Throne villages (Arabic: قرى الكراسي Arabic transliteration: qura al-karasi; singular qaryat al-kursi) were villages in the central mountain areas of Palestine (today making up the modern-day West Bank) that served as seats of political and military power for the local leaders (sheikhs) of rural subdistricts (nahiya, pl.
This network further increased the power of the sheikhs, who could effectively restrict local and regional trade routes with their ability to mobilize peasant militias.
Their allegiance with the peasantry was also solidified due to the presence of kinsmen in lesser villages, intermarriage with large peasant clans, and the sheikhs' role as arbiters of disputes or enforcers of customary law.
The Jarrar family's fortress village of Sanur, continually served as the principal obstacle to the attempts by the governors of Acre, Sidon and Damascus to extend their authority to the central highlands of Palestine, particularly Jabal Nablus.
[6] In response to Napoleon's siege of Acre in 1799, the ruling clans of the throne villages dispatched forces to counter the French invasion.