Safed, Tzafat, Israel

צְפַת

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Safed has been identified with Sepph, a fortified town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman Jewish historian Josephus. The Jerusalem Talmud mentions it as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period. Safed attained local prominence under the Crusaders, who built a large fortress there in 1168. It was conquered by Saladintwenty years later and demolished by his grandnephew al-Mu'azzam Isa in 1219. After reverting to the Crusaders in a treaty in 1240, a larger fortress was erected, which was 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 Ottoman conquest in 1517 ushered in nearly a century of growth and prosperity in Safed, during which Jewish immigrants from across Europe developed the city into a center for wool and textile production and the mystical Kabbalahmovement. It became known as one of the Four Holy Cities of Judaism. As capital of the Safad Sanjak, it was the main population center of the Galilee with large Muslim and Jewish communities.

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