In the 16th century, Tarquimyah was a small village.[5] In the
census of 1596 the village appeared to be in the Nahiya of
Halil of the Liwa of
Quds. It had a population of 17 families, all
Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,33% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 6,500
akçe.[6]
In 1838
Edward Robinson passed by and noted that Tarqumiya was on the most common path from
Gaza, via
Bayt Jibrin to
Hebron. While resting at Tarqumiya, he was visited by the local
Sheikh and other dignitaries, who “demeaned themselves kindly and courteously."[7][8] He further noted it as a Muslim village, between the mountains and
Gaza, but subject to the government of
el-Khulil.[9]
In 1863
Victor Guérin found it to have 400 inhabitants,[10] while an Ottoman village list from about 1870 counted 45 houses and a population of 108, though the population count included men, only.[11][12]
In 1883 SWP described Tarqumiyah as “A small village on a rocky hill near the low lands. On the east, about a mile distant, is a spring; on the south are olives.”[4]
In the
1945 statistics the population of Tarqumiya was 1,550 Muslims,[15] and the total land area was 21,188
dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[16] 1,029 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 6,614 were used for cereals,[17] while 152 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[18]
In 1961, the population of Tarqumiyah was 2,651.[19]
Post-1967
Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Tarqumiyah has been under
Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 2,412.[20] Israel has expropriated land from Tarqumiyah in order to construct two
Israeli settlements:
Telem and
Adora.[21]
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 368