Safed ( ; ), also known as Tzfat and officially as Zefat (), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. In 2022, 93.2% of the population was Jewish and 6.8% was counted as other.
Safed has been identified with (), a fortified town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman Jewish historian Josephus. The Jerusalem Talmud mentions Safed as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the Rosh Chodesh and holidays during the Second Temple period. Safed attained local prominence under the Crusaders, who built a large fortress there in 1168. It was conquered by Saladin 20 years later, and demolished by his grandnephew al-Mu'azzam Isa in 1219. After a treaty with the Crusaders in 1240, a larger fortress was erected and expanded and reinforced in 1268 by the Mamluk sultan Baybars, who developed Safed into a major town and the capital of a new province spanning the Galilee.
After a century of general decline, the stability brought by the 1517 Ottoman conquest ushered in nearly a century of growth and prosperity in Safed, during which time Jewish immigrants from across Europe developed the city into a center for wool and textile production and the mystical Kabbalah movement. It became known as one of the Four Holy Cities of Judaism. As the capital of Safed Sanjak, it was the main population center of the Galilee, with large Muslim and Jewish communities. Despite the fortunate governorship of Fakhr al-Din II in the early 17th century, the city underwent a general decline and, by the mid-18th century, was eclipsed by Acre. Druze and Muslim locals raided the Jewish community in 1834 and 1838. Many Jewish residents perished in the 1837 Galilee earthquake; through the philanthropy of Moses Montefiore, its synagogues and homes were rebuilt. Safed's population reached 24,000 toward the end of the 19th century, divided roughly equally between Jews and Muslims, with a small Christian community. Muslim merchants played a key role as middlemen in the grain trade between local farmers and traders in Acre, while the Ottomans promoted the city as a center of Sunni jurisprudence. Safed's conditions improved during this period, with the establishment of a municipal council and several banks.
By 1922, Safed's population had dropped to around 8,700; roughly 60% Muslim, 33% Jewish, and the remainder Christian. Amid rising ethnic tension throughout Mandatory Palestine, Safed's Jews were attacked in an massacre of 19 August 1929 and 22 Jews were killed. The city's population had risen to 13,700 by 1948, overwhelmingly Arab, though the city was proposed to be part of a Jewish state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. During the 1948 Palestine war, Arab factions attacked and besieged the Jewish quarter, which held out until Jewish paramilitary forces captured the city after heavy fighting, precipitating British forces to withdraw. Most of the city's predominantly non-Jewish population fled or were expelled as a result of Operation Yiftach and the nearby Ein al-Zeitun massacre, and were not allowed to return after the war, such that today the city has an almost exclusively Jewish population.Morris (2004) 221–226. That year, the city became part of the then-newly established state of Israel.
Safed has a large Haredi community and remains a center for Jewish religious studies. It hosts Ziv Medical Center and the Zefat Academic College. Safed is a major subject in Israeli art; it hosts an Artists' Quarter. Several prominent art movements played a role in the city, most notably the School of Paris. However the Artists' quarter has declined since its golden age in the second half of the 20th century. Due to its high elevation, the city has warm summers and cold, often snowy winters. Its mild climate and scenic views have made Safed a popular holiday resort frequented by Israelis and foreign visitors. In it had a population of .
Biblical reference Legend has it that Safed was founded by a son of Noah after the Flood in Genesis. According to the Judges 1:17, the area where Safed is located was assigned to the tribe of Naphtali.
It has been suggested that Jesus' assertion that "a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden" referred to Safed.Ellicott's Commentary for Modern Readers and Meyer's NT Commentary on Matthew 5, both accessed 9 December 2016
History Antiquity Safed has been identified with Sepph, a fortified town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus.Geography of Israel: Safed, accessed 9 December 2016 Safed is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period.
Crusader era Pre-Crusader village and tower There is scarce information about Safed before the Crusader conquest.Drory 2004, p. 163.Luz 2014, p. 33. A document from the Cairo Geniza, composed in 1034, mentions a transaction made in Tiberias in 1023 by a certain Jew, Musa ben Hiba ben Salmun with the nisba (Arabic descriptive suffix) "al-Safati" (of Safed), indicating the presence of a Jewish community living alongside Muslims in Safed in the 11th century.Barbé 2016, p. 63. According to the Muslim historian Ibn Shaddad (d. 1285), at the beginning of the 12th century, a "flourishing village" beneath a tower called Burj Yatim had existed at the site of Safed on the eve of the Crusaders' capture of the area in 1101–1102 and that "nothing" about the village was mentioned in "the early Islamic history books".Ellenblum 2007, p. 179, note 15. Although Ibn Shaddad mistakenly attributes the tower's construction to the Knights Templar, the modern historian Ronnie Ellenblum asserts that the tower was likely built during the early Muslim period (mid-7th–11th centuries).
First Crusader period The Frankish chronicler William of Tyre noted the presence of a burgus (tower) in Safed, which he called "Castrum Saphet" or "Sephet", in 1157.Ellenblum 2007, p. 179, note 16. Safed was the seat of a castellany (area governed by a castle) by at least 1165, when its castellan (appointed castle governor) was Fulk, constable of Tiberias.Barbé 2016, p. 58. The castle of Safed was purchased from Fulk by King Amalric of Jerusalem in 1168. He subsequently reinforced the castle and transferred it to the Templars in the same year. Theoderich the Monk, describing his visit to the area in 1172, noted that the expanded fortification of the castle of Safed was meant to check the raids of the Turks (the Turkic Zengid dynasty ruled the area east of the Kingdom).Ellenblum 2007, p. 179. Testifying to the considerable expansion of the castle, the chronicler Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240) wrote that it was practically built anew.Ellenblum 2007, p. 180. The remains of Fulk's castle can now be found under the citadel excavations, on a hill above the old city.Howard M. Sachar,Farewell Espana: The World of the Sephardim Remembered, Random House, 2013 p. 190.
In the estimation of modern historian Havré Barbé, the castellany of Safed comprised approximately . According to Barbé, its western boundary straddled the domains of Acre, including the fief of St. George de la Beyne, which included Sajur and Beit Jann, and the fief of Geoffrey le Tor, which included Akbara and Hurfeish, and in the southwest ran north of Maghar and Sallama.Barbé 2016, pp. 56, 59. Its northern boundary was marked by the Nahal Dishon (Wadi al-Hindaj) stream,Barbé 2016, p. 56. its southern boundary was likely formed near Wadi al-Amud, separating it from the fief of Tiberias,Barbé 2016, p. 59. while its eastern limits were the marshes of the Hula Valley and upper Jordan Valley.Barbé 2016, p. 57. There were several Jewish communities in the castellany of Safed, as testified in the accounts of Jewish pilgrims and chroniclers between 1120 and 1293.Barbé 2016, pp. 63, 59. Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the town in 1170, does not record any Jews living in Safed proper.Sachar 1994, p. 120.
Ayyubid interregnum Safed was captured by the Ayyubids led by Sultan Saladin in 1188 after a month-long siege, following the Battle of Hattin in 1187.Sharon 2007, p. 152 Saladin ultimately allowed its residents to relocate to Tyre. He granted Safed and Tiberias as an iqta (akin to a fief) to Sa'd al-Din Mas'ud ibn Mubarak (d. 1211), the son of his niece, after which it was bequeathed to Sa'd al-Din's son Ahmad.Drory 2004, p. 164. Samuel ben Samson, who visited the town in 1210, mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty there.Schechter, Solomon. Studies in Judaism: Second Series (Jewish Studies Classics 3), p. 206. Gorgias Press LLC, 2003. He also noted that two Muslims guarded and maintained the cave tomb of a rabbi, Hanina ben Horqano, in Safed.Barbé 2016, p. 68. The iqta of Safed was taken from the family of Sa'd al-Din by the Ayyubid emir of Damascus, al-Mu'azzam Isa, in 1217.Luz 2014, p. 34. Two years later, during the Crusader siege of Damietta, al-Mu'azzam Isa had the Safed castle demolished to prevent its capture and reuse by potential future Crusaders.
Second Crusader period
As an outcome of the treaty negotiations between the Crusader leader Theobald I of Navarre and the Ayyubid al-Salih Ismail, Emir of Damascus, in 1240 Safed once again passed to Crusader control. Afterward, the Templars were tasked with rebuilding the Citadel of Safed, with efforts spearheaded by Benedict of Alignan, Bishop of Marseille. The rebuilding is recorded in a short treatise, De constructione castri Saphet, from the early 1260s.Pringle 1985, p. 139. The reconstruction was completed at the considerable expense of 40,000 bezants in 1243.Amitai-Preiss 1995, p. 757. The new fortress was larger than the original, with a capacity for 2,200 soldiers in time of war, and with a resident force of 1,700 in peacetime.Luz 2014, pp. 34–35. The garrison's goods and services were provided by the town or large village growing rapidly beneath the fortress, which, according to Benoit's account, contained a market, "numerous inhabitants" and was protected by the fortress. The settlement also benefited from trade with travelers on the route between Acre and the Jordan Valley, which passed through Safed.
Mamluk period