Editing Shefa-Amr (section)

===Ottoman period===
The region became part of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1517. In the Ottoman tax census of 1525–26, Shefa-Amr had a population of 150, 90% of whom were Muslims and 10% Jews. The population increased to 388 in the 1538–39 census, with Jews constituting 13% of the inhabitants. According to the records of 1547–48 and 1555–56, Shefa-Amr had a population 423 and 594 respectively, all Muslims.{{sfn|Rhode|1979|p=189}} In 1564, the revenues of the village of Shefa-Amr were designated for the new [[waqf]] (endowment) of [[Hasseki Sultan Imaret]] in Jerusalem, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan ([[Roxelana]]), the wife of Sultan [[Suleiman the Magnificent]].<ref>Singer, 2002, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zHBHBTNwBQoC&pg=PA126 126]</ref>

In the census of {{circa|1572}}, the village had a population of 510 Muslims.{{sfn|Rhode|1979|p=189}} A 1573 [[Firman (decree)|firman]] (decree) mentioned that Shefa-Amr was among a group of villages in the ''[[nahiya]]'' (sub district) of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]] in rebellion against the state. By 1577, the village had accumulated an arsenal of 200 muskets.<ref>Heyd, 1960, pp. 84-85, no. 2. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21620272/Gazetteer_6._S-Z 277]</ref> In the 1596 [[Defter|tax records]], Shefa-Amr was part of the ''nahiya'' of Acre, part of [[Safed Sanjak]], with a population of 83 households (''khana''), and eight bachelors, all Muslims. The total revenue was 13,600 [[akçe]], most of which was given in fixed amounts.<ref>Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 192</ref> The taxable produce also comprised occasional revenues, goats and beehives, and the inhabitants paid for the use or ownership of an olive oil press.<ref>Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 192. Also quoted in Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21620272/Gazetteer_6._S-Z 277]</ref><ref>Note that Rhode, 1979, p. [https://www.academia.edu/2026845/The_Administration_and_Population_of_the_Sancak_of_Safed_in_the_Sixteenth_Century 6] writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9.</ref>

[[File:Fort in Shefa Amr.jpg|thumb|Zahir al-Umar fort]]
[[File:Shfa3amer 1910.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Shefa-Amr, 1910]]

During the 18th century Shefa-Amr was the center of its own fiscal district in the province of [[Sidon Eyalet|Sidon]]. Its importance derived from its position in the heart of the Galilee's cotton-growing area and its natural and man-made defenses. The significance of cotton to the growth of Shefa-Amr was fundamental. Tax returns for the village attest to the large returns expected of this crop.<ref>Cohen, 1973, p. 128. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21620272/Gazetteer_6._S-Z 277]</ref> Its local prominence was headed by the [[sheikh]]s of the [[Zayadina]] (sing. Zaydani), a local family of [[multazim]]s (limited-term tax farmers), in charge of collecting taxes for the governor of Sidon.{{sfn|Petersen|2001|p=[https://www.academia.edu/21620272/Gazetteer_6._S-Z 277]}} As early as 1704, the village was held as a tax farm by the Zaydani sheikh Ali ibn Salih, along with other villages in the [[Lower Galilee]].{{sfn|Cohen|1973|pp=9–10}} At an unknown point after, the Zayadina lost Shefa-Amr but Ali's son Muhammad of [[al-Damun]] had regained control of it by {{circa|1740}}, during a period when the Zayadina were expanding their holdings across the Galilee under the leadership of [[Zahir al-Umar]] (Muhammad's first cousin).{{sfn|Philipp|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=95I5QVdp4_gC&pg=PA33 33]}} 

It is known that there was a castle in the village by this time.{{sfn|Petersen|2001|p=[https://www.academia.edu/21620272/Gazetteer_6._S-Z 277]}} Its fortifications were strengthened by the Zayadina in {{circa|1742}} during a respite in the [[sieges of Tiberias (1742–1743)|sieges of the Zaydani stronghold of Tiberias]] by the governor of [[Damascus Eyalet|Damascus]].{{sfn|Joudah|2013|p=37}} Afterward, in 1743, Muhammad was arrested and executed by Zahir's order to remove him as an obstacle to Zahir's regional ambitions.{{sfn|Philipp|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=95I5QVdp4_gC&pg=PA35 35]}} In 1761, Zahir offered to grant Shefa-Amr to his son Uthman in exchange for the latter assassinating Zahir's brother Sa'd. Although Uthman complied, Zahir reneged following protestations by Shefa-Amr's inhabitants. Uthman and his brothers Ahmad and Sa'id besieged the village in 1765 but were repulsed by its local defenders with Zahir's support.{{sfn|Joudah|2013|pp=54–56}} Uthman was nevertheless granted Shefa-Amr at some point by Zahir.{{sfn|Cohen|1973|pp=84–85}}{{sfn|Joudah|2013|pp=143–144}} He is generally credited as the builder of its large fortress.{{sfn|Conder|Kitchener|1881|p=[https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/272/mode/1up 272]}}

After Zahir's death in 1775, the Ottoman-appointed governor [[Jazzar Pasha]] allowed Uthman to continue as subgovernor of Shefa-Amr in return for a promise of loyalty and advance payment of taxes.{{sfn|Cohen|1973|p=93}} Jazzar Pasha ignored orders from [[Constantinople]] to demolish the village's fortress.{{sfn|Cohen|1973|p=106}} Several years later Uthman was removed and replaced by Ibrahim Abu Qalush, an appointee of Jazzar Pasha,{{sfn|Petersen|2001|p=[https://www.academia.edu/21620272/Gazetteer_6._S-Z 277]}} who rebelled against him in 1789.{{sfn|Cohen|1973|p=25}} A map by [[Pierre Jacotin]] from [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|Napoleon's invasion of 1799]] showed the place, named as ''Chafa Amr''.<ref>Karmon, 1960, [http://www.jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,_Y_1960_Jacotin_Map_(IEJ_10).pdf p. 162] (PDF)</ref>
[[File:Constantine and Helena Church Shefa-'Amr.jpg|thumb|Ss. Constantine and Helena Church]]

A Jewish community had been established in the village under the auspices of Zahir's rule.{{sfn|Barnai|1992|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=GdEDefYc4u0C&pg=PA156 156]}} In 1839, [[Moses Montefiore]] counted 107 [[Sephardic Jews]] living in Shefa-Amr.<ref>Zaharoni (1978), p. 127</ref> Their condition worsened with the departure of the autonomous leader of [[Egypt Eyalet|Egypt]], [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali Pasha]], during which time Shefa-Amr was nearly emptied of its Jewish residents, who had opted to move to [[Haifa]] and [[Tiberias]].<ref>Zaharoni (1978), p. 127–128</ref> [[James Finn]] wrote in 1877 that "The majority of the inhabitants are Druses. There are a few Moslems and a few [[Palestinian Christians|Christians]]; but [in 1850] there were thirty Jewish families living as agriculturists, cultivating grain and olives on their own landed property, most of it family inheritance; some of these people were of Algerine descent. They had their own synagogue and legally qualified butcher, and their numbers had formerly been more considerable." However, "they afterwards dwindled to two families, the rest removing to [Haifa] as that port rose in prosperity."<ref>Finn, 1877, p. [https://archive.org/stream/byewaysinpalesti00finniala#page/243/mode/1up 243]</ref> 

Conder and Kitchener, who visited in 1875, was told that the community consisted of "2,500 souls—1,200 being Moslems, the rest Druses, Greeks, and Latins."<ref name="SWPI">Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/272/mode/1up p. 272]</ref> The town's Druze community dwindled considerably in the 1880s as its members migrated east to the [[Hauran]] plain to avoid conscription by the Ottoman authorities.<ref>Firro, 1992, p. 168.</ref> A population list from about 1887 showed that Shefa-Amr had about 2,750 inhabitants; 795 Muslims, 95 [[Melkites|Greek Catholics]], 1,100 Catholics, 140 Latins, 175 [[Maronites]]/Protestants, 30 Jews and 440 Druze.<ref>Schumacher, 1888, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n200/mode/1up 175]</ref> That year, some 42 Jewish families from [[Morocco]] settled in Shefa-Amr.<ref name="Zaharoni128">Zaharoni (1978), p. 128</ref>