts refer to the place as "Shalem Rabbta",[9] and mention that Samaritan High Priests live there.[10]
Salim is also mentioned in the Samaritan Continuatio of the Samaritan Chronicle of Abu l-Fath.[11] The text mentions an event during the Fourth Fitna (811–819) when a rebel named Abu 'Uf, from the Judham tribe, reached Salem and was killed there during battles between Muslim factions.[8]
Ottoman era
In 1517, Salim was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine. In 1596, it appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 42 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, and goats or beehives, and for a press for olives or grapes; a total of 10,432 akçe.[12]
In 1838, Robinson noted Salim as a village in the same area as the villages Azmut and Deir al-Hatab,[13] all were part of the El-Beitawy district, east of Nablus.[14]
In May, 1870, Guérin came to the village, after walking through fields of olives, figs and almond trees. He found a village with a maximum of 200 people, in ancient houses. A dozen cisterns in the village were dry, so the women had to fetch water from a stream, called Ain Salim, about 1 kilometre north-northwest of the village.[15]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Salim as a small village, but evidently ancient, surrounded by olive-trees and with two springs to the north.[16]
In the 1945 statistics Salim had a population of 660, all Muslims,[19] with 10,293 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[20] Of this, 229 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 5,158 used for cereals,[21] while 24 dunams were built-up land.[22]
^ abLevy-Rubin, Milka (2002). "The Samaritans during the Early Muslim Period according to the Continuatio to the Chronicle of Abu 'l-Fath". In Stern, Ephraim; Eshel, Hanan (eds.). The Samaritans (in Hebrew). Yad Ben-Zvi Press. p. 569. ISBN965-217-202-2.
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 19
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 61
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 107
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 157
^Morris, Benny (1993) Israel's Border Wars, 1949 - 1956. Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press, ISBN0-19-827850-0. pp.146.147
^Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 26
