An-Naqura

It has been suggested that An-Naqura was the village named Aqbara or Aquira, in the 1596 Ottoman tax records. It had 23 households and 5 bachelors, all Muslim.[6]

In 1667, Anthimus mentions a Christian population in this village, though it had no church.[7]

In 1838 Robinson noted the village as en-Nakurah in the Wady esh-Sha'ir district, west of Nablus.[8][9]

In 1870, Victor Guérin noted it as a village on a hill, with 300 inhabitants, where ancient stones were used in the house-walls.[10]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described En Nakurah: "A small stone village on the slope of the hill. It has olives, which appear to grow half wild, and a spring of good water, apparently perennial, in the valley to the north, near which are vegetable gardens. A small Mukam stands above the village, on the south."[11]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Nakura had a population of 233 Muslims,[12] increasing in the 1931 census to 247, still all Muslims, in a total of 69 houses.[13]

In the 1945 statistics En Naqura had a population of 350 Muslims[14] and a total of 5,507 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[15] Of this, 591 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,444 were used for cereals,[16] while 27 dunams were built-up land.[17]

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, An-Naqura came under Jordanian rule.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 487 inhabitants.[18]

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, An-Naqura has been held under Israeli occupation. A census recorded by the Israeli Civil Administration that same year recorded 610 persons, of whom 37 were refugees from Israel.[19]

After the 1995 accords, 14% of village land was classified as Area A, 51% was classified as Area B, while the remaining 35% was classified as Area C. Israel has “confiscated” 680 dunums of village land for the Israeli settlement of Shavei Shomron.[20]