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Samaritans (; ; ; ), often preferring to be called Israelite Samaritans, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of ancient Israel and Judah that comprises the northern half of the West Bank in Palestine. They are adherents of Samaritanism, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion that developed alongside Judaism.
According to their tradition, the Samaritans' ancestors, the Israelites, settled in Canaan in the 17th century BCE.Samaritan Museum. “The Samaritans.”According to the conventional chronology of the Hebrew Bible, this occurred in the 15th century BCE. The Samaritans claim descent from the Israelites who, unlike the Ten Lost Tribes of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, were not subject to the Assyrian captivity after the northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and annexed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE.
Regarding the Samaritan Pentateuch as the unaltered Torah, the Samaritans view the Jews as close relatives but claim that Judaism fundamentally alters the original Yahwism. The most notable theological divide between Jewish and Samaritan doctrine concerns the holiest site, which the Jews believe is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and which Samaritans identify as Mount Gerizim near modern Nablus and ancient Shechem in the Samaritan version of Deuteronomy 16:6 Both Jews and Samaritans assert that the Binding of Isaac occurred at their respective holy sites, identifying them as Moriah.
Samaritans attribute their schism with the Jews to Eli, who was the penultimate Israelite shophet and a kohen in Shiloh in 1 Samuel 1; in Samaritan belief, he is accused of establishing a worship site in Shiloh with himself as High Priest in opposition to the one on Mount Gerizim.
Once a large community, the Samaritan population shrank significantly in the wake of the Samaritan revolts, which were brutally suppressed by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century. Their numbers were further reduced by Christianization under the Byzantines and later by Islamization following the Arab conquest of the Levant. In the 12th century, the Jewish explorer and writer Benjamin of Tudela estimated that only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in Palestine and Syria.
the Samaritan community numbers around 900 people, split between [[Israel]] (some 460 in [[Holon]]) and the [[West Bank]] (some 380 in [[Kiryat Luza]]). The Samaritans in Kiryat Luza speak Levantine Arabic while those in Holon primarily speak [[Israeli Hebrew|Modern Hebrew]]. For liturgical purposes, they also use [[Samaritan Hebrew]] and Samaritan Aramaic, both of which are written in the [[Samaritan script]]. According to Samaritan tradition, the position of the community's leading Samaritan High Priest has continued without interruption for the last 3600 years, beginning with the Hebrew prophet [[Aaron]]. Since 2013, the 133rd Samaritan High Priest has been Aabed-El ben Asher ben Matzliach.
In censuses, Israeli law classifies the Samaritans as a distinct religious community. However, Rabbinic literature rejected the Samaritans' Halakha because they refused to renounce their belief that Mount Gerizim was the historical holy site of the Israelites. All Samaritans in both Holon and Kiryat Luza have Israeli citizenship, but those in Kiryat Luza also hold Palestinians; the latter group are not subject to mandatory conscription.
Around the world, there are significant and growing numbers of communities, families, and individuals who, despite not being part of the Samaritan community, identify with and observe the tenets and traditions of the Samaritans' ethnic religion. The largest community outside the Levant, the "Shomrey HaTorah" of Brazil (generally known as "Neo-Samaritans Worldwide"), has approximately hundreds of members .
In their own language, Samaritan Hebrew, the Samaritans call themselves "Israel", "B'nai Israel", and, alternatively, Shamerim (שַמֶרִים), meaning "Guardians/Keepers/Watchers", and in Arabic language al-Sāmiriyyūn (السامريون). The term is cognate with the Biblical Hebrew term Šomerim, and both terms reflect a Semitic root שמר, which means "to watch, guard". Historically, Samaritans were concentrated in Samaria. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim (שומרונים), which means "inhabitants of Samaria", literally, "Samaritans". In modern English, Samaritans refer to themselves as Israelite Samaritans.
That the meaning of their name signifies Guardians/Keepers/Watchers of, rather than being a toponym referring to the inhabitants of the region of Samaria, was remarked on by a number of Christian Church Fathers, including Epiphanius of Salamis in the Panarion, Jerome and Eusebius in the Chronicon, and Origen in The Commentary on Saint John's Gospel. The historian Josephus uses several terms for the Samaritans, which he appears to use interchangeably. Among them is a reference to Khuthaioi, a designation employed to denote peoples in Media and Iran putatively sent to Samaria to replace the exiled Israelite population. These Khouthaioi were in fact Hellenistic Phoenicians/Sidonians. Samareis (Σαμαρεῖς) may refer to inhabitants of the region of Samaria, or of the city of that name, though some texts use it to refer specifically to Samaritans.
In contrast, Orthodox Judaism tradition—based on material in the Bible, Josephus and the Talmud—dates their presence much later, to the beginning of the Babylonian captivity. In Rabbinic Judaism, for example in the Tosefta Berakhot, the Samaritans are called Cuthites or Cutheans (, Kutim), referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq. Josephus in both the Wars of the Jews and the Antiquities of the Jews, in writing of the destruction of the temple on Mt. Gerizim by John Hyrcanus, also refers to the Samaritans as the Cuthaeans. In the biblical account, however, Kuthah was one of several cities from which people were brought to Samaria.
The similarities between Samaritans and Jews were such that the rabbis of the Mishnah found it impossible to draw a clear distinction between the two groups. Attempts to date when the schism among Israelites took place—which engendered the division between Samaritans and Judaeans—vary greatly, from the time of Ezra down to the siege of Jerusalem (70 CE) and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE). The emergence of a distinctive Samaritan identity, the outcome of a mutual estrangement between them and Jews, was something that developed over several centuries. Generally, a decisive rupture is believed to have taken place in the Hasmonean period.
Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan and the tribes of Israel settled the land. The reference to Mount Gerizim derives from the biblical story of Moses ordering Joshua to take the Twelve Tribes of Israel to the mountains by Shechem (Nablus) and place half of the tribes, six in number, on Mount Gerizim—the Mount of the Blessing—and the other half on Mount Ebal—the Mount of the Curse.
The emergence of the Samaritans as an ethnic and religious community distinct from other Levant peoples appears to have occurred at some point after the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel in approximately 721 BCE. The annals of Sargon II of Assyria indicate that he deported 27,290 inhabitants of the former kingdom. Jewish tradition affirms the Assyrian deportations and replacement of the previous inhabitants by forced resettlement by other peoples but claims a different ethnic origin for the Samaritans. The Talmud accounts for a people called "Cuthim" on a number of occasions, mentioning their arrival by the hands of the Assyrians. According to 2 Kings 17:6, 24 and Josephus,Josephus, Antiquities 9.277–91 the people of Israel were removed by the king of the Assyrians (Sargon II)See the wording of 2 Kings 17 which mentions Shalmaneser V in verse 3 but the "king of the Assyrians" from verse 4 onward. to Halah, to Tell Halaf on the Khabur River and to the towns of the Medes. The king of the Assyrians then brought people from Babylon, Kutha, Ivah, and Sepharvaim to place in Samaria. Because God sent lions among them to kill them, the king of the Assyrians sent one of the priests from Bethel to teach the new settlers about God's ordinances. The eventual result was that the new settlers worshipped both the God of the land and their own gods from the countries from which they came.
In the Chronicles, following Samaria's destruction King Hezekiah is depicted as endeavouring to draw the Ephraimites, Zebulonites, Asherites and Manassites closer to Judah. Temple repairs at the time of Josiah were financed by money from all "the remnant of Israel" in Samaria, including from Manasseh, Ephraim, and Benjamin. Jeremiah likewise speaks of people from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria who brought offerings of frankincense and grain to the House of Tetragrammaton. Chronicles makes no mention of an Assyrian resettlement. Yitzakh Magen argues that the version of Chronicles is perhaps closer to the historical truth and that the Assyrian settlement was unsuccessful; he asserts that a notable Israelite population remained in Samaria, part of which (following the conquest of Judah) fled south and settled there as refugees.Adam Zertal dates the Assyrian onslaught at 721 BCE to 647 BCE. From a pottery type he identifies as Mesopotamian clustering around the Menasheh lands of Samaria, he infers that there were three waves of imported settlers. Furthermore, to this day the Samaritans claim descent from the tribe of Joseph.
The Encyclopaedia Judaica (under "Samaritans") summarizes both past and present views on the Samaritans' origins. It says:
Gary N. Knoppers described the demography shifts in Samaria following the Assyrian conquest as: "... not the wholesale replacement of one local population by a foreign population, but rather the diminution of the local population", which he attributed to deaths from war, disease and starvation, forced deportations, and migrations to other regions, particularly south to the Kingdom of Judah. The state-sponsored immigrants who had been forcibly brought into Samaria appear to have generally assimilated into the local population. Nevertheless, the Book of Chronicles records that King Hezekiah of Judah invited members of the tribes of Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Issachar and Manasseh to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover after the destruction of Israel. In light of this, it has been suggested that the bulk of those who survived the Assyrian invasions remained in the region. Per this interpretation, the Samaritan community of today is thought to be predominantly descended from those who remained.
The Israeli biblical scholar Shemaryahu Talmon has supported the Samaritan tradition that they are mainly descended from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh who remained in Israel after the Assyrian conquest. He states that the description of them at 2 Kings 17:24 as foreigners is tendentious and intended to ostracize the Samaritans from those Israelites who returned from the Babylonian exile in 520 BCE. He further states that 2 Chronicles 30:1 could be interpreted as confirming that a large fraction of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (i.e., Samaritans) remained in Israel after the Assyrian exile. E. Mary Smallwood wrote that the Samaritans "were the survivors of the pre-Exilic northern kingdom of Israel, diluted by intermarriage with alien settlers," and that they broke away from mainstream Judaism in the 4th century BCE. Archaeologist Eric Cline takes an intermediate view. He believes only 10–20% of the Israelite population (i.e. 40,000 Israelites) were deported to Assyria in 720 BCE. About 80,000 Israelites fled to Judah whilst between 100,000 and 230,000 Israelites remained in Samaria. The latter intermarried with the foreign settlers, thus forming the Samaritans.
The religion of this remnant community is likely distorted by the account recorded in the Books of Kings, which claims that the local Israelite religion was perverted with the injection of foreign customs by Assyrian colonists. In reality, the surviving Samaritans continued to practice Yahwism. This explains why they did not resist Judean kings, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, imposing their religious reforms in Samaria. Magnar Kartveit argues that the people who later became known as Samaritans likely had diverse origins and lived in Samaria and other areas, and it was the temple project on Mount Gerizim that provided the unifying characteristic that allows them to be identified as Samaritans.
Modern genetic studies support the Samaritan narrative that they descend from indigenous Israelites. Shen et al. (2004) formerly speculated that outmarriage with foreign women may have taken place. Most recently the same group came up with genetic evidence that Samaritans are closely linked to Cohanim, and therefore can be traced back to an Israelite population prior to the Assyrian invasion. This correlates with expectations from the fact that the Samaritans retained endogamy and biblical Patrilineality marriage customs, and that they remained a genetically isolated population.
The books of Ezra–Nehemiah detail a lengthy political struggle between Nehemiah, governor of the new Persian province of Yehud Medinata, and Sanballat the Horonite, the governor of Samaria, centered around the refortification of the destroyed Jerusalem. Despite this political discourse, the text implies that relationships between the Jews and Samaritans were otherwise quite amicable, as intermarriage between the two seems commonplace, even to the point that the High Priest Joiada married Sanballat's daughter. Some theologians believe Nehemiah 11:3 describes other Israelite tribes returning to Judah with the Judeans. The former lived in the cities of Judah whilst the latter lived in Jerusalem. Benjamites also lived with Judeans in Jerusalem.
During Achaemenid rule, material evidence suggests significant overlap between Jews and proto-Samaritans, with the two groups sharing a common language and script, eschewing the claim that the schism had taken form by this time. However, onomastic evidence suggests the existence of a distinct northern culture. Some inhabitants of Samaria during this period identified with Israelite heritage. This connection is evidenced in two ways: first, through biblical accounts of local officials' involvement with the Jerusalem Temple, and second, through naming patterns. Many names recorded in the Wadi Daliyeh documents and on Samaritan coins feature Israelite elements. Sanballat's sons bore the theophoric Israelite names Delaiah and Shelemiah, while the name "Jeroboam", used by northern Israelite kings during the monarchic period, also appears on Samaritan coins.
The archaeological evidence can find no sign of habitation in the Assyrian and Babylonian periods at Mount Gerizim but indicates the existence of a sacred precinct on the site in the Persian period by the 5th century BCE. This is not to be interpreted as signaling a precipitous schism between the Jews and Samaritans, as the Gerizim temple was not the only Yahwistic temple outside of Judea. According to most modern scholars, the split between the Jews and Samaritans was a gradual historical process extending over several centuries rather than a single schism at a given point in time.
Though the temple on Mount Gerizim had existed since the 5th century BCE, evidence shows that its sacred precinct experienced an extravagant expansion during the early Hellenistic era, indicating its status as the preeminent place of Samaritan worship had begun to crystallize. By the time of Antiochus III the Great, the temple "town" had reached 30 in size. The presence of a flourishing cult centered around Gerizim is documented by the sudden resurgence of Yahwistic and Hebrew names in contemporary correspondence, suggesting that the Samaritan community had officially been established by the 2nd century BCE. Overall, the Samaritans were generally more populous and wealthier than the Judeans in Palestine, until 164 BC.
Anderson notes that during the reign of Antiochus IV:
Josephus quotes the Samaritans as saying:
In the letter, defended as genuine by E. Bickerman and Menahem Stern, the Samaritans assert their distinction from the Judeans based on both race (γένος) and in customs (ἔθος).
According to II Maccabees:
Hyrcanus' campaign of destruction was the watershed moment which confirmed hostile relations between Jews and Samaritans. The actions of the Hasmonean dynasty resulted in widespread Samaritan resentment of, and alienation from, their Judean brethren, resulting in the deterioration of relations between the two that lasted centuries, if not millennia.
During the First Jewish–Roman War in 67 CE a significant Samaritan uprising gathered on Mt. Gerizim. In response, Roman general Vespasian dispatched a relatively small force under the command of Cerialis. Although some Samaritans surrendered, most fought, resulting in heavy casualties. According to Josephus, 11,600 Samaritans were killed. There is no evidence of Samaritan involvement in later phases of the revolt. In 72/73 CE, Vespasian established Flavia Neapolis on the site of Mabartha, near Shechem. While some scholars argue this was to counter Samaritan influence and aspirations, others contend it was primarily a geo-strategic decision. The new city was designed as a polis and included both Samaritan and pagan populations, becoming a major urban center for the Samaritans. Despite its Hellenistic character, the city maintained local traditions, as reflected in its coins which avoided pagan symbols.
The possibility of Samaritan involvement in the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE) alongside the Jews against the Romans remains uncertain. Some Jewish sources, such as the Genesis Rabbah and the Jerusalem Talmud, depict the Samaritans as obstructing Jewish efforts, including the construction of the Temple and the defense of Betar, leading to interpretations of possible Samaritan collaboration with the Romans. However, these sources are considered legendary or anachronistic. Additionally, later Samaritan chronicles referring to the period do not connect events from this time to the Bar Kokhba revolt. Consequently, Mor concludes that there is no concrete evidence of cooperation between Jews and Samaritans during the revolt.
The defeat of the Jews in the Bar Kokhba revolt, along with the depopulation and destruction of Judea, allowed the Samaritans to expand into former Jewish areas, particularly in northern Judea, establishing themselves in places such as Imwas and Salbit. Samaritans also settled in the Beit She'an Valley and in coastal cities like Caesarea. In the ensuing years, the synagogue gained prominence as the central religious institution for the Samaritan community. Much of the Samaritan liturgy was later organized and formalized by the high priest Baba Rabba in the 4th century.
According to an anonymous biography of Mesopotamian monk Barsauma, whose pilgrimage to the region in the early 5th century was accompanied by clashes with locals and the forced conversion of non-Christians, Barsauma managed to convert Samaritans by conducting demonstrations of healing.Nau, "Re´sume´", ROC 9 (1914), 114–15. Jacob, an ascetic healer living in a cave near Porphyrion, Mount Carmel in the 6th century CE, attracted admirers including Samaritans who later converted to Christianity.Vita Jacobi, text and trans. in Pummer, 326–31 Under growing government pressure, many Samaritans who refused to convert to Christianity in the 6th century may have preferred paganism and even Manichaeism.Procopius, Anecdota. 11.26
Under a charismatic, messianic figure named Julianus ben Sabar (or ben Sahir), the Samaritans launched a war to create their own independent state in 529. With the help of the Ghassanids, Emperor Justinian I crushed the revolt; tens of thousands of Samaritans died or were enslaved. The Samaritan faith, which had previously enjoyed the status of religio licita, was virtually outlawed thereafter by the Christian Byzantine Empire; from a population once at least in the hundreds of thousands, the Samaritan community dwindled to tens of thousands.
The Byzantine response to the revolts, described by the archaeologist Claudine Dauphin as an act of ethnic cleansing, decimated five successive generations of the Samaritan population, destroyed their religious center, stripped their rights, and left them politically insignificant. Nevertheless , the Samaritan population in Samaria did survive. During a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 570 CE, an anonymous Christian pilgrim from Piacenza travelled through Samaria and recorded the following: "From there we went up past a number of places belonging to Samaria and Judaea to the city of Sebaste, the resting-place of the Prophet Elisha. There were several Samaritan cities and villages on our way down through the plains, and wherever we passed along the streets they burned away our footprints with straw, whether we were Christians or Jews, they have such a horror of both". The same pilgrim also mentions a place called Castra Samaritanorum near Tel Shikmona.
According to Menachem Mor, the decline of the Samaritan population between the 5th and 6th centuries was mostly due to the ongoing Christianization of Palestine's inhabitants, rather than the uprisings against the Byzantines. Mor argues that a large number of Samaritans in the cities and towns converted to Christianity, some under pressure and some of their own free will. He claims that both Samaritan and Christian sources preferred to conceal this phenomenon. The Samaritans preferred to attribute their numerical decrease on their resistance to coerced conversion, while the Christians were not willing to admit that the Samaritans were coerced into accepting Christianity and instead preferred to claim that many Samaritans were killed because of their rebellious nature.name="Mor2003"> A change in the local population's identity throughout the Byzantine period is not indicated by the archeological findings.[[File:Mosaic from Samaritan synagogue.jpg|thumb|Mosaic from Samaritan synagogue ([[Israel Museum]])]]
Like other non-Muslims in the empire, such as Jews, Samaritans were often considered to be People of the Book and were guaranteed religious freedom. Their minority status was protected by the Muslim rulers, and they had the right to practice their religion, but as dhimmi, adult males had to pay the jizya or "protection tax". This however changed during late Abbasid period, with increasing persecution targeting the Samaritan community and considering them infidels which must convert to Islam.
Anarchy overtook Palestine during the early years of Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun (813–833 CE), when his rule was challenged by internal strife. According to the Chronicle of Abu l-Fath, during this time, many clashes took place, the locals suffered from famine and even fled their homes out of fear, and "many left their faith". An exceptional case is of ibn Firāsa, a rebel who arrived in Palestine in 830 and was said to have loathed Samaritans and persecuted them. He punished them, forced them to convert to Islam, and filled the prisons with Samaritan men, women, and children, keeping them there until many of them perished from hunger and thirst. He had also demanded payment for enabling them to circumcise their sons on the eighth day. As a result of the persecution, many Samaritans abandoned their religion at that time.מילכה לוי-רובין (2025). 9789652172020, יד יצחק בן צבי, רשות העתיקות, המנהל האזרחי ליהודה ושומרון: קצין מטה לארכיאולוגיה. ISBN 9789652172020 The revolt was put down, but caliph al-Mu'tasim then increased taxes on the rebels, which sparked a second uprising. Rebel forces captured Nablus, where they set fire to synagogues belonging to the Samaritan and Dosithian (Samaritan sect) faiths. The community's situation briefly improved when this uprising was put down by Abbasid forces, and High Priest Pinhas ben Netanel resumed worship in the Nablus synagogue. Under the reign of Al-Wathiq, Abu-Harb Tamim, who had the support of Yaman tribes, led yet another uprising. He captured Nablus and caused many to flee, the Samaritan High Priest was injured and later died of his wounds in Hebron. The Samaritans could not go back to their homes until Abu-Harb tamim was vanquished and captured (842 CE).
A number of restrictions on the dhimmi were reinstituted during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil (847–861 CE), prices increased once more, and many people experienced severe poverty. "Many people lost faith as a result of the terrible price increases and because they became weary of paying the jizya. There were many sons and families who left their faith and became lost". The tradition of men wearing a red tarboosh may also go back to an order by al-Mutawakkil, that required non-Muslims to be distinguished from Muslims. However, this is disputed because praying while wearing a tarboosh was easier for Muslims, because they put their heads to the ground during Salah (daily prayers).
The numerous instances of Samaritans converting to Islam that are mentioned in the Chronicle of Abu l-Fath are all connected to economic difficulties that led to widespread poverty among the Samaritan population, anarchy that left Samaritans defenseless against Muslim attackers, and attempts by those people and others to force conversion on the Samaritans. It is crucial to keep in mind that the Samaritan community was the smallest among the other dhimmi communities and that it was also situated in Samaria, where Muslim settlement continued to expand as evidenced by the text; by the ninth century, villages such as Sinjil and Jinsafut were already Muslim. This makes it possible to assume that the Samaritans were more vulnerable than other dhimmi, what greatly broadened the extent of their Islamization.
Archaeological data demonstrates that during the 8th and 9th centuries, winepresses west of Samaria stopped operating, but the villages to which they belonged persisted. Such sites could be securely identified as Samaritan in some of those cases, and it is likely in others. According to one theory, the local Samaritans who converted to Islam kept their villages going but were barred by Sharia from Khamr. These findings date to the Abbasid period, and are in accordance with the Islamization process as described in the historical sources.
As time goes on, more information from recorded sources refers to Nablus and less to the vast agricultural regions that the Samaritans had previously inhabited. Hence, the Abbasid era marks the disappearance of Samaritan rural habitation in Samaria. By the end of the period, Samaritans were mainly centered in Nablus, while other communities persisted in Caesarea, Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo, Sarepta, and Ashkelon. The Samaritans transitioned from speaking Aramaic and Arabic to exclusively speaking Arabic starting from the 11th century onward. (2025). 9789004300156, Brill. ISBN 9789004300156
The Samaritan community in Egypt shrank as a result of Ottoman persecution of Samaritans who worked for the Mamluk government, with the majority of them converting to Islam. In Damascus, the majority of the Samaritan community was massacred or converted to Islam during the reign of the Ottoman Pasha Mardam Beqin in the early 17th century. The remainder of the Samaritan community there, in particular the Danafi family, which is still influential today, moved back to Nablus in the 17th century. The Matari family relocated from Gaza to Nablus at about the same time that the Marhiv family moved back from Sarepta, Lebanon. There were no longer any Samaritans in either Gaza or Damascus; only a handful remained in Gaza.נתן שור (2025). 9789652172020, יד יצחק בן-צבי; רשות העתיקות; המנהל האזרחי ליהודה ושומרון – קצין מטה לארכאולוגיה. ISBN 9789652172020
The Nablus community endured because most of the surviving diaspora returned, and they have maintained a tiny presence there to this day. In 1624, the last Samaritan High Priest of the line of Eleazar son of Aaron died without issue, but according to Samaritan tradition, descendants of Aaron's other son, Ithamar, remained and took over the office. Following the death of High Priest Shelamia ben Pinhas, Muslim persecution of Samaritans intensified, and they became the target of violent riots that led to many of them converting to Islam. In 1624, access to Mount Gerizim's summit was outlawed for the survivors, and they were only permitted to make Passover sacrifices on the mountain's eastern slopes. By the middle of the 17th century, very small Samaritan communities survived in Nablus, Gaza, and Jaffa.
The status of the Samaritan community of Nablus greatly improved in the early 18th century because one of them, Ibrahim al-Danafi, who was also a poet and an author, worked for the Tuqan family, which then dominated the city. Al-Danafi also bought the hill of Pinehas and the plot on Mount Gerizim's summit to be used by the community, but the favorable conditions that were necessary for the community's recovery did not last. The 1759 earthquake, the endemic that followed, and the other restrictions placed on the Samaritans limited the growth of their community, and by the end of the 18th century, there were only 200 people living there and living off of trade, brokerage, and tax collection.
The majority of Samaritan families in the 19th century lived in Harat el-Somra, a crowded neighborhood in Nablus' southwest. During this time, the modest Samaritan synagogue, "el-Kanis", served as the center of the community's cultural, religious, and social life. Some Samaritans worked as clerks for the municipal authorities, while others worked in local small business and crafts in Nablus and its vicinity. Some were forced to collect alms from the growing numbers of tourists and other visitors. To keep their households and organizations functioning, the Samaritan community sometimes even turned to selling ancient manuscripts.
During the 1840s, the ulama of Nablus began asserting that the Samaritans may not be considered "People of the Book" and therefore have the same status as Kafir and must convert to Islam or be executed. As a result, locals attempted to force the conversion of two children of a Samaritan widow who had a Muslim lover in 1841. Her young daughter died from fear, but her 14-year-old boy converted to Islam. Another Samaritan was later coerced into converting to Islam. Appealing to the King of France did not help. The Samaritan people were eventually helped by the Jewish Hakham Bashi Chaim Abraham Gagin, who decreed that the Samaritans are "a branch of the children of Israel, who acknowledge the truth of the Torah," and as such should be protected as a "People of the Book". As a result, the ulama ceased their preaching against Samaritans. The Samaritans also paid bribes to the Arab Muslims, totaling approximately 1000 GBP, and eventually came out of their hiding places. However, they were prohibited from offering Passover sacrifices on Mount Gerizim until 1849. By the late Ottoman period, the Samaritan community dwindled to its lowest. In the 19th century, with pressure of conversion and persecution from the local rulers, the community fell to just over 100 persons.
During the 1929 Palestine riots, Arab rioters attacked Samaritans who were performing the Passover sacrifice on Mount Gerizim and flung stones at them as well as their guests. The Palestine Police Force got involved and stopped any potential fatalities.
In 1967, Israel conquered the West Bank during the Six-Day War, and the Samaritans there came under Israeli rule. Until the 1990s, most of the Samaritans in the West Bank resided in Nablus. They relocated to Mount Gerizim near the Israeli settlement of Har Brakha as a result of violence during the First Intifada (1987–1990). Consequently, all that is left of the Samaritan community in Nablus is an abandoned synagogue. The Israeli army maintains a presence in the area. The Samaritans of Nablus relocated to the village of Kiryat Luza. In the mid-1990s, the Samaritans of Kiryat Luza were granted Israeli citizenship. They also became citizens of the Palestinian Authority following the Oslo Accords. As a result, they are the only people to possess dual Israeli-Palestinian citizenship. , an Israeli actress from the Samaritan community]]
.
On the last day of the encampment, they begin at dawn a pilgrimage to the crest of the sacred mount. Before setting forth on this pilgrimage, however, the men spread their cloths and repeat the creed and the story of the Creation in silence, after which, in loud voice they read the Book of Genesis and the first quarter of the Book of Exodus, ending with the story of the Passover and the flight from Egypt
— John D. Whiting
The National Geographic Magazine, Jan 1920]]
Today, Samaritans in Israel are fully integrated into society and serve in the Israel Defense Forces. The Samaritans of the West Bank seek good relations with their Palestinian neighbors while maintaining their Israeli citizenship, tend to be fluent in Hebrew and Arabic, and use both a Hebrew and Arab name.
A 2004 article on the genetic ancestry of the Samaritans by Shen et al. concluded from a sample comparing Samaritans to several Jews populations, all currently living in Israel—representing the Beta Israel, Ashkenazi Jews, Iraqi Jews, Libyan Jews, Moroccan Jews, and Yemenite Jews, as well as Israeli Druze and Palestinians—that "the principal components analysis suggested a common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish patrilineages. Most of the former may be traced back to a common ancestor in what is today identified as the paternally inherited Israelite high priesthood (Cohanim) with a common ancestor projected to the time of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel." The mitochondrial lineages of Samaritans were closest to Iraqi Jewish and Palestinian mtDNA sequences.
Samaritans in the Palestinian Authority-ruled territories are a minority in the midst of a Muslim majority. They had a reserved seat in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the election of 1996, but they no longer have one. Samaritans living in the West Bank have been granted by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The Samaritan community in Israel also faces demographic challenges as some young people leave the community and convert to Judaism. A notable example is Israeli television presenter Sofi Tsedaka, who has made a documentary about her leaving the community at age 18.
The head of the community is the Samaritan High Priest, who is the 133rd generation since Ithamar, a son of Aaron the priest's line from 1624 CE onward; before then, the line of priesthood went through Elazar, son of Aaron the priest. The current high priest is Aabed-El ben Asher ben Matzliach who assumed the office on 19 April 2013. The High Priest of every generation is selected by the eldest in age from the priestly family and resides on Mount Gerizim.Leviticus 21:10
According to the historian Fayyad Altif, large numbers of Samaritans converted due to persecution under various Muslim rulers, and because the monotheistic nature of Islam made it easy for them to accept it. During the Abbasid period, economic hardships, social disorder, and pressure from Muslim attackers, drove many Samaritans to convert to Islam. Later, the al-Hakim Edict issued by the Fatimid Caliphate in 1021, ordering Jews and Christians in the Southern Levant to convert to Islam or leave, along with another forced conversion by the rebel ibn Firāsa, hastened the Samaritans' rapid decline and nearly led to their extinction as a distinct religious community. The Samaritans themselves describe the Ottoman period as the worst period in their modern history, as many Samaritan families were forced to convert to Islam during that time. As a result, the Samaritans decreased from nearly a million and a half in late Roman (Byzantine) times to 146 people by the end of the Ottoman period.
Samaritan historian Benyamim Tsedaka noted that many Samaritans who converted to Islam retained their original surnames, passing them on to future generations. Consequently, in most villages with names of Hebrew origin, but altered by Arabic pronunciation, Arab families still bear the surnames of their Samaritan ancestors. In Nablus itself, he notes, some Muslims openly acknowledge their Samaritan ancestry. For instance, in 1968, Fatah militant Naser Sharshir suggested the possibility of having Samaritan blood in his lineage, tracing back to his great-grandfather.
In 1940, Israeli historian and future president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi wrote an article in which he stated that two thirds of the residents of Nablus and the surrounding neighboring villages were of Samaritan origin. He mentioned the name of several Palestinian Muslim families as having Samaritan origins, including the Al-Amad, Al-Samri, Buwarda and Kasem families, who protected Samaritans from Muslim persecution in the 1850s. Additionally, he wrote that these families had written records testifying to their Samaritan ancestry, which were maintained by their priests and elders.
According to Samaritan scripture and tradition, Mount Gerizim, located near the Biblical city of Shechem (on the southern side of modern-day Nablus, West Bank), has been venerated as the holiest place for the Israelites since the conquest of Canaan by Joshua, long before the Temple in Jerusalem was established under and rule over the United Kingdom of Israel. This view differs from Jewish belief which views the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as the holiest site in the world to worship God. It is commonly taught in Samaritan tradition that there are 13 references to Mount Gerizim in the Torah to prove their claim of holiness in contrast to Judaism, which relies solely on the later Jewish prophets and writings to back their claims of the holiness of Jerusalem.Deuteronomy 11-12 Deuteronomy 27:4 (Samaritan Version) "And You shall set up these stones which I command you today on Aargaareezem (Mount Gerizim)"
Other Samaritan tradition books include the Memar Marqah (The teachings of Marqah), the Samaritan liturgy known as "the Defter", and Samaritan law codes and biblical commentaries.
Samaritans outside the Holy Land observe most Samaritan practices and rituals such as the Sabbath, ritual purity, and all festivals of Samaritanism with the exception of the Passover sacrifice, which can only be observed at Mount Gerizim.
The Torah mentions the place where God chooses to establish his name (Deuteronomy 12:5), and Judaism believes this refers to Jerusalem. In contrast, the Samaritan text speaks of the place where God to establish his name, and Samaritans identify it as Mount Gerizim, making it the focus of their spiritual values.
The legitimacy of the Judaic versus Samaritan belief was argued by Jewish scholar Andronicus ben Meshullam in the 2nd century BCE at the court of King Ptolemy VI Philometor.
In the New Testament, the Gospel of John describes an encounter between a Samaritan woman and Jesus. When the woman realizes that Jesus is the Messiah, she asks Him whether Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem is where God commanded Abraham to bind Isaac. Jesus affirms the Judaic belief, saying "You the worship what you do not know"; although he also says, "a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem."
The Samaritans have retained an offshoot of the Ancient Hebrew script, a High Priesthood, the slaughtering and eating of lambs on Passover eve, and the celebration of the first month's beginning around springtime as the New Year. Yom Teru'ah (the biblical name for "Rosh Hashanah"), at the beginning of Tishrei, is not considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism. The Samaritan Pentateuch differs from the Jewish Masoretic Text as well. Some differences are doctrinal: for example, the Samaritan Torah explicitly states that Mount Gerizim is "the place that God " to establish his name, as opposed to the Jewish Torah that refers to "the place that God ". Other differences are minor and seem more or less accidental.
The Talmudic attitude expressed in Minor tractate is that they are to be treated as Jews in matters where their practice coincides with Rabbinic Judaism but as non-Jews where their practice differs. Some claim that since the 19th century, Rabbinic Judaism has regarded the Samaritans as a Jewish sect and the term "Samaritan Jews" has been used for them.
Media
Samaritanism
Samaritanism is centered on the Samaritan Pentateuch, which Samaritans believe to be the original and unaltered version of the Torah that was given to Moses and the Israelites on Mount Sinai.Deuteronomy 33:4 The Samaritan Pentateuch contains some differences from the Masoretic Text of the Torah used in Judaism; according to Samaritan tradition, key parts of the Jewish text were fabricated by Ezra. The Samaritan version of the Book of Joshua also differs from the Jewish version, which focuses on Shiloh. According to Samaritan tradition, Joshua built a temple ( al-haikal) on Mount Gerizim and placed therein a tabernacle ( al-maškan) in the second year of the Israelites' entry into the land of Canaan.
Location of sacrifice
According to Samaritans, it was on Mount Gerizim that Abraham was commanded by God to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. God then causes the sacrifice to be interrupted, explaining that this was the ultimate test of Abraham's obedience, as a result of which all the world would be blessed.
Religious beliefs
Relationship to Rabbinic Judaism
Samaritans refer to themselves as Benai Yisrael ("Children of Israel"), which is a term used by all Jewish denominations as a name for the Jewish people as a whole. They, however, do not refer to themselves as Yehudim (literally "Judeans"), the standard Hebrew name for Jews.
Religious texts
Samaritan law is not the same as Halakha (Rabbinic Jewish law). The Samaritans have several groups of religious texts, which correspond to Jewish Halakha. A few examples of such texts are:
Christian sources: New Testament
Samaria or Samaritans are mentioned in the New Testament books of Matthew, Luke, John and Acts. The Gospel of Mark contains no mention of Samaritans or Samaria. The best known reference to the Samaritans is the Parable of the Good Samaritan, found in the Gospel of Luke. The following references are found:
Notable Samaritans
See also
Notes
Citations
Sources
(2025). 9780801045479, Baker Publishing Group. ISBN 9780801045479
External links
Categories: Ancient Peoples Of The Near East, Ethnic Groups In Israel, Ethnic Groups In The Middle East, Ethnic Groups In Palestine, Ethnoreligious Groups In Israel, Hebrew Bible Nations, Indigenous Peoples Of West Asia, Israelites, Israelite Civil Conflicts, Kingdom Of Israel, Semitic-speaking Peoples, Ten Lost Tribes
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