Deir as-Sudan


Deir as-Sudan is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 20 kilometers Northwest of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of approximately 1,991 inhabitants in 2007.

Location

Deir as Sudan is located northwest of Ramallah. It is bordered by Ajjul to the east, Bani Zeid al-Sharqiya to the north, Kafr Ein to the west, Umm Safa and An Nabi Salih to the south.

History

Ceramic sherds from the Byzantine, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk eras have been found here.

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as Dair Sudan, located in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Al-Quds. The population was 14 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards/fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 3,400 akçe. Pottery from the early Ottoman era have also been found here.
In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village in the Beni Zeid district, north of Jerusalem.
An Ottoman village list of about 1870 indicated 22 houses and a population of 90, though the population count included men, only.
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Deir es Sudan as: "A village of moderate size, with a well to the west, on the slope of a hill, with olive-groves round it."
In 1896 the population of Der es-sudan was estimated to be about 153 persons.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the village, named Dair Al-Sudan, had a population of 173, all Muslim, increasing in the 1931 census to 243 Muslims, in 53 houses.
In the 1945 statistics the population of Deir es Sudan was 280 Muslims, with of land under their jurisdiction, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 2,416 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 841 were for cereals, while were built-up land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Deir as-Sudan came under Jordanian rule.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 486 inhabitants in Deir as-Sudan.

1967-present

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Deir as-Sudan has been under Israeli occupation.
After the 1995 accords, 57.2% of the village's total area has been defined as Area A land,
6.5% as Area B land, while the remaining 36.3% is Area C.