Saffa, Ramallah

Saffa (صفّاء) is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located west of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 4,374 inhabitants in 2017.

Location
Saffa is located  13.3 km (in straight distance) west of Ramallah. It is bordered by Beit 'Ur at Tahta, Kafr Ni'ma and Deir Ibzi to the east, Bil'in, Ni'lin and Al Midya to the north, Israel to the west, and Beit 'Ur at Tahta and Beit Sira to the south.

History
F.M. Abel and Avi-Yonah both identified Saffa with the village of Sapphō (Σαπφώ), which, according to the first century AD Jewish historian Josephus, was destroyed by Arab troops serving in the army of Varus in 4 BC. It has been proposed identifying Saffa with Casale Saphet of the Crusader era.

Ottoman era
In the early Ottoman census of 1525-1526, it was not mentioned, but in 1538-1539, Saffa was located  in the nahiya of Quds, and named as Mazra, or cultivated land.

In 1838 it was noted as a Muslim village, located in the Beni Harith district, west of Jerusalem.

In 1870, Victor Guérin noted that: "This village occupies a high plateau; it contains four hundred inhabitants. Some stones, scattered or embedded in Arab buildings, and numerous excavations in the rock, such as cisterns, tombs, quarries and subterranean vaults, proves that the present Saffa succeeded  an ancient locality." An Ottoman village list of about the same year showed that Saffa had 200 inhabitants with 67 houses, though the population count included only the men.

In 1883 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Suffa: "A small village standing high on a ridge, with a well to the east and a sacred place to the south."

In 1896 the population of Safa was estimated to be about 564 persons.

British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Saffa  had a population of 495 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census  to 644 Muslims, in 143 houses.

In the  1945 statistics the population was 790 Muslims,  while the total land area was 9,602  dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this,  2,536 were used   for plantations and irrigable land, 2,975  for cereals, while 99 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

Jordanian era
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Saffa came under Jordanian rule. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.

In 1961, the population of Saffa was 1,364.

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

After the 1995 accords, 12.9% of village land was classified as Area B, and the remaining 87.1% as Area C.

Israel has confiscated land from Saffa in order to construct six Israeli settlements:


 * 814 dunams for Kfar Rut,
 * 781 dunams for Shilat,
 * 682 dunams for Menora,
 * 471 dunams for Makkabim,
 * 441 dunams for Lapid, and
 * 5 dunams for Hashmona'im.

Sheikh Shihab ed-Din shrine
Saffa houses the Sheikh Shihab ed-Din maqam, one of four dedicated to this seikh, found in Jaffa, Ramla, and Nazareth. Surrounded by newly developed residential areas, this maqam sits atop a natural hill, approximately 1 km north of the ancient Roman road connecting the coastal plain to Jerusalem via Beit 'Ur (ancient Bethoron) and el-Jib (ancient Gibeon). Archaeological evidence reveals a Roman settlement that thrived in the Byzantine period, possibly a monastery, marked by structures like a large building, cisterns, inscriptions, and a winepress.

While the site declined in the Early Islamic period, it was reestablished during the Ayubbid and Mamluk periods as a worship site, cemetery, and a sanctuary in memory of Sheikh Shihab ed-Din. The maqam's construction phases are identifiable, with the grave chamber and its extension likely dating back to the Ayyubid–early Mamluk period. The prayer hall and courtyard belong to the early Ottoman era. Notably, the tomb chamber and its southern extension underwent separate building phases, indicating the initial burial of the Sheikh followed by the later interment of his sons in an annexed part of the chamber.

The decision to establish Sheikh Shihab ed-Din's maqam here stems from three key motives: honoring the Sheikh, meeting local Sufi requirements for a tranquil worship space, and creating a defensive lookout against Crusaders. Hilltop maqams were strategically networked to alert against potential threats.

Archaeological Looting
A study conducted by Al-Houdaileh on 119 Roman and Byzantine period rock-cut burial caves near Saffa revealed extensive looting, with all caves showing marks of robbery. This has caused considerable damage to the tomb, desecration of numerous ancient burials, and displacement of a large number of funerary artifacts from their original sites. The looting of Roman and Byzantine tombs in Saffa and surrounding areas is driven by several factors, including poverty, a lack of public awareness, insufficient enforcement of antiquities laws by the Palestinian National Authority, and an increasing demand in the illegal antiquites market for archaeological items.