Editing Safed (section)

===Ottoman era===
====Sixteenth-century prosperity====
[[File:Safed-79-n.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|The Red Mosque]]
The Ottomans conquered Mamluk Syria following their victory at the [[Battle of Marj Dabiq]] in northern Syria in 1516.<ref name="Rhode18">Rhode 1979, p. 18.</ref> Safed's inhabitants sent the keys of the town citadel to Sultan [[Selim I]] after he captured Damascus.<ref name="Layish67">Layish 1987, p. 67.</ref> No fighting was recorded around Safed, which was bypassed by Selim's army on the way to Mamluk Egypt.<ref name="Rhode18" /> The sultan had placed the district of Safed under the jurisdiction of the Mamluk governor of Damascus, [[Janbirdi al-Ghazali]], who defected to the Ottomans.<ref name="Layish67" /> Rumors in 1517 that Selim was slain by the Mamluks precipitated a revolt against the newly appointed Ottoman governor by the townspeople of Safed, which resulted in wide-scale killings, many of which [[1517 Safed attacks|targeted the city's Jews]], who were viewed as sympathizers of the Ottomans.<ref>Rhode 1979, pp. 18–19.</ref> Safed became the capital of the [[Safed Sanjak]], roughly corresponding with Mamlakat Safad but excluding most of the Jezreel Valley and the area of [[Château Pèlerin|Atlit]],<ref>Rhode 1979, pp. 16–17, 25–26.</ref> part of the larger province of [[Damascus Eyalet]].<ref name="Abbasi50">Abbasi 2003, p. 50.</ref>

In 1525/26, the population of Safed consisted of 633 Muslim families, 40 Muslim bachelors, 26 Muslim religious persons, nine Muslim disabled, 232 Jewish families, and 60 military families.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Bernard Lewis |title=Studies in the Ottoman Archives–I |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |volume=16 |number=3 |year=1954 |pages=469–501 |doi=10.1017/s0041977x00086808 |s2cid=162304704}}</ref> In 1549, under Sultan [[Suleiman the Magnificent]], a wall was constructed and troops were garrisoned to protect the city.<ref name="David2010.96">Abraham David, 2010. [https://books.google.com/books?id=qqy4wqVbSUkC&pg=PA96 pp. 95–96]</ref> In 1553/54, the population consisted of 1,121 Muslim households, 222 Muslim bachelors, 54 Muslim religious leaders, 716 Jewish households, 56 Jewish bachelors, and 9 disabled persons.<ref name="Lewis">{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00086808 |author=Bernard Lewis |title=Studies in the Ottoman Archives—I |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |volume=16 |issue=3 |year=1954 |pages=469–501 |s2cid=162304704}}</ref> At least in the 16th century, Safed was the only ''kasaba'' (city) in the sanjak and in 1555 was divided into nineteen ''mahallas'' (quarters), seven Muslim and twelve Jewish.<ref name="Rhode34">Rhode 1979, p. 34.</ref> The total population of Safed rose from 926 households in 1525–26 to 1,931 households in 1567–1568.<ref name="Petersen2001" /> Among these, the Jewish population rose from a mere 233 households in 1525 to 945 households in 1567–1568.<ref name="Petersen2001">Petersen (2001), Gazetteer 6, s,v. [https://www.academia.edu/21620272/Gazetteer_6_S_Z Ṣafad]</ref> The Muslim quarters were Sawawin, located west of the fortress; Khandaq (the moat); Ghazzawiyah, which had likely been settled by [[Gaza City|Gazans]]; Jami' al-Ahmar (the Red Mosque), located south of the fortress and named for the local mosque; al-Akrad,<ref name="Rhode3435" /> which dated to the Middle Ages and continued to exist through the 19th century,<ref name="ADiS">Ebied and Young 1976, p. 7.</ref> and whose inhabitants mainly were [[Kurds]]; al-Wata (the lower), the southernmost quarter of Safed and situated below the city; and al-Suq, named after the market or mosque located within the quarter.<ref name="Rhode3435">Rhode 1979, pp. 34–35.</ref> The Jewish quarters were all situated west of the fortress. Each quarter was named for the place of origin of its inhabitants: Purtuqal (Portugal), Qurtubah ([[Córdoba, Spain|Cordoba]]), Qastiliyah ([[Castile (historical region)|Castille]]), Musta'rib (Jews of local, Arabic-speaking origin), Magharibah (northwestern Africa), Araghun ma' Qatalan ([[Aragon]] and [[Catalonia]]), Majar (Hungary), Puliah ([[Apulia]]), Qalabriyah ([[Calabria]]), Sibiliyah ([[Seville]]), Taliyan (Italian) and Alaman (German).<ref name="Rhode3435" />

In the 15th and 16th centuries there were several well-known [[Sufism|Sufis]] (mystics) of [[ibn Arabi]] living in Safed.<ref>Layish 1987, p. 70.</ref> The Sufi sage Ahmad al-Asadi (1537–1601) established a [[zawiya (institution)|''zawiya'']] (Sufi lodge) called Sadr Mosque in the city.<ref>Layish 1987, p. 71.</ref> Safed became a center of [[Kabbalah]] (Jewish mysticism) during the 16th century.<ref name="jvl">{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Safed.html |title=Safed |publisher=[[Jewish Virtual Library]] |access-date=2008-10-25}}</ref>

After the [[Alhambra Decree|expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492]], many prominent [[rabbi]]s found their way to Safed, among them the Kabbalists [[Isaac Luria]] and [[Moses ben Jacob Cordovero]]; [[Joseph Caro]], the author of the ''[[Shulchan Aruch]]''; and [[Solomon Alkabetz]], composer of the [[Shabbat]] hymn "[[Lekha Dodi]]".
{{blockquote|The kabbalistic response to the trauma of the exile varied widely, ranging from a quietistic approach adopted by the Italian and North African kabbalists, to a more activist apocalyptic approach which sought signs of the imminent redemption. The expulsion was seen by many as the tribulation that would herald the beginning of the messianic age as foretold in rabbinic literature. The spiritualization of religious life culminated in the creative outburst of religious innovation in Safed in the second half of the sixteenth century as a response to the expulsion. This spiritual revolution spread from Safed and transformed the practice of Judaism throughout the Jewish world.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zohar |first1=Zion |title=Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry: From the Golden Age of Spain to Modern Times |date=2005 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-9706-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H6K1IcaHwd0C |language=en}}</ref>}}

The influx of [[Sephardic Jews]]—reaching its peak under the rule of sultans [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] and [[Selim II]]—made Safed a global center for Jewish learning and a regional center for trade throughout the 15th and 16th centuries.<ref name="jvl" /><ref>{{Cite book |publisher=General Council (Vaad leumi) of the Jewish Community of Palestine |last=Keneset Yiśraʼel be-Erets-Yiśraʼel. Ṿaʻad ha-leʼumi |title=Historical memoranda |year=1947 |page=56}}</ref> Sephardi Jews and other Jewish immigrants by then outnumbered [[Musta'arabi Jews]] in the city.<ref name="AmitaiPreiss758" />

During this period, the Jewish community [[Jewish textile industry in 16th-century Safed|developed the textile industry in Safed]], transforming the town into an important and lucrative wool production and textile manufacturing centre.<ref>Rhode 1979, p. 20.</ref> There were more than 7,000 Jews in Safed in 1576 when [[Murad III]] proclaimed the forced deportation of 1,000 wealthy Jewish families to [[Cyprus]] to boost the island's economy. There is no evidence that the edict or a second one issued the following year for removing 500 families, was enforced.<ref name="David2010">{{cite book|author=Abraham David|editor=Róbert Dán|title=Occident and Orient: a tribute to the memory of Alexander Scheiber|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z8cUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA86|year=1988|publisher=Brill Archive|isbn=9789630540247|pages=86–87|chapter=Demographic Changes in the Safed Jewish Community of the 16th Century}}</ref> In 1584, there were 32 [[synagogue]]s registered in the town.<ref name="DavidOrdan2010.117">{{cite book|author1=Abraham David|author2=Dena Ordan|title=To Come to the Land: Immigration and Settlement in 16th-Century Eretz-Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqy4wqVbSUkC&pg=PA117 |access-date=24 October 2011 |date=2010|publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0-8173-5643-9 |page=117}}</ref>

A Hebrew [[printing press]], the [[global spread of the printing press|first in West Asia]], was established in Safed in 1577 by Eliezer ben Isaac Ashkenazi of Prague and his son, Isaac.<ref name="judaica" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/chronology/seventeenth.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817180349/http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/chronology/seventeenth.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2000-08-17|title=Ottomans and Safavids 17th Century|publisher=[[Michigan State University]]|access-date=2008-10-25}}</ref>

====Political decline, attacks and natural disasters====
[[File:Seraya - Ottoman fortress - Safed.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|Originally built as a [[caravanserai]] by the Ottomans in the mid-1700s, the "Saraya" (house of the governor) currently serves as a community centre<ref name="Winter1999">{{cite book|author=Dave Winter|title=Israel Handbook: With the Palestinian Authority Areas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hvaiOGV9BjkC|year=1999|publisher=Footprint Handbooks|isbn=978-1-900949-48-4|page=714|quote=The Saraya was originally built as a caravanserai in the Ottoman period, though it was later used by both the Turks and the British as an administrative building.}}</ref>]]

By the early part of the 17th century, Safed was a small town.<ref name="AmitaiPreiss758"/> In 1602, the paramount chief of the [[Lebanese Druze|Druze in Mount Lebanon]], [[Fakhr al-Din II]] of the [[Ma'n dynasty]], was appointed the [[sanjak-bey]] (district governor) of Safed, in addition to his governorship of neighbouring [[Sidon-Beirut Sanjak]] to the north. In the preceding years, the Safed Sanjak had entered a state of ruin and desolation and was often the scene of conflict between the local Druze and Shia Muslim peasants and the Ottoman authorities. By 1605, Fakhr al-Din had established peace and security in the sanjak, with highway brigandage and [[Bedouin]] raids having ceased under his watch. Trade and agriculture consequently thrived and the population prospered.<ref>Abu-Husayn 1985, pp. 83–84.</ref> He formed close relations with the city's [[Sunni Islam|Sunni Muslim]] [[ulama]] (religious scholars), particularly the [[mufti]], [[al-Khalidi al-Safadi]] of the [[Hanafi school]] of [[fiqh]] (Islamic jurisprudence), who became his practical court historian.<ref>Abu-Husayn 1993, pp. 5–7.</ref>

The Ottomans drove Fakhr al-Din into European exile in 1613, but his son Ali became governor in 1615.<ref>Abu-Husayn 1985, p. 99.</ref> Fakhr al-Din returned to his domains in 1618 and five years later regained the governorship of Safed, which the [[Ma'n dynasty]] had lost, after his victory against the governor of Damascus at the [[Battle of Anjar]].<ref>Abu-Husayn 1985, p. 121.</ref> In {{circa|1625}}, the orientalist [[Franciscus Quaresmius]] spoke of Safed being inhabited "chiefly by Hebrews, who had their synagogues and schools, and for whose sustenance contributions were made by the Jews in other parts of the world."<ref name="Robinson1841">{{cite book |author= Edward Robinson |title= Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: a journal of travels in the year 1838 |url= https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft |access-date=4 October 2010 |year=1841 |publisher=Crocker and Brewster |page=[https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft/page/333 333]}}</ref> According to the historian Louis Finkelstein, the Jewish community of Safed was plundered by the Druze under [[Mulhim ibn Yunus]], nephew of Fakhr al-Din.<ref name="Finkelstein63">Finkelstein 1960, p. 63.</ref> Five years later, Fakhr al-Din was routed by the Ottoman governor of Damascus, Mulhim abandoned Safed, and its Jewish residents returned.<ref name="Finkelstein63"/>{{dubious|date=February 2021}}

The Druze again attacked the Jews of Safed in 1656.<ref name="Finkelstein63"/> During the [[Druze power struggle (1658–1667)|power struggle between Fakhr al-Din's heirs]] (1658–1667), each faction attacked Safed.<ref name="Finkelstein63"/> In the intra-communal turmoil among the Druze following the death of Mulhim, the [[1660 destruction of Safed]] targeted the Jews there and in Tiberias; only a few of the former Jewish residents returned to the city before 1662.<ref name="rappel">Joel Rappel. ''History of Eretz Israel from Prehistory up to 1882'' (1980), Vol.2, p.531. "In 1662 [[Sabbathai Sevi]] arrived to Jerusalem. It was the time when the Jewish settlements of Galilee were destroyed by the Druze: Tiberias was completely desolate and only a few of former Safed residents had returned..."</ref><ref name=barnai14>Barnai, Jacob. ''The Jews in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century: under the patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine''  (University of Alabama Press 1992) {{ISBN|978-0-8173-0572-7}}; p. 14</ref> Survivors relocated mainly to [[Sidon]] or [[Jerusalem]].

[[Safed Sanjak]] and the neighbouring [[Sidon-Beirut Sanjak]] to the north were administratively separated from Damascus in 1660 to form the [[Sidon Eyalet]], of which Safed was briefly the capital.<ref name="Salibi66">Salibi 1988, p. 66.</ref> The province was created by the imperial government to check the power of the Druze of Mount Lebanon, as well as the Shia of [[Jabal Amil]].<ref name="Salibi66"/>

As nearby Tiberias remained desolate for several decades, Safed gained a key position among [[Galilee|Galilean]] Jewish communities. In 1665, the [[Sabbatai Sevi]] movement arrived in Safed.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} In the 1670s, the account of the Turkish traveller [[Evliya Çelebi]] recorded that Safed contained three [[caravanserai]]s, several [[mosque]]s, seven zawiyas, and six [[hammam]]s.<ref name="AmitaiPreiss758"/> The Red Mosque was restored by Safed's governor Salih Bey in 1671/72, at which point it measured about {{convert|120x80|ft|m|sp=us}}, had all masonry interior, a cistern to collect rainwater in the winter for drinking and a tall [[minaret]] over its southern entrance; the minaret had been destroyed before the end of the 17th century.<ref>Petersen 2001, p. 261.</ref>

The Tiberias-based sheikh [[Zahir al-Umar]] of the local Arab [[al-Zayadina|Zaydan]] clan, whose father [[Umar al-Zaydani]] had been the governor and tax farmer of Safed in 1702–1706, wrested control of Safed and its [[iltizam|tax farm]] from its native strongman, Muhammad Naf'i, through military pressure and diplomacy by 1740.<ref>Joudah 1987, p. 24.</ref> The Naf'i, Shahin, and Murad families continued to farm the taxes of Safed and its countryside into the 1760s as Zahir's subordinates.<ref>Cohen 1973, p. 83.</ref> By the 1760s, Zahir entrusted Safed to his son Ali, who made the town his headquarters.<ref>Cohen 1973, pp. 84–85.</ref> After Zahir was killed by Ottoman imperial forces, the governor of Sidon, [[Jazzar Pasha]], moved to oust Zahir's sons from their Galilee strongholds. Ali made a final, unsuccessful stand against Jazzar Pasha from Safed, which was afterward captured and garrisoned by the governor.<ref>Cohen 1973, pp. 93–95.</ref> The simultaneous rise of Acre, established by Zahir as his capital in 1750 and which served as the capital of the Sidon Eyalet under Jazzar Pasha (1775–1804) and his successors, [[Sulayman Pasha al-Adil]] (1805–1819) and [[Abdullah Pasha ibn Ali|Abdullah Pasha]] (1820–1831), contributed to the political decline of Safed. It became a subdistrict center with limited local influence, belonging to the [[Acre Sanjak]] .<ref name="Abbasi50"/>

Underdevelopment and a series of natural disasters further contributed to Safed's decline during the 17th–mid-19th centuries.<ref name="Abbasi50"/> An outbreak of plague decimated the population in 1742 and the [[Near East earthquakes of 1759]] left the city in ruins, killing 200 residents.<ref>Sa'ar H. ''When Israel trembles: former earthquakes.'' Ynet online. 11.05.2012. {{in lang|he}}</ref> An influx of [[Russian Jew]]s in 1776 and 1781, and of [[Lithuanian Jew]]s of the [[Perushim]] movement in 1809 and 1810, reinvigorated the Jewish community.<ref>Morgenstern 2006, p.</ref> In 1812, another plague killed 80% of the Jewish population.<ref name="Franco633">Franco 1916, p. 633.</ref> Following Abdullah Pasha of Acre's ordered killing of his Jewish vizier [[Haim Farhi]], who served the same post under Jazzar and Sulayman, the governor imprisoned the Jewish residents of Safed on 12 August 1820, accusing them of tax evasion under the concealment of Farhi; they were released upon paying a ransom.<ref name="Franco633"/><ref>Morgenstern 2006, p. 72.</ref> The war between Abdullah Pasha and the influential Farhi brothers in [[Constantinople]] and Damascus in 1822–1823 prompted Jewish flight from the Galilee in general, though by 1824 Jewish immigrants were steadily moving to the city.<ref>Morgenstern 2006, p. 60.</ref>

The forces of [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt]] wrested control of the Levant from the Ottomans in 1831 and in the same year many Jews who had fled the Galilee, including Safed, under Abdullah Pasha returned as a result of Muhammad Ali's liberal policies toward Jews.<ref>Morgenstern 2006, p. 61.</ref> Safed was raided by Druze in 1833 at the approach of [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim Pasha]], the Egyptian governor of the Levant.<ref name="Franco633"/> In the following year, the Muslim notables of the city, led by Salih al-Tarshihi, opposed to the Egyptian policy of conscription, joined the [[peasants' revolt in Palestine]].<ref name="Safi">{{citation |first=Khaled M. |last=Safi |editor=Roger Heacock |title=Of Times and Spaces in Palestine: The Flows and Resistances of Identity |chapter=Territorial Awareness in the 1834 Palestinian Revolt |chapter-url=http://books.openedition.org/ifpo/483 |publisher=Presses de l'Ifpo |location=Beirut |year=2008 |isbn=9782351592656}}</ref> During the revolt, rebels [[1834 looting of Safed|plundered the city]] for over thirty days.<ref>Sicker 1999, p. 13.</ref> Emir [[Bashir Shihab II]] of Mount Lebanon and his Druze fighters entered its environs in support of the Egyptians and compelled Safed's leaders to surrender.<ref name="Safi"/> The [[Galilee earthquake of 1837]] killed about half of Safed's 4,000-strong Jewish community,<ref name="Lieber256">Lieber 1992, p. [https://archive.org/details/mysticsmissionar0000lieb/page/256 256].</ref> destroyed all fourteen of its synagogues and prompted the flight of 600 [[Perushim]] for Jerusalem;<ref name="Idinopulos1998">{{cite book|author=Thomas A. Idinopulos|title=Weathered by Miracles: A History of Palestine from Bonaparte and Muhammad Ali to Ben-Gurion and the Mufti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=goVtAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Ivan R. Dee|isbn=978-1-56663-189-1|page=63}}</ref> the surviving Sephardic and Hasidic Jews mostly remained.<ref>Lieber 1992, pp. 256–257.</ref> Among the 2,158 residents of Safed who had died, 1,507 were Ottoman subjects, the rest foreign citizens.<ref name="Ambraseys933">{{cite journal |last1=Ambraseys |first1=N. N. |title=The earthquake of 1 January 1837 in Southern Lebanon and Northern Israel |journal=Annals of Geophysics |date=25 November 1997 |volume=40 |issue=4 |doi=10.4401/ag-3887 |hdl=2122/1595 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> The Jewish quarter was situated on the hillside and was particularly hard hit;<ref name="Lieber256"/> the southern and Muslim section of the town experienced considerably less damage.<ref name="Ambraseys933"/> The following year, in 1838, Druze rebels and local Muslims [[1838 Druze attack on Safed|raided Safed]] for three days.

====Tanzimat reforms and revival====
[[File:Safed iii.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Safed in the 19th century]]

Ottoman rule was restored across the Levant in 1840. The Empire-wide [[Tanzimat]] reforms, which were first adopted in the 1840s, brought about a steady rise in Safed's population and economy.<ref name="Abbasi50" /> In 1849 Safed had a total estimated population of 5,000, of whom 2,940–3,440 were Muslims, 1,500-2,000 were Jews and 60 were Christians.<ref name="Abbasi52">Abbasi 2003, p. 52.</ref> The population was estimated at 7,000 in 1850–1855, of whom 2,500–3,000 were Jews.<ref name="Abbasi52" /> The Jewish population increased in the last half of the 19th century by immigration from [[Qajar Iran|Persia]], [[Morocco]], and [[Algeria]].<ref name="Franco633" /> [[Moses Montefiore]] (d. 1885) visited Safed seven times and financed much of the rebuilding of Safed's synagogues and Jewish houses.<ref name="Franco633" />

In 1864 the Sidon Eyalet was absorbed into the new province of [[Syria Vilayet]]. In the new province, Safed remained part of the Acre Sanjak and served as the center of a [[kaza]] (third-level subdivision), whose jurisdiction covered the villages around the city and the subdistrict of [[Mount Meron]] (Jabal Jarmaq).<ref name="Abbasi50" /> In the Ottoman survey of Syria in 1871, Safed had 1,395 Muslim households, 1,197 Jewish households and three Christian households.<ref name="Abbasi52" /> The survey recorded a relatively high number of businesses in the city, namely 227 shops, fifteen mills, fourteen bakeries and four olive oil factories, an indicator of Safed's long-established role as an economic hub for the people of the Upper Galilee, the [[Hula Valley]], the [[Golan Heights]] and parts of modern-day [[South Lebanon]].<ref name="Abbasi54">Abbasi 2003, p. 54.</ref> Through the late 19th century, Safed's merchants served as middlemen in the Galilee grain trade, selling the wheat, pulses and fruit grown by the peasants of the Galilee to the traders of Acre, who in turn exported at least part of the merchandise to Europe.<ref name="Abbasi54" /> Safed also maintained extensive trade with the port of Tyre.<ref name="Abbasi54" /> The bulk of trade in Safed, which was traditionally dominated by the city's Jews, largely passed to its Muslim merchants during the late 19th century, particularly trade with the local villagers; Muslim traders offered higher credit to the peasants and were able to obtain government assistance for debt repayments.<ref name="Abbasi54" /> The wealth of Safed's Muslims increased and a number of the city's leading Muslim families made an opportunity from the [[Ottoman Land Code of 1858]] to purchase extensive tracts around Safed.<ref name="Abbasi56">Abbasi 2003, p. 56.</ref> The major Muslim landowning clans were the Soubeh, Murad and Qaddura.<ref>Abbasi 2003, p. 55.</ref> The latter owned about 50,000 [[dunam]]s toward the end of the century, including eight villages around Safed.<ref>Abū Mannah, Weismann and Zachs 2005, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=U7loMhnI5S8C&pg=PA178 178].</ref>

[[File:Safed1908.jpg|thumb|left|Muslim quarter of Safed circa 1908]]

In 1878 the municipal council of Safed was established.<ref name="Abbasi51" /> In 1888 the Acre Sanjak, including the Safed Kaza, became part of the new province of [[Beirut Vilayet]], an administrative state of affairs which persisted until the Empire's fall in 1918.<ref>Abbasi 2003, pp. 50–51.</ref> The centralization and stability brought by the imperial reforms solidified the political status and practical influence of Safed in the Upper Galilee.<ref name="Abbasi51">Abbasi 2003, p. 51.</ref> The Ottomans developed Safed into a center for [[Sunni Islam]] to counterbalance the influence of non-Muslim communities in its environs and the Shia Muslims of Jabal Amil.<ref name="Abbasi53">Abbasi 2003, p. 53.</ref> Along with the three major landowning families, the Muslim ''ulema'' (religious scholarly) families of Nahawi, Qadi, Mufti and Naqib comprised the urban elite (''a'yan'') of the city.<ref name="Abbasi56" /> The Sunni courts of Safed arbitrated over cases in [[Akbara]], [[Ein al-Zeitun]] and as far away as [[Majdel Selm|Mejdel Islim]].<ref name="ADiS" /> According to the late 19th-century account of British missionary E. W. G. Masterman, the Muslim families of Safed included Kurds, Damascenes, [[Algerian people|Algerians]], Bedouin from the [[Jordan Valley]], and people from the villages around Safed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Masterman |first=E. W. G. |date=1914-10-01 |title=Safed |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/peq.1914.46.4.169 |journal=Palestine Exploration Quarterly |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=169–179 |doi=10.1179/peq.1914.46.4.169 |issn=0031-0328|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Abbasi53" /> Many Damascenes had been settled in the city by Baybars when he conquered Safed in 1266.<ref name="Abbasi53" /> Until the late 19th century the Muslims of Safed maintained strong social and cultural connections with Damascus.<ref name="Abbasi53" /> The government settled Algerian and [[Circassians|Circassian]] exiles in the countryside of Safed in the 1860s and 1878, respectively, possibly in an effort to strengthen the Muslim character of the area.<ref name="Abbasi53" /> At least two Muslim families in the city itself, Arabi and Delasi, were of Algerian origin, though they accounted for a small proportion of the city's overall Muslim population.<ref name="Abbasi53" /> Masterman noted that the Muslims of Safed were conservative, "active and hardy", who "dress[ed] well and move[d] about more than the people from the region of southern Palestine".<ref>Abbasi 2003, pp. 53–54.</ref> They lived mainly in three quarters of the city: al-Akrad, whose residents were mostly laborers, Sawawin, home to the Muslim ''a'yan'' households and the city's Catholic community, and al-Wata, whose inhabitants were largely shopkeepers and minor traders.<ref name="Abbasi53" /><ref name="Schumacher188">Schumacher, 1888, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n213/mode/1up 188]</ref> The entire Jewish population lived in the Gharbieh (western) quarter.<ref name="Schumacher188" />
[[File:Safed. Kunstenaarskolonie weg met aan weerzijden muren met zicht op het atelier, Bestanddeelnr 255-9230.jpg|thumb|[[Melkite Greek Catholic Church]] in Safed]]
Safed's population reached over 15,000 in 1879, 8,000 of whom were Muslims and 7,000 Jews.<ref name="Abbasi53" /> A population list from about 1887 showed that Safad had 24,615 inhabitants; 2,650 Jewish households, 2,129 Muslim households and 144 Roman Catholic households.<ref name="Schumacher188" /> Arab families in Safed whose social status rose as a result of the Tanzimat reforms included the [[Deir al-Asad#Endowment to Muhammad al-Asad|Asadi]], whose presence in Safed dated to the 16th century, Hajj Sa'id, Hijazi, Bisht, Hadid, Khouri, a Christian family whose progenitor moved to the city from Mount Lebanon during the [[1860 Mount Lebanon civil war|1860 civil war]], and Sabbagh, a long-established Christian family in the city related to Zahir al-Umar's fiscal adviser Ibrahim al-Sabbagh;<ref name="Abbasi56" /><ref>Layish 1987, pp. 68, 71.</ref><ref>Deeb 1996, p. 1.</ref> many members of these families became officials in the civil service, local administrations or businessmen.<ref name="Abbasi56" /> When the Ottomans established a branch of the Agricultural Bank in the city in 1897, all of its board members were resident Arabs, the most influential of whom were Husayn Abd al-Rahim Effendi, Hajj Ahmad al-Asadi, As'ad Khouri and Abd al-Latif al-Hajj Sa'id. The latter two also became board members of the Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture branch opened in Safed in 1900.<ref>Abbasi 2003, pp. 55–56.</ref> In the last decade of the 19th century, Safed contained 2,000 houses, four mosques, three churches, two public bathhouses, one caravanserai, two public ''[[Sebil (fountain)|sabils]]'', nineteen mills, seven olive oil presses, ten bakeries, fifteen coffeehouses, forty-five stalls and three shops.<ref>Petersen 2001, p. 259.</ref>