Ottoman era During the
Ottoman era, in 1838,
Edward Robinson noted
esh-Shiyukh as “a well built village”. French explorer
Victor Guérin visited in 1863, and noted that the village was situated on a high rocky hill. It had 200 inhabitants and a small
mosque dedicated to a
"Cheikh Ibrahim el-Hedmi." An Ottoman village list of about 1870 counted 33 houses and a population of 99 in
Schijuch, though the population count included men only. In 1883, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described it as a "well-built village standing high, and visible from Tekua. There are a few trees round it, and caves. The water supply is from
cisterns, and there is a spring to the north."
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, '
Al Shiukh had a population 792 inhabitants, all Muslims. This had increased at the time of the
1931 census to 925 Muslims, in 180 inhabited houses. The first school was established in 1940 by Mohammed Mahmoud Eid. who owned 22,091
dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. 1,713 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,365 for cereals, while 24 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Jordanian Era In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Ash-Shuyukh came under
Jordanian rule It was
annexed by Jordan in 1950. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,660 inhabitants in
Shuyukh.
Post 1967 Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Ash-Shuyukh has been under
Israeli occupation. In 1986, Grossman wrote that the locals were landless, impoverished
Dervishes, with some of them originating from the
Ashkelon area. Another school was built in 2002 and named in honor of a resident killed during the
al-Aqsa Intifada. == Notable people ==