Nablus: Soap, Knafeh, and the Old City
At dawn in Nablus (نابلس), the smell of the city arrives before the light does. Olive oil soap, months into its curing, in the Shamaa workshop off Al-Qaryoun street. Sugar syrup heating in copper pans for knafeh (كنافة). Semolina browning in iron trays. Nabulsi grandmothers have been smelling this same dawn for a thousand years.
This is the old city between two mountains, and the crafts that survived the uprisings, the earthquakes, and the sieges. The Nabulsi identity is carried in objects, in recipes, and, at FALASTIN, in the Palestinian T-Shirts that try to carry some of the same patience.
The Mountain Between Two Peaks
TL;DR
Nablus (Arabic: نابلس, ancient name: Shechem, Roman name: Flavia Neapolis) is the largest Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, with a current population of approximately 200,000. It sits between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim in a valley that has been continuously settled for over 9,000 years, making it one of the oldest inhabited sites in the world. Nablus is internationally known for two products: Nabulsi soap, an olive-oil-based soap produced by the city's traditional workshops for over a thousand years and exported across the Arab world; and knafeh (كنافة), a cheese pastry in sugar syrup with a semolina topping that is considered the city's defining food. Nablus was also one of the commercial and intellectual centers of Ottoman Palestine, a hub of trade connecting Jerusalem to Damascus across the northern highland road. The city remains a major educational center, home to An-Najah National University, the largest university in Palestine, as well as a living archive of craft traditions in textile, stone, and food that the embroidery tradition of tatreez shares across the northern West Bank.
Nablus sits in the saddle between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim in the northern West Bank. The Romans founded a city here, Flavia Neapolis, in 72 CE, and the Arabic name Nablus comes directly from that Roman one. The old city, laid out over centuries of Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman construction, is dense: narrow vaulted streets, stone arches over the alleys, courtyard houses hidden behind heavy wooden doors.
The Nabulsi identity is particular. People from Nablus are proud in a quiet, careful way. The city has always been a trading city, a craft city, and a city of families whose names appear on the same streets for five hundred years: Tuqan, Shamaa, Nimr, Abdelhadi, Khammash.
Nabulsi Soap
The olive oil soap of Nablus is a thousand-year-old craft. It is made from three ingredients only: virgin olive oil pressed from local groves, water, and sodium hydroxide (originally derived from the ash of the barilla plant gathered along the Dead Sea, a detail tied to the Palestinian olive tree itself). The oil is heated in cauldrons for days, poured into wooden frames on the factory floor, pressed flat, cut into cubes by hand, stamped with the maker's name, and stacked into pillars for a curing period of eight to twelve months.
At its peak in the nineteenth century, Nablus had around thirty soap factories. Soap was exported from here to Egypt via the port at Jaffa, to Istanbul, to Damascus. Two of the original factories, the Shamaa and the Tuqan, are still in operation today, using the same methods and, in some cases, the same wooden frames.
The Origin of Knafeh Nabulsiyeh
Nablus is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of knafeh Nabulsiyeh, the Palestinian dessert of orange-dyed semolina dough layered over akkawi cheese and soaked in rose and orange-blossom syrup. The city's claim is old enough that food historians accept it. The Nabulsi version is distinguished by its thin, crisp, hair-like top (shredded semolina, not pastry), its specific cheese (akkawi from the Galilee, which pulls long when warm), and the ratio of syrup to dough, finer in Nablus than in the Damascene or Aleppine versions.
Visitors to the old city are usually directed to one of two counters: Al-Aqsa, on the corner near the old market, or Alaeddin, a few streets deeper. Both have been serving knafeh since the 1940s.
The Old City and Its Seven Hammams
The old city was, and still is, a network of seven hammams (public baths), at least a dozen caravanserais, three Mamluk-era mosques, a handful of Ottoman palaces, and courtyards whose fountains are older than most European cities.
In 1927, a severe earthquake damaged much of the old city. Nabulsi families rebuilt patiently over the following decades, stone by stone, matching the old vaults. In the Second Intifada, between 2002 and 2004, Israeli military operations damaged or destroyed significant portions of the old city, including parts of the Al-Khadra mosque, the soap factories, and the Tuqan palace. The city, again, rebuilt.
Nablus in the 20th Century
Nablus has always been a city of uprisings. The 1936 Arab Revolt against British rule began, in part, in the hills outside the city. The First Intifada drew heavily on Nablus neighborhoods. The Second Intifada hit the city hardest of any Palestinian urban center outside Gaza. Each episode left the old city scarred, and each time, the city rebuilt.
The cousins along the coast have their own stories. Jaffa fell in 1948, and Haifa followed within weeks. Nablus, by contrast, remained under Jordanian and then Israeli administration, which is why the old city and its crafts survived where coastal equivalents did not. For further reading, the Palestine Remembered archive and the Institute for Palestine Studies are useful starting points.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Nablus known for?
Nablus is known for two products recognized across the Arab world: Nabulsi soap, an olive-oil-based soap produced by traditional workshops in the city for over a thousand years; and knafeh (كنافة), a cheese pastry in sugar syrup with a semolina topping that Nablus considers its defining dish. The city is also home to An-Najah National University, the largest university in Palestine.
What is Nabulsi soap?
Nabulsi soap is an olive-oil-based soap produced in Nablus, in the northern West Bank, using traditional manufacturing methods that have remained largely unchanged for centuries. It is made from Palestinian olive oil, water, and lye, with small amounts of laurel oil. It was historically exported across the Arab world and Ottoman empire and remains produced today in traditional workshops in the old city.
Where is Nablus located?
Nablus is located in the northern West Bank, approximately 60 kilometers north of Jerusalem, in a valley between Mount Ebal to the north and Mount Gerizim to the south. The valley has been continuously settled for over 9,000 years, making the site one of the oldest inhabited locations in the world. The city is the commercial and educational center of the northern West Bank.
At FALASTIN, we aim to keep that craft alive through our Palestinian T-Shirts.
100% of profits from FALASTIN are donated to the United Palestinian Appeal.