Tour Guide, Nablus, Palestine
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Ottoman era
During the rule of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine (1517-1918), Jenin, Lajjun and the Carmel area, were for part of the 17th century ruled by Bedouin sheikhs, in this case the Turabay family.[6] In the mid-18th century, Jenin was designated the administrative capital of a district that included Lajjun, Ajlun and Jabal Nablus.[7] There are indications that the area comprising Jenin and Nablus remained functionally autonomous under Ottoman rule and that the empire struggled to collect taxes there. During the Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt which extended into Syria and Palestine in 1799, a local official from Jenin wrote a poem enumerating and calling upon local Arab leaders to resist Bonaparte, without mentioning the Sultan or the need to protect the Ottoman empire. In the late 19th century, some members of the Jarrar family, who formed part of the mallakin (elite land-owning families) in Jenin, cooperated with merchants in Haifa to set up an export enterprise there. Tawfiq Jarrar was accorded the unique title, "son of the great" (salil al-akabir) in Haifa, in recognition of his family's status and his entrepreneurial efforts.During the Ottoman era, Jenin was plagued by local warfare between members of the same clan.