From the Pages of the Defter (ص 26)

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From the Pages of the Defter (ص 26)

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disparaged the outcome of Ottoman reforms in much the same way as Warriner.’>
Comparing it to Ruedy, we see emerging what | argue was becoming a compensatory
historiographical trend that continues in the literature until today. In the absence of new
evidence on the implementation of land reform, and in the absence of evidence to support
existent theory on the implementation of land reform, historians have judiciously chosen to
paraphrase or quote the claims of those who preceded them.
Despite the 1945 Survey’s admission that actually very few land registers were found
in Palestine when the British assumed rule in late 1917, it, too, authoritatively commented
on the authenticity of their contents,
..it was soon apparent to the cultivators that the registers were being used
as a means of identifying properties for the purpose of taxation and of
disclosing the existence of persons subject to military conscription. For
these reasons only a small proportion of transactions was recorded, and
these chiefly concerned elderly persons, females, foreigners and those
sufficiently influential to be able to avoid military service. As an index of
owners, the registers therefore became hopelessly incomplete. Nor was
there any survey."
Two interrelated points in this assessment (we cannot characterize it as an observation,
given that there was little to observe) merit clarification. Neither of these points is the fact
8 Martin Bunton’s insightful researches have closely examined and critiqued the production and
implementation of British land law, ostensibly a continuation of Ottoman law. See, by him, “Inventing
the Status Quo: Ottoman Land-Law during the Palestine Mandate, 1917-1936”, The International History
Review 21/1 (1999) 28-56, and Colonial Land Policies in Palestine, 1917-1936 (Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press, 2007).
“A Survey, 238.

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From the Pages of the Defter

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المنشئ

Susynne McElrone

مجموعات العناصر

Generated Pages Set

Theses رسائل ماجستير ودكتوراه