Zeita is an ancient village.[5] Pottery remains have been found here from the Byzantine, early Muslim and the Middle Ages.[6] Marble Corinthiancapitals have been reused in a local Maqam.[5]
According to Levy-Rubin, Zeita was inhabited by Samaritans from the 4th to the 9th centuries.[7] The place was mentioned as a Samaritan settlement in Baba Rabba's revolt during the 4th century CE. A Samaritan elder and leader named haCohen Levi lived there.[8]
In 1265, Zeita was among the villages and estates sultan Baibars allocated to his amirs after he had expelled the Crusaders. Half of Zaita was given to emirJamal al-Din Aidughdi al-'Azizi, a quarter to emir Shams al-Din Ildikuz al-Karaki, and a quarter to emir Saif al-Din Qilij al-Baghdadi.[9]
Ottoman era
The village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine in 1517. In the 1596 Ottoman tax records, it appeared under the name of Zaita, located in the NahiyaQaqun, in the Nablus Sanjak. It had a population of 91 Muslim and 7 Christian households.[10] They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a press for olive oil or grape syrup and a jizya tax on people in the Nablus area; a total of 3,440 akçe.[11] Pottery remains from the Ottoman era have also been found here.[6]
During the 1834 Peasants' revolt in Palestine, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt pursued rebels to Zeita. Ninety rebels were slain here, while the rest fled to nearby Deir al-Ghusun.[14] At Deir al-Ghusun, many of the inhabitants and rebels heeded a call by Husayn Abd al-Hadi to flee once the Egyptian troops arrived. In response, rebel commander Qasim had several of the defectors among his ranks killed.[15] Ibrahim Pasha's troops stormed the hill and the rebels (mostly members of the Qasim, Jarrar, Jayyusi and Barqawi families) were routed, suffering 300 fatalities.[14] In 1838 it was noted as a village, Zeita, in the western Esh-Sha'rawiyeh administrative region, north of Nablus.[16]
In 1870 Victor Guérin found here a village with 600 inhabitants.[17] He further noted: "Here I found, just as at Jett, an ancient capital hollowed out to make a mortar, and used for the same purpose. A very good well, constructed of cut stone, seems ancient."[18]
In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of al-Sha'rawiyya al-Gharbiyya.[19]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as: "a good-sized village on high ground at the edge of the plain. It is surrounded with fig-gardens, and has olives to the south. It would appear to be an ancient place, having tombs to the east. The supply is principally from wells, but there is a small spring ('Ain esh Shabutbut) on the south-west. [..] Two sacred places exist to the south side of the village."[20]
In the 1945 statistics the population of Zeita was 1,780 Muslims,[23] with 6,410 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[24] 782 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 5,120 used for cereals,[25] while 33 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[26]
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 22
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 77
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 128
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 178
^Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 27
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 345
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