Fahma

Fahma, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596 it was a part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jabal Sami which was under the administration of the liwa ("district") of Nablus. The village had a population of 21 households and 2 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, beehives and/or goats, in addition to occasional revenues, a tax for people of liwa Nablus, and a press for olive oil or grape syrup; a total of 6,000 akçe.[7] Pottery sherd from the early Ottoman era have also been found here.[3]

In 1694 CE (=1105 AH), Abd el-Ghani, a Moslem traveler, passed by Famah on his pilgrimage.[8]

In 1838, Fahmeh was noted as being in the District of esh-Sha'rawiyeh esh-Shurkiyeh, the eastern part.[9][10]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Fahmeh as: "A small adobe hamlet on a saddle beneath the hill (Batnen Nury). It has a well and a fig garden towards the north."[11]

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Fahmeh had a population of 187; all Muslims,[12] increasing in the 1931 census to 238; still all Muslims, in a total of 38 houses.[13]

In the 1945 statistics Fahma had a population of 350 Muslims,[14] and the jurisdiction of the village was 4,498 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[15] Of this, 210 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,173 dunams for cereals,[16] while 14 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[17]

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

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 541 inhabitants in Fahma.[18]

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Fahma has been under Israeli occupation.

The village mosque is a former church, and it includes some elements (a stone door), possibly from a 3rd or 4th century Samaritan synagogue.[19]