From the Pages of the Defter (ص 238)

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From the Pages of the Defter (ص 238)

المحتوى

purchaser, Hajj Ibrahim Shawar, would have the right to sell (bay’ bat, a permanent sale) the
lands to whom he wished in order to recover the price of the mortgage.
The smallest holding mortgaged by any of the nineteen was a half share, and the
largest was 2.5 shares. Thirteen of the sellers received a price equivalent to 370 kurus per
share. The other six received lower per-share prices, ranging from 360 kurus down to 250.”"”
These variations in price might indicate that these sellers had requested a smaller loan (if the
loan was not collective, too), or perhaps that their plots were of a lower quality than the
others.
In 1876, the value of Jamrura’s registered lands, both those belonging to Taffuh and
those registered to Bayt Kahil, had been assessed at a value of 175 kurus per dunam (See
Table 4.3, above), higher than the previously mentioned district average of 150 kurus per
dunam for communally owned field-crop land. When compared to this value, it becomes
*"° Prices were given in Ottoman liras and riyals mecidi. Based on other cases in which conversions from
these currencies to the kurus are given, according to its value in the Hebron district, | have converted as
follows: one riyal mecidi equals twenty kurus, and one Ottoman lira equals 100 kurus. See, for example,
HR 4/ 31/ 528 (27 Rabi’ 11 1287 / 27 July 1870) and HR 14 / 58 / 198 (9 Rabi’l | 1309 / 13 October 1891).
There is no indication in the court registers that these exchange rates fluctuated over the years of this
study. Johann BUssow uses the same conversion rates. However, citing Schélch, he also states that the
mecidi and the Ottoman lira were “often traded at higher prices”. (Hamidian Palestine: Politics and
Society in the District of Jerusalem 1872-1908 (Leiden: Brill, 2011): Appendix Four (563).). Alexander
Schdlch, used yearly figures recorded by the German Consulate in Jerusalem and the Austrian consulate
to chart exchange rates by locale in Haifa/Acre, Jerusalem, and Jaffa in selected years from 1857 to
1882. He found that the exchange rate varied by locale and slightly by year, overall continuously gaining
in strength against the kurus over time. According to his findings (originally published in German in
1986), the lira fetched between 110-133.5 kurus and the mecidi ranged between 21.75 and 26 kurus.
(Palestine in Transformation 1856-1882: Studies in Social, Economic and Political Development, trans.
William C. Young and Michael C. Gerrity (Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993): 103-
105.
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From the Pages of the Defter

تاريخ

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المنشئ

Susynne McElrone

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