An excerpt from the Safar-nama of Nasir Khusraw:
“...we came to a village called Haifa. Along the village road is much sand of the type used by Persian goldsmiths, which they call Meccan. The village of Haifa is on the coast and has many palm groves and orchards. The shipbuilders there make large seagoing vessels they call Judi...”
Source: Thackston, W. Wheeler McIntosh, ed. trans., Nasir- i Khusraw’s Book of Travels (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2010), 24–25.
Located in the north of the present-day Israel, Haifa is a port at the foot of Mount Carmel. The name Haifa is mentioned in the works of Eusebius (a 4th century CE Roman Christian scholar, exegete and historian); it appears frequently in the Talmud and in the later Jewish sources, but not in the Bible. In the early Muslim centuries, Haifa was overshadowed by the neighbouring port of ‘Akka (Acre). The Crusaders on their way south also by-passed Haifa at first but soon turned their attention to this useful harbour. In the 4th AH / 10th CE century the population of Haifa was predominantly Jewish. The Jews inhabited the town with a special grant from the Fatimid Caliphs. They paid tribute to the Fatimids, who in turn provided them defence cover with the help of Muslim troops.
Famous 6th AH / 12th CE century Muslim historian and geographer, Muhammad al-Idrisi (d. 560 AH / 1165 CE, describes Haifa as an excellent anchorage. During the wars between Crusaders and Muslims. Haifa, came to be occupied by Salah al-Din Ayyubi's forces in 583 AH / 1187 CE, together with all other ports on the Palestine coast that were linked to Akka (Acre). Anticipating the Frankish recovery of ‘Akka, Salah al-Din demolished the walls and fortifications of Haifa in 587 AH / 1191 CE, before abandoning it to the Franks. King Louis IX of France (r. 610-669 AH / 1214-1270) refortified Haifa. Thereafter, the town remained in Frankish hands until it was abandoned in 663 AH / 1265 CE at the advance of Baybars (the Turkish Mamluk sultan of Egypt) razed its fortifications to the ground. The Franks recovered it briefly but finally lost it to the Mamluks in 690 AH / 1291 CE.
Haifa during Ottoman Period: The first Ottoman survey registers do not list Haifa among the inhabited places. In 1019 AH / 1611 CE, however, a Turkish document mentions Frankish merchants visiting the port (iskele) of Haifa. The gradual silting up of the port of ‘Akka resulted in diversion of traffic to Haifa, and the port once again began to grow in size and importance. The Jewish population of the town increased with immigrants from Morocco, Turkey and later from Europe.
A new element was the Templars, a group of German Protestants from Württemberg, who settled in Haifa in 1868. They built roads, introduced four-wheeled carriages, and established regular passenger services to ‘Akka and Nazareth. The Templars also built a steam-mill, planted vineyards, and introduced modern agricultural methods to the town. Another group of religious settlers were the Baha'is, the followers of Baha'u'llah who died in exile near Acre in 1892. Since then, Haifa has been the administrative centre of the Baha'i faith.
Citation:
"Hayfa." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online, 2012.
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/hayfa-SIM_2835 [accessed June 2013]
E. T. Dawling, “The Town of Haifa”, in Quarterly Survey of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1914. 184-91
Hunsberger, Alice C. Nasir Khusraw, the Ruby of Badakhshan. (I. B. Tauris, London, 2000).
L. Oliphant, Haifa, or Life in Modern Palestine. (William Blackwood and Sons, London, 1887).
“Haifa”, Encyclopaedia Iranica Online. 2012.
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/haifa [accessed June 2013]
