From the Pages of the Defter (ص 168)

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From the Pages of the Defter (ص 168)

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| believe that the effect of this low evaluation was its true cause. In Shuyukh, as was the
case throughout the district, the vergi (property tax) was imposed uniformly on rural properties
at a rate of 0.004 percent. Effective tax breaks could thus be given only through a devaluation
of the property at hand. This theory likely also explains why Shuyukh’s sturdy, stone houses
were valued so inexplicably modestly.*** Examination of Shuyukh’s other registered properties
indicates that all of Shuyukh’s properties were rated “grade three” properties and the value of
most, but not all, agricultural properties was likewise assessed at rates that fell short of district
averages. In comparison, the lands of the village of Sa‘ir, which, it will be recalled, surrounded
the lands of Shuyukh on all sides, were overwhelmingly classified as “grade 2” lands. Very few
of Sa ‘ir’s lands were classified with the low, “grade 3” rating of land. Only the first full register
page of Sa‘ir’s 746 agricultural entries, which is to say forty-one entries covering a number of
different locales, 5 percent of the village’s plots, were classified as “grade 3”.*™ This raises
several questions. Were the properties of inferior value, or was the lower grade assigned in
order to lower taxes? Assuming the latter, was this decision arrived at through negotiation
between the villagers and the official assessors on the emlak commission, or was it deception
on the part of the villagers? If we can assume the former, and there appears to be historical
justification to allow this assumption, why was this method chosen rather than a notation in the
register?
*81 See photos of a number of the village homes in al-Shuyukhi, 13-21.
282 FE entries 12915 — 12955.
151

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From the Pages of the Defter

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المنشئ

Susynne McElrone

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