Tell (Arabic: تلّ), pronounced Till, is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located five kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 5,162 inhabitants in 2017.[1] Most of the town's laborers work in agriculture, with figs and olives being the major source of income.[3]
Mohammad Shtayyeh, a Palestinian economist and politician, was born in Tell.
History
Ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here.[4]
Ottoman era
In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and it appeared in the 1596 tax-records as Till, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. The population was 46 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues, a press for olive oil or grape syrup, and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 5,100 akçe.[5]
In 1838, Till was located in the District of Jurat 'Amra, south of Nablus.[6]
In 1863, Victor Guérin found it to have a population of one thousand inhabitants. It was divided into several districts, each administered by a different sheikh. He further noted: "Some houses are large and fairly well built. Around the village grow, in pens, beautiful plantations of fig and pomegranate trees."[7]
In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus.[8]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Till as: "A village of moderate size on low ground, with a high mound behind it on the south; it has a well and a few trees, and on the west a pool in winter; the hills to the north are bare and white, but terraced to the very top."[9]
In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,060 Muslims,[12] while the total land area was 13,766 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[13]
Of this, 1,056 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 7,023 for cereals,[14] while 55 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[15]
