ABSTRACT
Farkhah (Farkhā) is a small village built on a steep hilltop 500 m above sea level in the heart of Samaria, south-west of the small town of Salfīt (Israel Grid 164 164 = NIG 214 664). Samaritans populated it until the Arab conquest, and probably throughout the Umayyad period. Under the crusaders its name is not mentioned, but its location suggests that it was included in the royal domain of the kingdom of Jerusalem.1 In 1187, after the battle of Ḥiṭṭīn, it came under Ayyūbid rule. In Islamic literature its name appears in connection with the Muslim scholar 'Abdallah b. Abū 'Abdallah al-Farkhāwī (d. 818/1415). In his biography, as-Sakhāwī remarks that the nishah al-Farkhāwī refers to the village of Farkhā, which he spells with a long "ā", adding that it was a village in the district of Nābulus.2 I have found no other mention of it in the literary sources. This fact grants particular significance to the present Ayyūbid inscription, found in the village and mentioning its name.
