Taffuh

Taffuh
Other transcription(s)
• Arabic	تفّوح
Taffuh Location of Taffuh within the Palestinian Territories
Coordinates:
Governorate	Hebron
Government
• Type	Municipality
Population (2007)
• Jurisdiction	10,597
Name meaning	from "Beth Tappuah"

Taffuh (Arabic: تفّوح‎‎) (lit. fragrance) is a Palestinian town located eight kilometers west of Hebron.The town is in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 10,597 in 2007.

History

The city of Beth-tappuah, literally House of Apple [tree], cited in the Book of Joshua (15: 53), is often located in the hill country of the Tribe of Judah, 5 km west northwest of Hebron. Archaeological finds in the vicinity of the hill site include remains of an ancient road, a well to the west, cisterns, and rock-cuttings. Some, but not all, experts identify this now with the modern Arab village established not far from the cite. The Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted : "Evidently an ancient site; there are caves here, with trenches leading down to them, as at Khurbet 'Aziz, and he rock is quarried. An ancient road leads past the village."

Ottoman era

In 1863, in the late Ottoman era, Victor Guérin visited, and found the village to have 400 inhabitants. He also noted that several houses seemed ancient. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 counted 54 houses and a population of 161, though the population count included men only.

In 1883, the SWP described Taffuh as "A village of ancient appearance, standing high at the edge of a ridge ; on the north are the steep slopes of Wady Kedir, in which are olives belonging to the place. An ancient main-road passes through the village, and runs along flat ground to the west for a little way, then descends the ridge. There is a well to the west, with cisterns, caves, and rock-cuttings. The village has vineyards round it, and good springs in the valley to the west."

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Taffuh had a population of 461, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 580, all Muslim, in 124 houses.

In 1945 the population of Taffuh was 780, all Muslims, who owned 12,103 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. 1,073 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,543 for cereals, while 31 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

1948-1967

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Taffuh came under Jordanian rule.

1967-present

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Taffuh has been under Israeli occupation.

External links

• Welcome To Taffuh
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 21: IAA, Wikimedia commons
• Taffuh Town (Fact Sheet), ARIJ
• Taffuh Town Profile, ARIJ
• Taffuh Areal Photo, ARIJ
• The priorities and needs for development in Taffuh town based on the community and local authorities’ assessment, ARIJ