Saffa, Ramallah

Saffa (Arabic: صفّاء) is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located west of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 4,374 inhabitants in 2017.

Saffa is located 13.3 kilometers (8.3 mi) (in straight distance) west of Ramallah. It is bordered by Beit 'Ur at Tahta, Kafr Ni'ma and Deir Ibzi to the east, Bil'in, Ni'lin and Al Midya to the north, Israel to the west, and Beit 'Ur at Tahta and Beit Sira to the south.

F.M. Abel and Avi-Yonah both identified Saffa with the village of Sapphō (Greek: Σαπφώ), which, according to the first century AD Jewish historian Josephus, was destroyed by Arab troops serving in the army of Varus in 4 BC. It has been proposed identifying Saffa with Casale Saphet of the Crusader era.

In the early Ottoman census of 1525-1526, it was not mentioned, but in 1538-1539, Saffa was located in the nahiya of Quds, and named as Mazra, or cultivated land.

In 1838 it was noted as a Muslim village, located in the Beni Harith district, west of Jerusalem.

In 1870, Victor Guérin noted that: "This village occupies a high plateau; it contains four hundred inhabitants. Some stones, scattered or embedded in Arab buildings, and numerous excavations in the rock, such as cisterns, tombs, quarries and subterranean vaults, proves that the present Saffa succeeded an ancient locality." An Ottoman village list of about the same year showed that Saffa had 200 inhabitants with 67 houses, though the population count included only the men.

In 1883 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Suffa: "A small village standing high on a ridge, with a well to the east and a sacred place to the south."

In 1896 the population of Safa was estimated to be about 564 persons.