Governing Property, Making the Modern State: Law, Administration and Production in Ottoman Syria (Library of Ottoman Studies)

321 Pages·2007·5.11 MB·English

by  Martha Mundy

Governing property, making the modern state

martha mundy & richard saumarez smith
Governing property, making
the modern state
Law, administration and production in
Ottoman Syria
Published in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
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Copyright © Martha Mundy and Richard Saumarez Smith, 2007
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Library of Ottoman Studies 9
ISBN 978 1 84511 291 2
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Contents
Maps, figures and tables |viii Note on transliteration,
datation and abbreviation | x Acknowledgements | xii
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Two documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Persons and things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Part one Ottoman jurisprudence concerning ownership of
agricultural land. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Jurisprudential debate in the sixteenth century . . . . . . . . . 11
Classical Hanafi doctrine on the character of property in land. . . . . 11
Hanafi doctrine under the Mamluks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The readings of Ottoman jurists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3 Jurisprudential debate in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 21
The powers and properties of the administrator . . . . . . . . . . 23
The legal persona of the sahib al-ard | 23 Tax collection
and land administration: the village and the tax farmer | 25
The powers and properties of the cultivator . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The nature of the cultivator’s right | 28 The legal person of
the cultivator | 31
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4 Legal reform from the 1830s to the First World War . . . . . . . 40
The character of Ottoman reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
1830s–40s: law as programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Regional government |43 Land law | 44
1850s–60s: law as blueprint for institution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
A Damascene excursus | 48 Administrative consolidation | 50
After the 1870s: law as political administration of private property. . . 51
Part two The administration of property in one district of
the empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5 Production and settlement in the district of `Ajlun . . . . . . . . 57
v
6 The introduction of bureaucratic registration . . . . . . . . . . 66
Indirect rule and the political economy of the region. . . . . . . . . 66
The beginning of title registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Yoklama registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Registration of land in shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7 Regional leadership and the prosecution of a governor. . . . . . 80
Background to the case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
The depositions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
The charges and appeals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
The properties of regional leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
‘Abd al-Qadir Efendi Yusuf al-Sharaida of the Kura | 90
Ibrahim Sa‘d al-Din and Muflih al-Jabr of the Kafarat | 93
8 Property and administration in the later Tanzimat . . . . . . . . 96
The 1880s and the Special Commission for the Lands of Hauran. . . . 96
Administrative development in the 1890s and beyond . . . . . . . . 99
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Part three Governing property: administration, village,
household. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
9 Registration and political economy in two plains villages . . . . . 108
Bait Ra’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Hasan al-Sabbah’s group | 109 1880 tapu registration | 111
1895 tax registration | 117 New landholders in 1895 | 118
Marriage links between new families | 119 The resettlement
of 1921 | 122 Transfers of land between 1880 and 1921 | 125
Conclusion: title or tax, groups or individuals? | 126
Hawwara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Unsettledness: initial registration in Hawwara, 1876–83 | 129
Title versus tax: regularization of entitlement in 1921 | 135
Mutations of the 1895 tax register in line with title | 138
Extent of landless population in Hawwara, 1895 | 140
Landholdings in the 1895 tax register | 141 The pattern of
field holdings in 1895 | 143 Land allotment in 1933 | 149
10 Registration and political economy in two hill villages . . . . . . 152
Kufr ‘Awan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Holdings of musha‘ land in 1884: allotment by zalama | 156
Composition of village sections | 163 Women’s claims to land,
1884–1939 | 167
vi
Khanzira (present Ashrafiya) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Production and property in 1884 | 177 The role of tax registration
in 1895 | 183
11 A village of the plains: Hawwara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Farming in Hawwara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Life histories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
‘Abdul-Rahman Mahmud Ahmad al-Mustafa Tannash | 188
Khadija ‘Abdullah Muhammad ‘Abdul-Rahman al-Jammal | 191
Muhammad Khair Khalil Mustafa Taha al-Shar‘ | 197
General observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
The household of Na’il Ibrahim al-Gharaiba. . . . . . . . . . . . 202
The other branches of the Gharaiba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
12 A village of mixed agriculture in the hills: Kufr `Awan . . . . . . 208
Farming in Kufr ‘Awan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Life histories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Husna Salih Hamdan: farming in the village | 210 Ahmad Khalifa
Sa‘d al-Ahmad: wage labour, cattle herding and farming | 214
Family histories of Hasan and Husain ‘Abdul-Rahman ‘Amaira | 217
Ni‘ma Muhammad Mahmud al-‘Abid: cattle raising | 217 Mahmud
Ibrahim Husain al-‘Abdul-Rahman: breeding cattle and horses | 219
‘Ali Qasim ‘Awad al-Mustafa: spirituality and goat herding | 223
Yumna Mustafa Nimr al-Muflih: a farming family | 227
13 Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
vii
Maps, figures and tables
Maps
5.1 The district of ‘Ajlun in regional context 56
5.2 The district of ‘Ajlun: topography and nahiyes 58
5.3 Villages of the district of ‘Ajlun 59
5.4 Land use 60
5.5 Total number of houses 61
5.6 Average value of houses in village 62
5.7 Houses: total taxable value 63
6.1 Registration of villages 69
6.2 Land values 76
6.3 Type of landholding 78
Colour plates
9.1 Hawwara: allotment of fields to shareholding sections in 1933
1o.1 Kufr ‘Awan: allotment of fields to shareholding sections in 1939
Figures
6.1 Arabic document concerning the lands of the village of Makhraba 74
7.1 Musha‘ landholdings of the Sharaida family in Tibna, 1883 92
9.1 Bait Ra’s, households of Hasan al-Sabbah’s family and affines in 1910 120
9.2 Bait Ra’s, households of the ‘Uwaida family and affines in 1910 121
9.3 Hawwara, genealogy of the Gharaiba families with shares in 1895
and 1933 133
9.4 Hawwara, holdings of the Abu Kirsanna family, 1876–95 134
9.5 Hawwara, field allotment of the Gharaiba half in 1895 146
10.1 Kufr ‘Awan, households of families 28 and 29 in 1910 160
10.2 Kufr ‘Awan, households of family-2 in 1910 162
10.3 Kufr ‘Awan, households of family-6 in 1910 169
10.4 Kufr ‘Awan, sequence of inheritance of one share in family-10,
1884–1931 170
10.5 Kufr ‘Awan, households of families 9 and 10 in 1910 171
10.6 Kufr ‘Awan, shares of family-10 in 1939, showing holdings of women 172
11.1 Tannash family holdings in 1933 189
11.2 Jammal family holdings in 1933 192
11.3 Marriage relations of the Abu Tair family 195
11.4 Shar‘ family holdings in 1933 198
11.5 Gharaiba intermarriages in the upper generation 203
viii
11.6 Ahmad ‘Abid-Rabbuh’s descendants and their shares in 1933 205
11.7 Holdings of ‘Abdul-Ghani al-Shahada’s descendants in 1933 207
12.1 Family links of Husna Salih Hamdan 211
12.2 Marriage links of Ahmad Khalifa Sa‘d al-Ahmad 215
12.3 Family links of Ni‘ma Muhammad Mahmud al-‘Abid 218
12.4 The marriages of Ibrahim Husain ‘Abdul-Rahman 221
12.5 The children of Sheikh ‘Awad 225
12.6 Family links of Yumna Mustafa Nimr al-Muflih 229
Tables
9.1 Bait Ra’s, complete holdings 1880, 1895 and 1921 112
9.2 Bait Ra’s, landholdings by families 1880, 1895 and 1921 124
9.3 Hawwara, landholdings in 1876 and their history to 1895 130
10.1 Kufr ‘Awan, properties of musha‘ shareholders in 1884 157
10.2 Khanzira, share per person and per holding in 1884 179
ix