Sarta

The village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the nahiya of Jabal Qubal in the liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 6 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3 % on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives; a total of 1,500 akçe.[7]

In 1838 it was noted as a village Serata, part of the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.[8]

French explorer Victor Guérin travelled through the village in 1870, and found it to have around 40 houses, some better built than in the average village. The stones of the houses were alternately red and white. Several ancient cisterns dug into the rock provided water for the residents.[9] In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's "Survey of Western Palestine" described Serta as a small stone village.[10]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sarta had a population of 275 Muslims and 1 Jew,[11] increasing in the 1931 census to 317, all Muslim, in a total of 76 houses.[12]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 420, all Muslims,[13] while the total land area was 5,584 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[14] Of this, 1,858 were used for plantations and irrigable land, 766 for cereals,[15] while 23 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[16]

• 
  Sarta 1941 1:20,000
• 
  Sarta 1945 1:250,000

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

In 1961, the population was 740.[17]

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

After the 1995 accords, 16.8 % of the village land is defined as Area B, while the remainder 83.2 % is Area C. Israel has confiscated 353 dunams of village land for the establishment of the Israeli settlement of Barkan.[18]