Qaryut

Qaryout (قريوت) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 28 km southeast of Nablus.

Qaryut is an ancient village. Its current inhabitants trace their origins to the Hejaz. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Qaryut had a population of 2,560 inhabitants in 2017.

Location
Qaryut is located 17 km south of Nablus. It is bordered by Duma and Jalud to the east, Qusra and Talfit to the north, As Sawiya to the west, and  Turmus'ayya to the south.

History
Qaryut is an ancient village. Shards from the Iron Age II, Persian, Persian/Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk era have been found here.

Western travellers, like Edward Robinson, have suggested that Qaryut might be identical to ancient Coreae.

Röhricht suggested that Qaryut is identical with Kariateri, a place mentioned in Crusader texts.

It has been noted that: "This place, being at the head of Wady Fusail, seems to have given rise to the mediaeval identification of that valley as the Brook Cherith (mentioned by Marino Sanuto in 1321)."

Ottoman period
Potsherds from the early Ottoman era have been found here.

In 1838, Kuriyet was noted as being located in El-Beitawy district, east of Nablus.

In 1870, Victor Guérin noted: "This village is divided into two distinct districts, each under the jurisdiction of a particular Sheikh. Its population is seven hundred and fifty inhabitants. In the gardens around it grow fig trees, pomegranates and vines. Several old rock formations are currently dry, and women are forced to fetch water as far as Ain Siloun. In two houses, I notice some blocks with boss cut." Guérin also identified Qaryut with ancient Coreae.

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted that Kuriyut was: "a small village, on the top of a high chain, with a spring between it and the ruin of Seilun (Shiloh)."

British Mandate
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qariut had a population of 530 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census  to 732; 3 Christians and 729 Muslims, in 156  houses.

In the 1945 statistics Qaryut had a population of 930, all Muslims,  with 7,491   dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 2,611 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 2,803 were used for cereals, while 63 dunams were built-up land.

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

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,163 inhabitants.

1967, aftermath
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Qaryut has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords, 23% of village land is classified as Area B, the remaining 77% is Area C.

As of 2014, Israel has confiscated 2,221 dunams of Qaryat village land for 3 Israeli settlements: Eli, Shilo and Mizpe Rahel.

Israeli settlers from Eli have been blamed for uprooting more than 100 olive trees belonging to Qaryut village.

Demography
The current residents of Qaryut trace their ancestry back to the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia.

Notable people

 * Taysir Khalid (born 1941), Palestinian politician