Safed

The Mamluk mausoleum of Zawiyat Banat Hamid, originally built in 1372

Hebrew book printed by Eliezer Ashkenazi in 1579

Originally built as a caravanserai by the Ottomans in the mid-1700s, the "Saraya" (house of the governor) currently serves as a community centre

Beit Knesset Abuhav, one of the city's historic synagogues

Beit Castel gallery in the artists' colony

Mandate Police station at Mount Canaan, above Safed (1948)

Safad Municipal Police Station after the battle (1948)

Bussel House, Safad, 11 April 1948: Yiftach Brigade headquarters

Mandate administration building on the eastern outskirts of Safed (1948)

Yiftach Brigade, with their Hotchkiss machine guns, based at Bussel House, 1948

Druze parading in Safed after the Palmach victory in 1948

Monument to the Israeli soldiers who fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War

City in the Northern District of Israel.

- Safed

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Upper Galilee

Geographical-political term in use since the end of the Second Temple period.

A view looking north from the top of Har Meron in the Upper Galilee. Parts of southern Lebanon are visible in the background

Old road from Rosh Pinna to Safed, Upper Galilee, Israel

The Keshet Cave (a natural arch) located on a ridge near Nahal Betzet

Horses roam in Amud stream, near the Sea of Galilee

As defined in geographical terms, "it is separated from the Lower Galilee by the Beit HaKerem valley; its mountains are taller and valleys are deeper than those in the Lower Galilee; its tallest peak is Har Meron at 1,208 m above sea level. Safed is one of the major cities in this region".

Safed Sanjak

Sanjak (district) of Damascus Eyalet (Ottoman province of Damascus) in 1517–1660, after which it became part of the Sidon Eyalet (Ottoman province of Sidon).

Palestine with the Hauran and the adjacent districts, William Hughes 1843

The sanjak was centered in Safed and spanned the Galilee, Jabal Amil and the coastal cities of Acre and Tyre.

Tiberias

Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.

"Leaning tower" at SE corner of Zahir al-Umar's walls, part of Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Twelve Apostles

Remains of Crusader fortress gate with ancient lintel in secondary use

The Scots Hotel in the restored former hospital of Dr Torrance

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt's sketch of Tiberias, published in 1822. Burckhardt noted that the a quarter of the population was Jewish, and had originated in Poland, Spain, North Africa and other parts of Syria.

Tiberias 1937, Dr. Torrance’s hospital centre of photograph

A detailed map of Tiberias in the 1930s from the Survey of Palestine showing the individual buildings

Tiberias Football Stadium (under construction), designed by Moti Bodek Architects

A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed.

Josephus

First-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for The Jewish War, who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.

Romanticized engraving of Flavius Josephus appearing in William Whiston's translation of his works

The works of Josephus translated by Thomas Lodge (1602).

1581 German translation of Josephus' The Jewish War in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland.

In Upper Galilee, he fortified the towns of Jamnith, Seph, Mero, and Achabare, among other places.

Galilee

Region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon.

Keshet Cave (Rainbow Cave or Cave of the Arch), a natural arch on the ridge north of Nahal Betzet, Galilee

As a Roman client ruler, Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee from 4 BCE–39 CE, was permitted to mint his own coinage (shown above).

Jesus and the miraculous catch of fish, in the Sea of Galilee. Many people in Roman-era Galilee were fishermen.

The territory of the Ottoman Beirut Vilayet, encompassing the Galilee

Sea of Galilee as seen from the Moshava Kinneret

Sign in front of the Galil Jewish–Arab School, a joint Arab-Jewish primary school in the Galilee

The Church of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor

Panorama from Ari Mountain in the Upper Galilee

Panorama of the Harod Valley, the eastern extension of the Jezreel Valley

The community for a time made Safed an international center of cloth weaving and manufacturing, as well as a key site for Jewish learning.

1929 Palestine riots

Series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 in which a longstanding dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence.

Jerusalem commissioner Edward Keith-Roach

A survivor mourning in the aftermath of the massacre in Hebron.

A student of the Hebron Yeshiva lost a hand during the attack

Desecrated graves in the Awkashi shrine (Nebi Akasha Mosque). Destroyed by Jewish rioters, 23 to 31 August 1929

Jewish houses in Safed following the 1929 riots

Funeral for murdered Jews of Safed, 1929

British proclamation by Sir John Chancellor, 1 September 1929, thrown from RAF planes

An Arab protest gathering in session. From left to right : unknown - Amin al-Husayni – Musa al-Husayni – Raghib al-Nashashibi. In the Rawdat el Maaref hall. 1929

The worst killings occurred in Hebron and Safed while others were killed in Motza, Kfar Uria, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Baibars

The fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt in the Bahri dynasty, succeeding Qutuz.

Dinar minted during Baybars' reign, bearing his blazon, the lion/panther

The Mamluks under Baybars (yellow) fought off the Franks and the Mongols during the Ninth Crusade.

The lion passant was the heraldic blazon of Baibars from 1260.

Bronze bust of Sultan Baibars in Cairo, at the Egyptian National Military Museum

In the same year, Baibars laid siege to the fortress of Safed, held by the Templar knights, which had been conquered by Saladin in 1188 but returned to the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1240.

Galilee earthquake of 1837

One of a number of moderate to large events that have occurred along the Dead Sea Transform fault system that marks the boundary of two tectonic plates; the African Plate on the west and the Arabian Plate on the east.

A 1977 assessment of the event that was published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America had the epicenter just north of the city of Safed and the magnitude of 6.25–6.5, but in 1997 seismologist Nicholas Ambraseys argued that the event may have been more substantial.

Isaac Luria

Ark in the Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue. While Luria, the "Lion", gave the complete traditional system of Kabbalah, Maimonides, Judaism's greatest Rationalist, is called the "Great Eagle", both images taken from the Merkabah vision of Ezekiel.

Isaac ben Solomon Luria Ashkenazi (1534 – July 25, 1572 ) (יִצְחָק בן שלמה לוּרְיָא אשכנזי Yitzhak Ben Sh'lomo Lurya Ashkenazi), commonly known in Jewish religious circles as "Ha'ARI" (meaning "The Lion"), "Ha'ARI Hakadosh" (the holy ARI) or "ARIZaL" (the ARI, of Blessed Memory (Zikhrono Livrakha)), was a leading rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Syria, now Israel.

Shulchan Aruch

Most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism.

It was authored in Safed (today in Israel) by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later.