From the Pages of the Defter (ص 156)
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- From the Pages of the Defter (ص 156)
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tenure,” a land-equalizing institution,-°* and re-partitional agricultural holdings shared by the
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whole village community” Likewise debated have been its origins, its geographical
inclusiveness, and the reasons it persisted.
The last of these questions has been the easiest to attempt to answer. Questions of
origin and scope have been addressed, but these discussions suffer from the absence of a
substantial body of evidence on which to draw. Accepted wisdom regarding musha is that it
entailed (1) only large field lands found in the plains, (2) only grain and cereal production, and
(3) frequent, periodic redistribution, every one to two years. In the second edition of the
Encyclopedia of Islam (1993), we find the following discussion within the entry on mushda’:
Another important and difficult question is exactly where, geographically, did
the mushd’ institution exist? In the past it was usually held that practically the
entire Middle East was governed by it. As research increases, the area of
mushd tends to diminish. Thus documents from the Judaean mountains in
the early 20th century indicate that mushda‘ did not exist there for a long time,
if ever at all. In fact, the technicalities of the system raises [sic] some doubts
whether musha’ had ever been very widespread in mountainous areas
(periodical division necessitated blocks of flat land, while hilly agriculture in
the traditional Middle East was mainly terrace-based). We are better
informed on the disappearance of the musha’ system. This took place in
association with the 19th-century Ottoman reform, starting mainly with the
Zot Roger Owen (1984), 35; Scott Atran, “Hamula Organisation and Masha’a Tenure in Palesitne”, Man, New
Series, 21/2 (June 1986): 271-295.
222 va’akov Firestone, “The land-equalizing musha‘ village: a reassessment” in Gad Gilbar, ed., Ottoman
Palestine 1800-1914: studies in economic and social history (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 91-130.
*°3 Ruth Kark and David Grossman, “The communal (musha’) village of the Middle East and North Africa”, in
Walter Leimgruber, Roser Majoral and Cul-Woo Lee, eds., Policies and Strategies in Marginal Regions:
summary and evaluations (Hants, England and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003), 20-34.
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- Susynne McElrone
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