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old Zefat ,Safed,Tzfat,Zephath
According to the Book of Judges, the region was assigned to the Tribe of Naphtali.[6] The city of Safed itself first appears in Jewish sources in the late Middle Ages.[3] It is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period.[7] Legend has it that Safed was founded by a son of Noah after the Great Flood.[3] Safed has been identified with Sepph, a fortified Jewish town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman Jewish historian Josephus (Wars 2:573).[citation needed] Crusader ruinsIn the 12th century, Safed was a fortified city in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem known as Saphet.[3] The Knights Hospitaller built a castle there. In 1266, the Mamluk sultan Baybars wiped out the Christian Templar population and turned it into a Muslim town called Safad or Safat. Samuel ben Samson who visited the town in the 13th-century mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty members there.[8] According to al-Dimashqi (who died in Safed in 1327), writing around 1300, Baybars after levelling the old fortress, built a "round tower and called it tower is built in three stories. It is provided with provisions, and halls, and magazines. Under the place is a cistern for rain-water, sufficient to supply the garrison of the fortress from year´s end to year´s end.[9] According to Abu al-Fida, Safed "was a town of medium size. It has a very strongly built castle, which dominates the Lake of Tabariyyah. There are underground watercourses, which bring drinking-water up to the suburbs cover three Since the place was conquered by Al Malik Adh Dhahir from the Franks, it has been made the central station for the troops who guard all the coast-towns of that district."[10] Safed rose to fame in the 16th century as a center of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.[11] A Hebrew printing press was established in Safed in 157
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