Ein ad-Duyuk al-Foqa

Antiquity

Under the Seleucid Empire, the peak of nearby Jebel Quruntul was fortified and garrisoned to control Jericho and the roads leading through the mountains from it to Jerusalem. The original Hebrew name is not preserved except in the Greek transcriptions of 1 Maccabees and Josephus, which call it Dok and Dagon. It was the scene of Simon Maccabeus's assassination by his son-in-law Ptolemy. The later lavra monastery beside the Grotto of the Temptation also had a name transcribed into Greek as Douka.^{[citation needed]}

Ottoman era

It was noted as mazra’a (=cultivated land) near Riha in the 945 AH/1538-1539 CE Ottoman tax records,^[4] and as a mazra’a near An-Nuway'imah in the 1005 AH/1596-1597 CE tax records.^[5]

In 1838 Edward Robinson noted the "large and beautiful fountain or rather fountains" at Duk.^[6]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted at Ain ed Duk: "Near this spring a tomb was examined in the side of the hill. It is a chamber with 21 kokim in two tiers. There are other caves near it, and broken sarcophagi. The one excavated measures 16 feet by 17 feet. The lower tier contains three kokim at the back, and 4 each side. The upper tier has only three on the left hand side. The kokim are 2 feet wide, 6 feet 8 inches long, and 3 feet 4 inches high. Near the same place were found two shafts 3 feet long and 2 feet 8 inches diameter."^[7]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ad-Duyuk, together with Al-Auja and Nweimeh had a population of 332; 322 Muslims and 10 Christians,^[8] where the Christians were 7 Orthodox, and 3 Syrian Catholic.^[9] In the 1931 census Duyuk had a population of 291 Muslims, in 66 houses.^[10]

In the 1945 statistics, Duyuk's population was 730 Muslims^[11] and it had jurisdiction over 21,332 dunams of land.^[12] Of this, 399 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 2,050 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 1,171 for cereals,^[13] while a total of 17,712 dunams were non-cultivable areas.^[14]

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Duyuk came under Jordanian rule.

Post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Duyuk has been under Israeli occupation.

In 1994, Ein ad-Duyuk al-Foqa and An Nuwei'ma were constituted as a single local council. After the 1995 accords, 52.3% of the land of Ein ad-Duyuk al-Foqa is classified as Area A, the remaining 47.7% is Area C.^[15] On the morning of 14 December 2025, Israeli settlers reportedly attacked the community, injuring seven residents including   children and a disabled man. The settlers   entered the area and broke into multiple houses while families were inside, damaging windows and belongings in at least three homes and reportedly stealing equipment and personal items. Reports indicate that such attacks had intensified in the preceding two months, allegedly involving settlers from an outpost established in August 2024 near three others set up in the area since 2012. Residents have reported frequent raids and harassment by settlers from this outpost^[16].