In 1179, during the
Crusader era, it appeared as an estate, sold to the
Zion Monastery in Jerusalem.[3]
In 1265, Seida was one of the estates given by Sultan
Baibars to his followers after his victory over the Crusaders,[3] with the whole of Seida given to
emirHusam al-Din Itamish b. Utlis Khan.[4]
Ottoman era
In 1517, Seida, like all of
Palestine, was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire. In the 1596
tax registers, it was part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jabal Sami, part of the larger
Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of 70 households and 2 bachelors, all
Muslims. The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 12,160
akçe. All of the revenue went to a
Waqf.[5]
In 1870/1871 (1288
AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of al-Sha'rawiyya al-Sharqiyya.[6]
In the 1882
PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP), Saida is described as: "a small village, with a
well on the east on the back of a long and bare ridge."[7]
In the
1945 statistics the population of Seida was 450 Muslims,[10] with 5,060
dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[11] Of this, 1,622 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,113 were used for cereals,[12] while 11 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[13]