From the Pages of the Defter (ص 231)

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عنوان

From the Pages of the Defter (ص 231)

المحتوى

The nineteen sellers shared in the ownership of two parcels of Jamrura’s lands: Qit’a
Wadi al-‘Abhara and Qit’a al-RUweisat. The two areas are adjacent to each other in the
middle of Jamrura."°”° They had divided the two parcels, totaling 320 dunams, into thirty
shares (sahm, pl. ashum), and they were mortgaging twenty-four of them.””"
Two points
about this are particularly noteworthy. First, the villagers expressed the measurement of the
parcels in dunams, not feddans. This is significant because the dunam was introduced in
Palestine with land reform, during the Tanzimat. Its usage began to be reflected in sharia-
court testimonies in Hebron only in the 1890s. This is around the same time we begin to see
tapu kushans (less often used was the Turkish term, tapu seneds) mentioned with some
frequency in the court. When the Bayt Kahil case was heard in the mid-1890s, the feddan
was still the dominant local measurement of land, as can be inferred from many other court
cases. We can surmise from the villagers’ reference to their lands in dunams that they had
the time the kushan (the tapu certificate) was issued. His complaint to the court stated that the siblings
were now refusing to get the kushan. The siblings, in turn, denied the sale had taken place and asked for
proof. Ahmad declared he had no proof and asked the siblings to take an oath. They took an oath which
confirmed the sale as had been related by Ahmad. Ahmad then paid the siblings the remainder of the
sale price in court and a ruling of sale was issued. In the absence of real conflict in this case, as proven
by the siblings’ oath, it can be understood that the tapu offices required a declaration from the court
proving the sale in order to transfer ownership to Ahmad. HR 13 / 8 / 13 (22 Safar 1308 / 7 October
1890).
“°° Wadi al-‘Abhara runs east-west and is about six kilometers west of the village of Bayt Kahil. It is located
almost three kilometers north and slightly east of Idhna and less than one kilometer north of Tarqumiya.
See Abu Sitta, sheets #473/C1 and #474/A11 (. Al-Ruweisat is located at the western end of this wadi, just
north of the 110" parallel and just west of the 1438" longitudinal line (See Abu Sitta, sheet 473/B1.
“°' The court record does not mention who owned the five shares which were not being mortgaged.
214

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From the Pages of the Defter

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المنشئ

Susynne McElrone

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