History of Jifna

unfavorable circumstances for the Christian population prevented them from rebuilding it. However, it was partially rebuilt with old materials by the Crusaders, who conquered the area in 1099. The Crusaders built a large courtyard building in Jifna. It had a monumental gate with a portcullis, with a large vaulted hall and thick walls of fine masonry. After their defeat to the Ayyubids under Saladin in 1187, the church again fell into ruin. According to the American biblical scholar Edward Robinson, there are remains of massive walls in the center of the village, now filled by houses. They were relics of a castle built by the Crusaders. However, the masonry has no characteristics of the Crusader period; rather, the remains display the Arab architectural style of the post-Crusader period, most likely of the 18th century, judging by the dressing of the stones.

After the Crusaders were succeeded by the Ayyubids and then the Mamluks, the Ottoman Turks conquered Palestine in 1517, and Jifna came under their control for the following 400 years. It was under the administration of the Bani Zeid subdistrict, part of the larger Jerusalem District, throughout Ottoman rule, being the only all-Christian village in the district. During this period, the main commodity of Jifna was olive oil. Ottoman activity in the village was minimal, but they used the remains of Jifna's castle (Burj Jifna) as a jail house sometime during the 19th century. In the early 1830s Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt conquered most of the Levant and temporarily took control of Palestine. In 1834 there was a revolt against local Egyptian authorities in the Jifna area; 26 residents of Jifna were subsequently exiled to Egypt for their alleged participation in the uprising. They were joined, voluntarily, by two prominent local priests.

An Eastern Orthodox Church was built in the village in 1858, and a larger Latin (Roman Catholic) church dedicated to Saint Joseph