Mamlūk and Ottoman Cadastral Surveys and Early Mapping of Landed Properties in Palestine
Author(s): Ruth Kark
Source: Agricultural History, Vol. 71, No. 1, (Winter, 1997), pp. 46-70
Published by: Agricultural History Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3744685
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Mamlukand Ottoman CadastralSurveys and
EarlyMappingof LandedProperties in Palestine
RUTH KARK
Cadastreis a Frenchwordoriginatingin the Latincapitastrum,
meaninga
registerof poll tax.Laterit cameto mean"anofficialregisterof the ownership, extent,and valueof realpropertyin a givenarea,used as a basisfor
taxation,"or "survey...showingor includingboundaries,propertylines,
etc."The cadastrewas thus the meansusedby rulersto collectdataon the
divisionof landedproperty.The systemsof conductingand managingthe
cadastredependedthuson the divisionitself-on the landandfiscalpolicy
of the government-and dictatedthe type of datacollected.PeterF Dale
landinformaand JohnD. McLaughlindefinea cadastreas a parcel-based
tion systemthat could be eitherjuridical,fiscal,or multipurpose.It is an
importantcomponent of "landinformationmanagement"-an activity
that goes backto Babylonand ancientEgypt.Theystressits importancein
both developedand developingcountriesfor publicadministration,land
planning,and land development,as well as privatetransactionsin land,
amongotherthings.1
RogerJ.P.KainandElizabethBaigenthaveshownthatfromthe Renaissanceuntil the latenineteenthcentury,the cadastralmapwas,in manyareas,an establishedadjunctto effectivegovernmentmonitoringandcontrol
of land. It reflectedthe powerand technologicallevel of those who commissioned it, whether economic, social, or politicaland was used for a
numberof purposes,includinglandtaxation,evaluationand management
RUTH KARK is a professor in the Department of Geographyat the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem.
1. RandomHouse Dictionaryof the EnglishLanguage,2nd ed. (New York:Random House,
1987), 292; Peter F. Dale and John D. McLaughlin, Land InformationManagement(Oxford:
Clarendon,1989), 1-18.
Agricultural History / Volume 71 / Number 1 / Winter 1997 ? AgriculturalHistory Society
46
CadastralSurveys / 47
of state land resources, land reclamation, land redistribution and enclosure, and colonial settlement.2
Avraham N. Poliak, who studied the medieval Middle East, considered
the technological level of the surveying instruments as secondary. He asserts that from a cost/benefit perspective,the use of advancedsurvey equipment in underdeveloped areaswould be more expensive than the increased
income derived from improvements in tax collection and land conveyance.
In addition, the need for a cadastrevaried accordingto the type of agrarian
regime (large feudal estates or small parcel owners) and the interrelations
between the state and the landholders, which could affect the accuracy of
the cadastre more than the quality of the surveying instruments.3
In the modern sense, the term cadastre relates to the registration of
rights in real property. Property rights can be transferredby private conveyance with no central registration,with registrationof deeds by a central
authority, or registration of rights (title) in a cadastreby the state. The latter assumes that an investigation and determination of real rights must be
associated with mapping to produce a cadastralsurvey.The term cadastral
surveyis thus understood to mean a survey for, and forming of, a cadastre,
or national register of real property. In the territorial system of modern
land registration, it is an axiom that a registershould be constructed upon
a basis of unchangeable units of land, as opposed to the changeable unit of
human ownership.4
The aim of this paper is to present a broad overview of Mamlfk and
Ottoman state cadastral surveys in the Levant, and their application in
Palestine from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the twentieth century.
Unlike the commonly held criticism of the British Mandate officials and
Jewish settlement authorities (who claimed to have had superior land regis2. RogerJ. P. Kainand ElizabethBaigent,The CadastralMap in the Serviceof the State:A Historyof PropertyMapping(Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,1992), 1-8, 331-44.
3. AvrahamN. Poliak,"TheHistoryof the Cadastresin Palestineand the NeighboringCountries"(in Hebrew),HaMeshekHaShitufi(4 November1937):327-29.
4. C. H. Ley, The Structureand Procedureof CadastralSurveyin Palestine(Jerusalem:Government of Palestine,1931), 2-3; ErnestM. Dowson, "Noteson Land-Tax,CadastralSurveyand Land
Settlementin Palestine,"p. 7-10, 7 December 1923, Le RayPapers,St. Anthony'sCollege,Oxford
(hereaftercited as Le Ray Papers);Asher Solel, "The CadastralMappingin Israel"(in Hebrew),
Workand NationalInsurance8 (August1977):234.
48 / Agricultural
History
it seems that not
tration comparedto the Ottomanmaladministration),
only mustwe viewthe pre-OttomanandOttomancadastresas sufficientin
light of the empire'sneeds and the type of agrarianregime,but we must
also considerthe greatadvancesin legislationandthe partialapplicationof
cadastralsurveyingand mapping of immovablepropertiesduring the
nineteenthand earlytwentiethcenturies.Thus Europeanclaimsthat the
traditionalMamlfikand Ottomansurveyingmethodswere undeveloped
can be challengedin discussingthe changesthat occurredin surveying
methodsafterthe issuanceof the 1858OttomanLandCode,viewingthem
in a longtermpre-Ottomanand Ottomanhistoricaland geographicalcontext,and demonstratingtheirapplicationin Palestine.
Primarysourcesand a reviewof the historicalliteratureconsideredin a
geographicalperspectivewereusedto re-evaluatethe extentand character
of cadastralsurveysduringthe Mamlik and Ottomanperiods.The primarysourcesaremainlylateOttomanandBritishMandatorysurveys,documents,maps,andreportsof legalandadministrative
expertsandofficials,
as well as foreign settlers. These are found at the Israel State Archive
(MandatoryDepartmentsof Landsand LandRegistration,and the Ottoman AdministrativeCouncil of Jerusalem),the BritishPublic Record
Office(the ColonialOffice),St.Antony'sCollege,Oxford(LeRayand Spry
Papers),and the CentralZionistArchivein Jerusalem(JewishNational
Fundand JewishColonizationAssociation).
Most researchdone on earlymappingof landedpropertiesand land titles dealswith the mappingof privateestatesand boundarymapsused by
landowners.The discussionof the forerunnersof statecadastralmapsand
latersurveyedand mappedcadastresmadein ChristianEuropefrom the
sixteenthcenturywasaddedto thatbodyof research.Thesestudiesmainly
includedthe Netherlands,the Nordiccountries,Germany,Austria,France,
Englandand Wales,and the Europeancolonialsettlements.The Mamluk
Sultanateand the OttomanEmpirehavescarcelybeen mentionedin this
cartographicliterature,since the Ottomanland cadastralsurveys,done
mainlyfor the purposeof taxation,werenot basedon mappedcadastres.5
5. Kainand Baigent,TheCadastralMap;RogerJ.P.Kainand Hugh C. Prince,TheTitheSurvey
of Englandand Wales(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1985);AnthonyJ.Christopher,The
BritishEmpireat its Zenith(London:Croom Helm, 1988), 12-14, 170-77, 190-98; David Harvey,
CadastralSurveys / 49
The Islamic Mamlik Sultanate was the regime established by emancipated mamlaks, or military slaves in Egypt (1250-1517) and in Syria
(1260-1516). A "feudal" system derived from Mongol, Islamic, and
(through Crusaderinfluence) West European systems was established. The
distinctive characterof its administrativesystem was the overriding control
exercised by the sultan through Mamluk amirs. The military households,
including that of the sultan, were maintained by a proportional assignment
of military grants to landed revenue (Ikta-). The administrativeprocedure
of land distribution was the rawk,a kind of cadastralsurvey that is followed
by a redistribution of the arable land. It entailed surveying (misaha) the
fields, ascertaining their legal status (private property, endowment, crown
land, grant, and so forth), and assessing their prospective taxable capacity
(gibra).6
The Ottoman Empire, created by Turkishtribes in Anatolia, lasted from
the decline of the Byzantine Empire until the establishment of Turkeyas a
republic in 1922. From the sixteenth century it owned almost all agricultural land in the vast parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa that it conquered
(from Algeriato Iraq, and from Hungary and the Crimea to Yemen). Under
Salim I (1512-20), Ottoman expansion resumed; his defeat of the
Mamlfiks in 1516-17 doubled the size of the empire at a stroke by adding
to it Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Algeria. The Levant remained under Ottoman rule until 1918. A centralized and highly bureaucraticstate apparatus that employed sophisticated procedures of record keeping was developed and maintained under Ottoman rule. The Ottomans operated a
system of state ownership, restored a written record (tahrir) of systematic
management of state land resourceswith periodic cadastraland taxpaying
surveys of the empire'svast territories,and kept a central imperial cadastral
register (Daftar-i khakani or tapu register). The records were descriptive,
with no drawings. The compilation of the registersarose from the adminisAn Enquiryinto the Originsof CulturalChange(Oxford:Blackwell,
TheConditionofPostmodernity:
1990), 245; Ahmet T. Karamustafa,"Military,Administrative,and ScholarlyMaps and Plans,"in
vol. 2, bk. 1, ed. JohnB. Harleyand DavidWoodward(Chicago:University
Historyof Cartography,
of ChicagoPress, 1992), 209-27.
6. David Ayalon, "Mamlik,"Encyclopaediaof Islam, new ed. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991), 6:
314-27; AvrahamN. Poliak, "SomeNotes on the FeudalSystemof the Mamliks,"Journalof the
RoyalAsiaticSociety(1937): 97-107.
50 / AgriculturalHistory
trative organization of the empire. The majorityof Ottoman civil and military officials did not draw salaries from the budget of the central government but were given a timar (income grant) in return for their services and
were allowed to levy taxes on a given region on their account. From the end
of the sixteenth century, the timar system had begun to decay. In the army,
paid regular troops grew in importance at the expense of feudal cavalry;in
the countryside, many timars were converted into crown lands and leased
out (iltizam) to farmers for tax purposes. The iltizam system had its own
faults since tax farming was given for short terms and the tax farmers,who
paid in advance, tried to maximize their profits at the expense of the fellahin (peasants) and to the detriment of the land's fertility.Thus, since the
mid-nineteenth century, the Ottoman government made efforts to abolish
the notorious iltizam system.7
The Daftar-i khakdaniwasa registerof the provinces, cities, villages, districts, landholdings, population, revenues, and, where these were assessed
in kind, of crops. The register also indicated the beneficiaries of the revenues, whether the sultan, certain government officials, the holder of a
military grant, a freeholder,or a pious endowment (waqf, vakif).
In the empire there was little private or freehold (milk) property. This
category of ownership was primarily limited to built-up areas of towns.
Most agricultural land (miri) belonged to the state and the sultan. Estates
belonged neither to the exploited fellahin who worked on them, nor to the
holders who operated them temporarilyand who had only usufruct rights
(tasarruf).The state treasuryheld legal ownership (raqabe),thus it was sufficient for the government to have a general knowledge of the area and of
the quality of the land held in common by the rural community (which
served also as a tax unit) in order to assess the land and levy taxes.9
After the conquest of Syria and Palestine in 1517, as in other conquered
7. Omer L.fftfi Barkan, "Daftar-ikhadkni,"in Encyclopediaof Islam,vol. 2, 81-83; Bernard
Lewis, TheEmergenceof ModernTurkey(London:OxfordUniversityPress,1962),89-90, 379, 452.
8. BernardLewis,"OttomanLandTenureand Taxation,"Proceedingsof the FirstInternational
Conferenceon Bilad-a-Sham,20-24 April1984,Universityof Jordanand YarmoukUniversity,1984,
99-100.
9. Ibid.;AvrahamN. Poliak,Feudalism
andLebanon,1250-1900
in Egypt,Syria,Palestine,
(London: RoyalAsiaticSociety, 1939), 57; Poliak,"TheHistoryof the Cadastresin Palestineand
the NeighbouringCountries"(in Hebrew),HaMeshekHaShitufi(19 December1937):356-58.
CadastralSurveys / 51
provinces, the Ottomans began to confirm the existing rules and practices
of the Mamluk Sultanate,which they progressivelymodified to include elements of the Islamic system of land tenure and taxation. Poliak, who was
unacquainted with the Ottoman archives,thought that the Ottomans did
not conduct a cadastrein Syriaand Palestineuntil about 1606 and that they
had used the Mamlfks' extensive rawksof 1298 and 1313-25.
The rawkwas a type of cadastralsurvey done six times in Egypt in the
eight and a half centuries between the appearanceof the Arabs and the Ottoman conquest, and completed once between 1313 and 1325 in Syria,
Lebanon, and Palestine (the Nasiri rawk).This was undertaken in order to
redistribute the arable lands between the sultan and the feudal lords and as
a means of eradicatingthe hereditarycharacterof "feudal"grants, and thus
to increase the power and income of the sultan. Unlike the modern cadastre, based on the principle of private ownership, the Mamluk cadastrewas
based on the principle of communal landholding, and thus it was sufficient
to define the general area of the village and the quality of the land. Officials
of the army administration collected and screened the information, which
was mainly based on the private cadastresof landlords, including the sultan. From detailed descriptions of the lost privatecadastres,Poliak deduced
that they were based on measurements as well as estimates of the division
of village lands among the tenants and the fees due from each farm. He
does not mention any maps or mapping in the contemporary sources.
Frenkel claims that the Mamluk army mapped and registeredthe production units and set the amount of income and produce. However, no such
maps have been found to date.10
10. The Ottoman tahrir,or registerof the commissionssent to surveytaxpayingpopulations
and their lands, crops,and revenuesin the towns and villagesfor fiscalpurposes,was, as Lewisand
Cohen claim, the latest form of an institutionthat can be tracedbackto classicalIslamictimes and
beyond, then known as the kanun.See Lewis,"OttomanLandTenureand Taxation,"98; Amnon
Cohen and BernardLewis,Populationand Revenuein the Townsof Palestinein the SixteenthCentury (Princeton:Princeton UniversityPress, 1978), 3; Poliak,"Historyof the Cadastres,"327-29;
David Ayalon, AvrahamN. Poliak, and other researchersof the Mamlfk Sultanaterefer to the
agrariansystemas feudal.On the debateas to its feudalor nonfeudalnature,see Amy Singer,Palestinian Peasantsand Ottoman Officials(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1994), 10-17;
David Ayalon, "Studieson the Structureof the MamlukArmy,"Bulletinof the Schoolof Oriental
and AfricanStudies5 (1953): 448-53; Heinz Halm, "Rawk,"in Encyclopedia
of Islam,2nd ed., 8:
1250-1352
the
Sultanate
Mamluk
in
the
Middle
Middle
East
The
Robert
467-68;
Irwin,
Ages, Early
52 / AgriculturalHistory
Bernard Lewis confirmed that Mamlik customs and orders were preserved by the Ottomans in Syria and Palestine. His and earlier pioneering studies of the Ottoman archives uncovered over a thousand daftar-i
mufassal,detailed registers of the tapu tahntrdefterlerifor most of the empire, mainly from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These survey registers listing population, estimated tax revenues,and the prescribeddistribution of revenues in particularadministrativeareaswas kept secret and used
for governmental purposes only. For some regions they covered periods of
thirty years. Ten daftar-i mufassal were of the districts of Palestine:
Jerusalem,Gaza, Safed, Lajjun,and Nablus. These were parallelto five censuses/surveys (the "old registers" of 1525-26, 1533-39, 1553-57, and
1572-73, and the "new register"of 1596-97). Harold Rhode undertook a
detailed study of the three surveys of the province of Safed, including the
land tenure system, and Alan Makovsky,Amy Singer, and Ehud Toledano
researchedthe tapu survey registersof the district of Jerusalem.'l
Wolf D. Hhtteroth and Kamal Abdulfattahdid a detailed geographical
analysis of another "new register"(daftari-i mufassal)of 1596-97. At that
time, the empire was yet at its height, with the timar,or land income-grant
(London: Croom Helm, 1986), 109-12; T. Sato, "HistoricalCharacterof al-Rawkal-Nasiri in
on Bilad-a-Sham,20-24 April1984,
MamlukSyria,"Proceedingsof theFirstInternationalConference
Universityof Jordanand YarmoukUniversity,1984, 223-25; YehoshuaFrenkel,"Introductionto
the History of the AgrarianRelationsin the Landof Israelduringthe MamlukPeriod:LegalDefinitions of Land,Taxesand Farmers"(in Hebrew),Horizonsof Geography
(in press).
11. BernardLewis, "The Ottoman Archivesas a Source for the History of the Arab Lands,"
Journalof the RoyalAsiaticSociety(1951): 139-55; BernardLewis,Notesand Documentsfrom the
TurkishArchives(Jerusalem:Israel OrientalSociety, 1952); BernardLewis, "Studiesin Ottoman
Archives,"Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 16 (Summer 1954): 469-501;
Bernard Lewis, Studies in Classicaland Ottoman Islam (London: Variorum Reprints, 1976);
BernardLewis,"Acrein the SixteenthCenturyAccordingto the Ottoman TapuRegisters,"
Memorial Omer Latfi Barkan(Paris:A. Maisonneuve,1980), 135-39; BernardLewis, "Some Statistical
SRAFelicitationVolumefor
Surveysof 16th CenturyPalestine,"in MiddleEastStudiesand Libraries:
ProfessorJ. D. Pearson,ed. B. C. Bloomfield (London:Mansell, 1980), 115-22; Lewis,"Ottoman
LandTenureand Taxation";HaroldRhode, "TheAdministrationand Populationof the Sancakof
Safedin the SixteenthCentury"(Ph.D. diss., ColumbiaUniversity,1979),47-114; Alan Makovsky,
"Sixteenth-CenturyAgriculturalProduction in the Liwa of Jerusalem:Insights from the Tapu
Deftersand an Attemptat Quantification,"
ArchivumOttomanicum9 (1984):91-128; Singer,PalestinianPeasants,16-43; EhudToledano,"TheSanjaqof Jerusalemin the SixteenthCentury:Aspects
of Topographyand Population,"ArchivumOttomanicum9 (1984):279-319.
CadastralSurveys / 53
system,still in operation.The revenuegrantersweremilitaryand administrativeofficialswho receivedan annualincomein exchangefor servicesto
the stateand membersof the imperialfamily.Administrative
controlover
the Syrianprovinceswas such that a censusof populationand total production yield could be taken.The authorsclaimedmistakenlythat "this
was the last censustakenduringthe Ottomanrulein the Arabprovinces,"
includingsouthernSyriaand Palestine.Theyfoundthatthe listswerespatiallyorganizedand regionallybased.Thebasic"fiscalunit"in the daftari-i
mufassalwas a topographicalone. It was regionallybasedand regardedby
everyoneas forminga unit. The amountof incomefor each of the fiscal
units was not split up accordingto individualhouseholds.Formost fiscal
purposes,the statehadno interestin moredetailedassessmentof taxes.No
decisivegeographicalruledeterminedthe orderin whichthe numberingof
the fiscalunitsin eachnahiye(subdistrict)appearin the daftars.Suchunits
mightbe towns,villages,tribeswithinan area,isolatedmills,and so on. In
the register,each unit had a serialnumber,then appearedthe type, name,
numberof Muslim,Christian,or Jewishfamilyheads,the percentageof
taxationof agriculturalproductionon detailedcropsand on animals,and
other taxes, endowments,and so forth. However,as they stress:"Up to
now,nothinghasbeenknownaboutthe procedureof countingand assessing the numberof individualvillages,theirtotalpopulationfigureandproductionyield."This mayhavebeenthe sourceof the list of feudalestatesof
the empirepreparedin 1609by Muazzinzade
AyniAli, a highofficialin the
Daftar-ikhiktani,which was basedon materialsfrom the end of the sixteenthcentury.No mapsor mappingwerementionedin the severalstudies
relatingto the surveysof Palestineand southernSyriain the sixteenth
century.12
Poliak considers that in about 1606, when the feudal-militaryfiefs
(timars)were abolishedand annexedto the estatesof the sultan,a new
cadastrewasbegun.Thishypothesizedcadastreincludedonly the registration of landsheld by the ruralcommunitiesand listedthe tenancyfees to
12. Wolf D. Hiitterothand KamalAbdulfattah,HistoricalGeographyof Palestine,Transjordan
and SouthernSyriain the Late16thCentury(Erlangen:Palm& Enke,1977),2-3, 10-11, 20-21, 55;
356-57.
Poliak,"Historyof the Cadastres,"
54 / Agricultural
History
be paid. It contradicts the trends of decline in population, settlement, and
in the administration and central government control over remote
provinces mentioned in many sources. In Syria and Palestine, as well as in
other parts of the empire, the land-grant system was graduallyabandoned
and replaced by a system of tax farming (iltizam) with all its disastrous effects on the rural population. It seems that some fiefs were still held and
granted in Palestine up to the eighteenth century.13
After the French conquest of Egypt in 1798, General Mano decided in
1801 to begin a modern land cadastre,but since the Frenchleft Egypt after
a few months, it was not done. The first census and cadastralsurvey in the
modern period was held in Anatolia and Rumelia in 1831. Parallelto it, a
cadastre initiated in Egypt was completed under the temporary rule of the
rebel Muhammad Ali in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine only in the period
1831-41. It was based on the two cadastralsurveys conducted in Egypt in
1813-14 and 1819-21. During the first cadastre,peasant landholdings were
registered as they were, while the iltizams were abolished in favor of direct
taxation. In the second cadastre, a separate register was recorded plot by
plot in the names of its holders, along with tax due from each. Abd alRahman Al-Jabarty asserts that at that time all cultivated lands in Egypt
were measured, but probably not mapped.14
This was not the case in Syria and Palestine, where Muhammad Ali's
cadastre was in fact more like the early Ottoman ones. The census taken
there in about 1833 was again done taking the village as the tax unit and detailing the number of taxpayersin it. In Lebanon, a partial cadastralsurvey
was finished earlier by the local emir at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. A general cadastre began there in 1848 under the supervision of
13. Poliak,"Historyof the Cadastres,"
356-57; Htitterothand Abdulfattah,HistoricalGeography of Palestine,54-63; Amnon Cohen, Palestinein the 18th Century,Patternsof Governmentand
Administration(Jerusalem:Magnes, 1973),293-98.
14. Solel, "CadastralMappingin Israel,"234-40; Poliak,"Historyof the Cadastres,"
358; Lewis,
Emergenceof Modern Turkey;Kenneth M. Cuno, The Pasha'sPeasants(Cambridge:Cambridge
UniversityPress, 1992), 67, 102-11. Cuno claims (p. 233) that neitherthe Ottomannor the French
surveysin Egypt recordedindividuallandholdings;before 1813 such recordswere kept in the villages. Jabartywas cited in GabrielBaer,Introductionto theHistoryof AgrarianRelationsin theMiddle East,1800-1970 (in Hebrew)(TelAviv:HakibbutzHameuchad,1971),22-23.
CadastralSurveys / 55
three Prussian engineers sent from Constantinople, and it was completed
only for the southern districts.'5
This state of affairs continued after the return of the Ottomans and the
retreat of Muhammad Ali from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Modern
land registrationwas introduced into the Ottoman Empireonly in 1858, after the Ottoman Land Code was published. Two governmental bodies that
operated following the reforms were the Tahiri Emlik Idaresi (Office of
Property Records) and Daftar-i khdkini (Ministry of Property Records).
Prior to the introduction of the Ottoman Land Code, titles to milk land
and buildings were recordedby the Muslim religious courts;but no form of
registration existed for miri land, which was held by virtue of sultanee decrees and grants from competent authorities.Land acquiredby valid means
was, in theory at least, reported to Constantinople, where an effort was
made to compile a modern series of the Daftar-i khdkadni
registers.16
The main purpose of the Land Code of 1858 was to define landholdings
and categories precisely,abolish the system of tax farming, and consolidate
and retrieve the state's rights to its miri lands in order to increase agricultural production and thereforetax revenues.It intended to extend and confirm the rights of use, of possession, and of ownership. However, it is
doubtful that it aimed to create a body of peasant titleholders.The code entrusted the tax collection to the tapu officials and aimed to abolish the
musha- system, in which all the inhabitants of the village held the land of
the village collectively in shares that were periodically redistributedamong
them every year or every few years. In that same year, they also published
the Tabu Law,which set up the system of registeringland and issuing title
15. MordechaiAbir,"LocalLeadershipand EarlyReformsin Palestine,1800-1834,"in Studies
on Palestineduringthe OttomanPeriod,ed. Moshe Ma'oz (Jerusalem:Magnes, 1975), 285; Poliak,
356-57.
"Historyof the Cadastres,"
16. KemalH. Karpat,"OttomanPopulationRecordsand the Censusof 1881/82-1893,"InternationalJournalof MiddleEast Studies9 (Spring 1978):246-47; John F Spry,"Memorandumof
the History, Law and Practiceof Land Registrationand the Organizationof the Departmentof
Land Registration,with a Note on the Custodyof the Recordsof Title to Landat the Termination
of the BritishMandate,"October 1948,C0733/494/3/81465, PublicRecordOffice,London;JohnF.
n.d., DraftA, SpryPapers,St. Antony'sCollege,Oxford(hereafterSpryPaSpry,"Memorandum,"
DraftB, SpryPapers;J.N. Stubbs,"Noteson the LandLawin
pers);JohnF.Spry,"Memorandum,"
Palestine,"8 September1925,Le RayPapers.
56 / AgriculturalHistory
deeds of miri lands, and a few years later,also of miilk and waqf (pious endowment) lands. Thereforeall titles were grantedby the crown through the
land registry offices. However, a basic component was still missing in the
new laws and regulations-the compulsory measuring and mapping of
land to replace the problematic custom of verbaldescription of the boundaries of land parcels. The registration of land was one of deed and not of
title, that is, of separate units of land. It was also personal, not territorial,
and possessing a deed was not a guaranteeof title.17
As one of the legal experts in the Palestinegovernment during the Mandate period wrote in 1925: "The system of the cadastre [meaning mapped
cadastre] was not known in the Ottoman state. The Daftar-i khakdaniwas
only a land registry office giving deeds of title, use, and mortgage rights,
and so forth. No exact measurements were done, and no books showing
precisely the estates and their areawere kept. The lists of the central Daftari
khdkdniand the local tabu [land registryoffices] usually only included the
names of the owners, the location of the land, its kind, boundaries, and
sometimes the area, which was not precise. These lists were based on local
lists that were done three hundred years ago or more."'8
In 1860, the Ottoman government began to apply the regulations of the
compulsory registration of lands (tatwib) in the Fertile Crescent. This was
meant to be the beginning of a modern land registrationsystem. It continued until the commencement of the twentieth century, aiming, with only
partial success, to divide the commonly held lands into private holdings.
The uncultivated lands were sold by the treasuryto persons of wealth and
influence, many of whom were state officials.19
17. Baer,HistoryofAgrarianRelations;PeterSluglettand MarionFarouk-Sluglett,"TheApplication of the 1858 Land Code in GreaterSyria:Some PreliminaryObservations,"
in Land Tenure
and Social Transformationin the MiddleEast, ed. TarifKhalidi (Beirut:AmericanUniversityof
DraftA; Dov Gavish,Landand Map (London:PalestineExBeirut, 1984);Spry,"Memorandum,"
ploration Fund, 1996, in press);Dov Gavishand RuthKark,"TheCadastralMappingof Palestine,
1858-1928,"Geographical
Journal159 (March1993):70-80; KennethW. Stein, TheLandQuestion
in Palestine(ChapelHill: Universityof North CarolinaPress, 1984), 20-24; Stubbs,"LandLawin
Palestine."
18. Moshe J.Doukhan, LandLawsin theLandof Israel(in Hebrew)(Jerusalem:Labors'CooperativePress, 1925), 166-67.
19. Baer,HistoryofAgrarianRelations,35-36; Poliak,Feudalism,79-80.
CadastralSurveys / 57
In the areaknownas Palestine,whichwasnot a separateadministrative
provinceat the end of the Ottomanperiod,modernland registrationwas
first introducedonly in the year 1865,and a surveybegun between 1869
and 1873.Registrationwasbasedin the firstinstanceon the investigations
of commissionsof enquiry(yoklama,or census),which proceededfrom
landwassurveyed.The surveycommisvillageto village.Onlyagricultural
of
five
sion, comprised
members,includingthe chairmanandthe represenwasassistedby a landsurveyor,but in its retativeof the Daftar-ikha.kani,
ports, and in the materialpreparedlaterfor the land registers,no maps
were attached.The unit of enquirywas a village,dividedinto localities
within each settlement.Firstthe settlementwas describedas a whole includingits boundariesandareain Turkishdunams(919.3sq.m.,or abouta
quarterof an acre). Then, for each locality,the boundaries,the area in
Turkishdunams, and the type of land (such as plains, mountains,and
rocks),and the divisionsamongcultivatorswerereported.In the plainsregions, the total areaof the localitiesmatchedthe summedareaof the village.This was not the case in the mountainregions.Titledeeds (kushans)
were issuedto those who cultivatedand claimedthe land. Finally,entries
weremadein bound books showingthe area,boundaries,and proprietorship of all landin privateownershipor privatetenure.Wastelandandpublic land,suchas roads,werenot registered.20
Afterissuingkushansto cultivatedlandsthatwereclaimed,the governor sun) for each
ment nominatedtwo consecutivecommissions(shemsiye,
districtto examineand proposethe dispositionof unclaimedlands.Thus,
for example,in 1872,the shemsiyecommissionsurveyedand listedall villagesandpartsof the old citiesthathadunsoldmirilands.In 1878-79, another commissionvisitedtheselocationsand conducteda detailedsurvey
of the shemsiyelandsforeachof thesesettlements.Theboundariesandarea
of all sitesin the settlementsweredetailed,aswell as theirtypes(dryfarm20. Serapion Murad to Thankmarvon Miinchhausen,12 June 1874, RG67/439,IsraelState
Archive (hereafterISA);Spry,"Memorandumof the History,Lawand Practiceof LandRegistration";YitzhakSchechter,"WhatDoes a SecretLandRegisterfrom the Time of the TurksReveal?"
(in Hebrew), IkareiIsrael170 (February-March1977):5-8; YitzhakSchechter,"LandRegistration
in Eretz-Israelin the Second Half of the NineteenthCentury"(in Hebrew),Cathedra45 (September 1987): 147-60.
58 / Agricultural
History
ing, swamp,or rocks).The areaof the settlementswas identicalto that
foundby the previouscommission.Neareachsettlement'snameappeared
its total area in Turkishdunamsand the decisionof the commission.If
found partiallydeserted,the inhabitantshadpriorityin buyingland.If totallydeserted,wholesettlementswereofferedfor saleat auction.
Tenpercentof the Districtof Acre,an areaof 591,972Turkishdunams
in 66 shemsiyevillagesand356 plots,wascountedin the firstsurveytotaled
on 16 January1873.This districtincludedthe subdistrictsof Haifa,Safed,
and al-Shaghur.The auctionwas conductedin 1879,and most of the villagesthat had shemsiyelands,buildings,orchards,and economicfacilities
weresold to Palestinian,Syrian,andLebaneseurbanentrepreneurs
(fig. 1).
This was the beginningof the privatizationof landownershipin Palestine
and the creationof largeestates,a processwhichlaterfacilitatedthe penetrationof foreigners.Finally,a thirdlistwaspreparedthatcontaineddetails
on those to whom the landwassold or to whom it wastransferred-either
previousoccupiers,or those who bought auctionedland. Some of these
landsweregrantedby the governmentto MuslimBosnian,Maghrabi,and
Circassianrefugeeswho had left Europeand North Africaand settledin
several villages (Ghabia,Sha'are,KafrSabt, Ma'ader,and KafrKama,
amongothers).YitzhakSchechter(whoforoverfiftyyears,fromthe beginningof the twentiethcentury,wasa landexpertforthe JewishColonization
Associationandwho copiedpartsof the shemsiyerecords)suggestedthatit
was probablethat surveyssuch as the one he copied in the Acredistrict
were held in other districtsof Palestine.Reportsof the contentsof the
recordsof the shemsiyevillagesand of auctionsof shemslyevillagesin the
NazarethTabuoffice (two volumes),as well as lists of shemsiyefieldsdetailedin shemsiyelandbooksin the Districtof Acre,arefoundin the Israel
StateArchive.Fromdocumentsin the archiveof the Administrative
Council of Jerusalemforthe beginningof the twentiethcentury,it transpiresthat
the three land surveysmentionedweredone in 1878, 1886,and 1907.A
very substantialproportionof the villagersof the Jerusalemregionregisteredtheir land at the governmentland registry.Requestsfor registration
wereaccompaniedby a mapof the pieceof landin question.21
21. Schechter,"WhatDoes a SecretLandRegister,"
5-8; Schechter,"LandRegistrationin
I
Cadastral Surveys / 59
:I
I::
I/
"
!
Akhziv 8
I
/
/
86
77 79
/67
67
/
81
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82
*Safed
66
80 75 7372
76
66
Acr
66
83 84
66
66
66
70
~
.~
66
70
70
35
66
69 71
~~/
^
CS L
_?,A_1
(
)
Tiberias
w Snelar'am
r
87
4
43 46
42
40
38 39
37
41 5048'
51
17 18
36
Nazareth
)0~ ~
19
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Tatura
3
4
Megiddo
1123
66
;
/
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8
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/
10
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I
Locatonof
Figure 2
\
12
21 22
Beit She'an
16
33
52
15
30
31
14
/
3213
Hada
1, 18
J
-
_/
28
0
*0km
Registrypage number
of shemsiyeland villages
Boundariesof the
District(sanjaq) of Acre
Figure 1. The shemsiye lands in the District of Acre in 1872 are shown here. The numbers refer to the registry pages for the shemsiye land villages. Courtesy Yad Izhak
Ben-Zvi Press.
Eretz-Israel,"147-60; "Reporton the Contents of the Shamsieh [shemsiye]villages, which are
presentlyfound in the NazarethTabuOffice,"n.d., and "ShamsiehLandBooks,"n.d., File 11,Box
3528, RG22, ISA;Haim Gerber,Social Originof the ModernMiddleEast (Boulder,Colo.: Lynne
Riennerand Mansel, 1987), 76-77.
60 / Agricultural
History
All entriesin the new registersrequireda formalconfirmation.Once
land was registered,everydispositionrequiredofficialapprovaland registration.In the registrationof deeds (and not title), entrieswere made in
chronologicalorder in books known as daimi (perpetual)registers.The
methodof referencewasby serialnumber.JohnF.Spry,who wasthe assistantdirectorof landregistrationin MandatoryPalestine,suggestedthatthe
system may be comparedwith that of the formerMiddlesexRegistryin
England.22
An illuminatingcasestudyon the surveyandits consequencesis a document compiledby the MandatoryActingDirectorof Landsin 1931 on
Shattavillage,locatedin the Yizre'elValley.Thisreportwassubmittedafter
inspectingall availablerecordsin connectionwith the registrationof lands
andbuildingsthereof.Accordingto the report,
of Shattawaseffectedon the 9th TashrinTani
Theoriginalregistration
1286 [November1870],in consequenceof a demarcationmadeby a
andrecordall landsallegedto be
Commissionappointedto investigate
left waste and uncultivated.The findingsof this Commissionwere
recordedin the so calledDaftarShamsiehdated9th TashrinTani1286
Theoriginalinhabitants
with the followingparticulars:
and cultivators
areon thelandssincetheperiodof morethan50years....[T]hepersons
as recordedin the Registerof Nufus(theOttomancensus)arepresentin
thevillage....Theirnumberamountsto 99.
Then, the generalsouthern,eastern,northern,and westernboundaries
of the villageweredetailedby the commission.Theirreportfor the south
andwest,readas follows:
South:Fromthe Watercourseknownas QunatAishehto the Block
stones and from these on the water course known as Ma' el
Mutaramel
runningto theQunatof Sahne.
to theroadleadingto themillsof el Ghor
East:FromBabWadAbdallah
El
Sahne.
to
the
Qunat
up
22. Spry,"Memorandumof the History,Lawand Practiceof LandRegistration."
CadastralSurveys / 61
In accordancewith the registrationof the DaftarShamsiehthe lands
of Shattaare divided into 5 Blocks[localities]:
1.
2.
Ard El Murtafia'
Ard Khirbet Saber
3.
El Mallahal
1850 old dunoms [dunams]
1750
"
"
"
650
"
4.
El Bustan
2000
"
"
5.
Ard Dra' el Khan
Total area
500
7750
"
"
"
"
It seems that in view of the fact that the inhabitantswere present in
the village at the date of the investigationmade by the ShamsiehCommission, the lands were in fact grantedto them and officiallyregistered
in their name in the year 1297 [1881] by the Youklama[census] Commission. This register was scrutinized and it is observed that some
changeshavebeen introducedin this registeras comparedwith the original registrationin the Daftar Shamsieh.... The locality known as the
"Jedearel Balad"or the village [built-uparea]landswerenot recordedin
the DaftarShamsieh.... [T]he first registrationof the buildingswas effectedby the YouklamaCommissionin 1307 [1891]in the name of Salim
Rais (16 buildings) and in the name of the villagers(8) the total number
amounting to 24 buildings... the cemeteryof the village does not seem
to be includedin the registeredboundariesof the village.23
Due to the projected sale to the JewishNational Fund in 1931 of 4,173 of
6,912 shares of the lands of Shatta owned by RajaRais, "Alllands of Shatta
have been surveyed and the total area according to the plan amounts to
13,141 dunoms [dunams] 191.48 sq. meters excluding roads and Railway
lines. The registeredarea of the village being only 7,940 dunoms [corrected
in the Youklamafrom 7,750] an application has been submitted by the vendor to correct the area in accordance with the particulars shown on the
plan prior to the transaction of sale being effected."24
Accordingly, the lands of Shatta were inspected on 13-14 July 1931 in
the presence of a representative of the registered owner, Raja Rais, the
23. Reportof ActingDirectorof Lands,25 July1931,FileGP/10/23,Box 3470, RG22,ISA.
24. Ibid.
62 / Agricultural
History
Mukhtar[head], and notablesof Shattaand the borderingKumiehand
Murassasvillages,as well as a considerablenumberof villagersof Shatta.
The 1931 reportconcludedthat "theboundariesof the villageas a whole
are correctand in accordancewith the descriptionmadeby the Shamsieh
Commission [1870]."25
The boundariesof the villageweredefinitelyfixedandcouldbe applied
easilyon the ground,with the exceptionof the northernboundary.The
writersof the reportconsidered"thatthe registrationmaythereforebe effectedin accordancewith the particulars
shownon the plan,andthe necessary correctionsof areamade."This consistedof an additionof 235 plus
1,000 dunamsin two blocks,and a deductionof about4,000 dunamsof
wastelandin the north, deductedby the YouklamaCommissionin 1881,
which should not be includedin the registration.The villagersclaimed
ownershipof otherlandswithinthe boundariesof the village.Theseclaims
weredenied,as the villagersadmittedto havingpaidrentto the registered
owners (probablythe Rais family,who owned two-thirdsof the village
lands).Moreover,they neverpaid werko(landandbuildingtax) on anyof
the village lands (fig. 2).26
In theory,the systemhad much to commendit, but in practiceBritish
officialsand Jewishsettlersclaimedthat it failedlargelyfor two reasons.
In the firstplace, the originalinvestigationwas not basedon a surveyof
land and was carriedout in a veryperfunctorymanner.Areasweregiven
only approximately,and the descriptionof boundariesusuallyconsisted
of the names of adjoining owners by referenceto the four cardinal
points. Under the OttomanLandCode and continuingan old law, the
boundaries shown in the land registers,if definite, prevailedover the
area.It was only a surveyof lots, and, as manylaterclaimed,it was inaccurateboth as to size (sometimesonly a tenth of the actualarea)and to
boundary. In a guide to Palestine published in 1891 by AvrahamM.
Luncz,buyersof estateswerewarnedto checkthe boundarieswell and to
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid. In respectto the purchaseof lands in Shattaby the JewishNationalFund, see letters
from 17 December 1931, and 9 and 24 July 1932, S25/7621, CentralZionist Archive,Jerusalem
(hereaftercited as CZA).
CadastralSurveys / 63
Legend:
-
Villageboundary
0
Q
, -,r
illag
Blockmentionedin hcdafrarsheisriye
- -rT
T
Figure2. Thismapshows the villageboundaryandlandblocksof Shattaand neighboring settlements. Courtesyof the author.
request that a government engineer measure them and change the title
deeds accordingly.27
Secondly, it was soon realized by the people that the land registersprovided the government with information as the basis for taxation and conscription. The resulting antagonism was described in 1894 by Samuel
Bergheim, an expert on land tenure in Palestine:
The Turkishlawswhich havebeen introducedwithin the last few yearsin
Palestinewith referenceto land tenure, and which are being rigorously
enforced,are changingall these ancientlaws and customs, much against
the will and wish of the people.
27. AvrahamM. Luncz,Guideto the Landof Israeland Syria(in Hebrew)(Jerusalem:
Avraham
M. Luncz,1891),25-28; Spry,"Memorandumof the History,Lawand Practiceof LandRegistration."
64 / AgriculturalHistory
The lands are divided by an Imperial Commissioner into various portions and given to individual villagers. They receive titledeeds for individual ownership, and each one is at liberty to sell his
portion to whomever he pleases, either to a member of the village or
to a stranger.The villager then sells his Hak el Muzara'a(right of cultivation) in the land; not as miilk,but as ameeriyeh(miri), and subject
to taxes as such; the object of the government being to break down
the old custom of musha'a [a common holding of village lands].
When the governmentwill haveattainedthis object,which it is doing fast,in spite of the resistanceof manyof the villagecommunities,the
old customs above referredto will die out and be forgotten.28
In consequence, registration was not always sought, and when it was,
fictitious figures were given for the area, while persons liable for military
service or the payment of taxes often procured registrationin the name of
nominees. As a local European, Phillip Baldensperger,who was well-acquainted with village life, later wrote, "The villages of the plains of Sharon
and Philistia are usually co-proprietors of all lands, but when the new law
to establish deeds was promulgated [accordingto him, in 1872], the poorer
denied owning any land in order to avoid paying the cost of the deed, and
thus became deprived of their lands; in others they sold their rights for a
trifle. Beth-dejan sold one-third of its lands to the JaffaEffendis."29
After the Revolution of the Young Turks in 1908, attention was given
mainly to political and administrativeratherthan economic problems, but
there was an attempt to tackle the land problem, without great success, according to Lewis. A proposal was made to simplify the Land Lawin order to
eliminate some of the more obvious defects of the existing system of
tenure. The Landed-propertyCode of 1913 did simplify the law governing
miri interests and miilk. This code provided for corporate holding of real
estate in the name of corporations, mortgaging of property as security for
debts, suppression of communal or guild property,extension of the right of
28. Samuel Bergheim,"LandTenurein Palestine,"PalestineExplorationFundQuarterlyStatement26 (July1894): 191-99.
29. Philip J.Baldensperger,"TheImmovableEast,"PalestineExplorationFundQuarterlyStatement38 (July1906): 190-97.
CadastralSurveys / 65
inheritance, and a general survey and evaluation of all landed property in
the country, together with a readjustment of the prevailing tax system.
These laws were, strictly speaking, provisional only; that is to say,they were
in the form of decrees and had no parliamentaryauthority. The outbreak
of World War I interferedwith the application of this code in the Ottoman
Empire. Nevertheless, the decrees were put into force, and were, therefore,
applicable in Mandatory Palestine.30
The Provisional Law of Survey and Land Registration of Immovable
Property was issued on 5 February 1913. It was signed by the Sultan
Mehmed Ra?ad,the Grand Vizier Mehmed Oevket, and the Minister of Finance Rifaat,who was to be in charge of the execution of the law. Now, for
the first time since the Middle Ages, the Ottomans adopted an approach
that included systematic mapping as part of a planned extensive imperial
land survey including the demarcation of boundaries, registrationin a new
land register,and assessment by special commissions. The composition, responsibilities, and mechanisms of operation of these commissions were
thoroughly defined.31
The Survey Commission was to be composed of a me'mir (an official of
the Tabu land registry office), clerk, engineer, and two attached surveyors,
to operate at subdistrict level. After fifteen days' notice on a fixed day, the
Survey Commission, in the presence of the mukhtars(heads), should determine the boundaries of the village or town, as well as lands, forests, and
special farms of individuals not within the boundaries of a city or village,
beginning from the eastern side. A document stating the boundaries was to
be drawn up and signed by the members of the commission in the presence
of the mukhtars and the owners of the land. When necessary, boundary
marks in the shape of a pyramid might be placed. A report and sketch map
was to be made showing the general boundaries, such as roads, rivers,val30. Lewis, Emergenceof ModernTurkey,222-25; Dowson, "Notes on Land-Tax";Doukhan,
LandLawsin the Landof Israel,167, 172;FredrickM. Goadbyand Moshe J. Doukhan, The Lawof
Palestine(lerusalem:n.p., 1935), 14; GabrielBie Ravndal,"Turkey:A Commercialand Industrial
Handbook,"vol. 28 of TradePromotionSeries(Washington,D.C.: GovernmentPrinting Office,
1926), 84-85.
31. Provisional Law of Survey and Registrationof ImmoveableProperty,5 February1913
(2 RabieAwal 1331), File 16, Box 3326, RG22,ISA;Gad Frumkin,"AMemorandumon Immoveable Propertyin Palestine,"20 August 1919,S25/7432,CZA.
66 / Agricultural History
leys, streams,forests,pasturesleft for the inhabitants,weeds,and tombs.
The positionof eachkindof land(mUlk,miri,and waqf)wasto be marked
on this sketchmap with its boundaries.Pasturesused in commonby the
nativesof citiesandvillageswereto be dividedsubjectto the consentof the
elders.Suchdivisionswereto be enteredinto the reportand on the sketch
map.The TabuRegistrywouldthensenda printedformcontainingparticularsof the landsof the villageor town to be surveyed.Afterthe surveyof
the publicboundaries,the boundariesof the cityor villagewereto be fixed.
A reportand sketchmapwereto be madeandapproved.The differentpositionson the mapwereto be clearlyandseparatelyshown.The reportsrelatingto publicboundariesof townsor villages,thatis, the recordand the
sketchmaps of placesreservedfor the use of the nativeswhich are registered in the book of the SurveyCommission,wereto be copied and approvedby the Tabuoffice.Thentheywereto be sentby the Ministryof Financeto theiroriginalvillagesto be keptby the councilof elders.A sketch
map and a copyof the newlyregisteredpropertywhichwasan ancientendowment(waqf)wasto be sentto the beneficiaryinstitutions.32
All immovablepropertyinside cities and villages(whose boundaries
weresurveyedanddemarcatedby the SurveyCommission)wasto be registeredby the RegistrationCommission.Thiscommissionwas composedof
of the FinanceandTabuoffices,a kadi(Muslimjudge),posrepresentatives
of the waqf,an engineer,two clerks,and two surveysiblya representative
ors. Fifteendayspriorto the registration,the elders,andthroughthem the
owners,guardians,curators,and lessees,wereaskedto list the immovable
propertyon a documentsent by the commissionand to producedocuments of title. On the fixedday,in the presenceof these individuals,the
areaof all plots within the townsor villageswas to be registeredstreetby
street.The areaoutsidethe townsand villageswas registeredaccordingto
its position.The particularsto be registeredwerethe generaland specific
numberof each piece of propertyand its kind, nature,contents,boundaries,and description.Aftercompletionof the registration,new deeds of
Tabu(kushans)andan approvedcopyof the sketchmapwereto be givento
the ownersof immovableproperty.33
32. ProvisionalLaw,ISA.
CZA.
33. ProvisionalLaw,ISA;Frumkin,"Memorandumon ImmovableProperty,"
CadastralSurveys / 67
Afterthe completionof the village'sor town'snew land registrybook,
the AssessmentCommissionwasto estimatethe valueandgrossrevenueof
the lands,takinginto considerationthe price,qualities,position,and descriptionof similarlands. Fivegradesand severalsubgradeswere set for
tithe-payinglands (such as vineyards,orchards,pasture,firewood,mines,
and so on) dependingon theirproduction,use, servitude,typeof products
(olives,dates,coal, salt, and sand,for example),and facilities.Aftercompletingthe processof registrationand assessmentof eachplace,a kushan
and a documentlistingthe estimatedrevenuevalueand feeswasto be sent
to the personin whosenamethe landwasregistered.34
As mentionedpreviously,the outbreakof WorldWarI interferedwith
the applicationof this code. However,afterexaminingaboutfortyrecently
locatedsketchmaps of the sultan'sfiftliklandsin the Beisanand Jordan
Valleysthat hadbeen copiedin March1913,we see thata partialsurveyof
thatkinddid takeplacepriorto, orjustafter,the issuanceof the Provisional
Lawof Surveyon 5 February1913(JewishColonizationAssociation,1913).
It seemsthat these mapswerepartof a regionalcadastralsystemand may
havebeen producedin the processof transferring
the sultan'sprivatelands
to the Ottoman governmentafterthe YoungTurk'sRevolutionin 1908.
Evenearlier,at the beginningof the century,generalscaledplansof villages
were drawnby the Ottomanauthorities.Two of these (Semmouneand
Ummu-kbey)were discussedin detail,and a photographof a third one,
also in the Valleyof Yizre'el,waslaterfound(fig.3).35
The MamlfikSultanateand the OttomanEmpireat theirheighthadfromthe MiddleAges-used a quitesophisticatedsystemof landinformation. They did not resortto a mappedcadastre,as most of the land was
owned by the stateand temporarilygrantedto fief holders,or later,commonlyheld by villagesthatpaidtax throughtax farmers.Duringthe nineteenth century-a periodof increasedWesterninfluencein the Ottoman
Empire-a reformwas introducedin the form of the LandLaw,which
aimedto changethe agrarianregimeand improvethe deterioratedcondi34. Ibid.
35. Severalmaps of the BeiranValleyin JewishColonizationAssociation,1913, Map Collection, CZA;Ruth Karkand Haim Gerber,"LandRegistryMapsin Palestineduringthe OttomanPeriod,"Cartographic
Journal21 (June1984):30-32.
68 / AgriculturalHistory
PLA]
G JtRAL DU VILLAGE
D'
UMMU-KBEY
Wwt
1w
g
d*r
'JAy,c^
f'Dr^
-*i'/
cadastral
state
su
statecadatr
. ...... -:
i'/b
/t4
y was u
a
survey:
was unerakn
O
A'
.
-t-;
ik
s
Th
dlt
w
survey d e alt wit
ll
vll
un i t
engineerof the Provinceof Beidt, preparedthe planof the
of
the geoership. Although it was not mapped, the detailed definition
BekirBeyu
Figure3. (SidkA)
state cadastral survey was undertaken. The survey dealt with village units
graphicalboundariesof eachunit appearedto be clearlydefined,at leastin
the cases examined in nineteenth-centuryPalestine.The definition was
legallybindingand carriedmoreweightthanthe ofteninaccuratenumerical estimateof area.
CadastralSurveys / 69
Land registration remained problematic, not only because of the
chronological registration of human units rather than unchangeable units
of land, but also as a result of the suspicions and opposition of the farmers.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, this opposition was exploited
by entrepreneurs (including the sultan himself and settlers from abroad) to
privatize huge plots of land. In Palestine the privatization and concentration of large estates in the hands of absentee landlords at the end of the
Ottoman period enabled foreign Jewish and Christian companies, institutions, and entrepreneurs to purchase some of these lands for settlement
and other projects, and led to the dispossession of Arab tenants.36 The
trend to privatization of state land increased and may have influenced the
institution of improved legislation for systematic mapped surveying, registration, and assessment of real property at the beginning of the twentieth
century. This legislation was preempted, however,by the outbreakof World
War I and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.
Officials of the Mandatory government in Palestine,which replaced the
Ottomans in 1918, as well as Jewishleaders and officials saw themselves as
European modernizing technocrats. They assertedthat the land registersin
Palestine to the end of the Ottoman rule were both inaccurateand incomplete. Their attitude was often patronizing and may have been based on a
misunderstanding of the needs and uses of cadastral surveys by the Ottomans and their predecessors. This is well-documented by Ernest Dowson, an expert on land matters in the British Empire, who was invited to
advise the Mandatory authorities. Dowson wrote, "The economic development of the country has been blighted initially by years of Turkish apathy
and maladministration."He believed that "an investigation and determination of real rights... must be associated with mapping to produce a cadastral survey." Mandatory legal expert Moshe Doukhan concurred. Even
Gabriel Baer, one of the leading researcherson the subject of land in the
Middle East, came to the conclusion that, apart from Egypt (where a mod36. Rosemary Sayigh, Palestinians:From Peasants to Revolutionaries(London: Zed Press,
1979), 30-32; Walid Khalidi, PalestineReborn(London: I. B. Tauris, 1992), 31, 70; Ruth Kark,
"ChangingPatternsof Land Ownership in Nineteenth Century Palestine:The EuropeanInfluence,"Journalof HistoricalGeography10 (Fall 1984):357-84.
70 / Agricultural
History
ern mapped cadastralsurvey based on a Europeanmodel was completed in
1907), total anarchy prevailed regardingland registration in the Ottoman
Empire.37 However, land information and management systems in the
Middle East were at least as advanced as those of Europe at the time of the
Renaissance. Ottoman land management reform and the attendant cadastral surveys undertaken from the middle of the nineteenth century may
have been insufficiently appreciatedin the context of the requirements of
the agrarianmanagement of what were largelystate lands.
Ottoman land management reform and the attendant cadastralsurveys
undertaken from the middle of the nineteenth century should be viewed in
the context of agrarianmanagement of lands that were largelystate owned.
This distinction has been insufficientlyappreciated.
37. A. Bonne, Landof Israel,Landand Economy(in Hebrew)(TelAviv:Dvir, 1938), 116-18;
ArthurRupin,Syria:
Spry,"Memorandumof the History,Lawand Practiceof LandRegistration";
An EconomicSurvey(New York:ProvisionalZionist Committee,1918), 41; Doukhan, LandLaws,
Baer,Introductionto theHistory,19, 21, 35.
163-71; Dowson, "Noteson Land-Tax";