From the Pages of the Defter (ص 87)

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عنوان

From the Pages of the Defter (ص 87)

المحتوى

The Syrian provincial salname of 1871 (1288 H) lists 52 villages in the Hebron
district.”
The Esas-i Emlak registration of rural areas in Hebron five years later, in 1876,
enumerates 50 villages and eight mezra’‘s in the district. Examining the two documents side-
by-side, one sees that two settlements classified as villages in the salname of 1871, Rihiyya
and Khirbat al-Asad, were classified as mezra’s five years later in the eml/ak register. The
other fifty villages are found in both documents.
It is not clear why Rihiyya’s status “reverted” to farmlands between 1871 and 1876,
because the emlak register indicates it was settled. That said, the assessed value of its
residences (eight odas and two hane) in the emlak register indicates that the housing was
modest. While one of the two hanes was valued at 750 kurus, the other residences were
valued at either 250 or 500 kurus, the lowest housing values across the district. It is
impossible to determine from this data whether the residential structures were unusually
small or built with cheap materials. It is worth noting, however, that in addition to the
residences, one other structure in Rihiyya was recorded in the register. Entry number 7 was
“© This most likely served as the
an untaxed oda (lit., room) registered to sahibulkhayrat.
settlement’s mosque, a guesthouse, and/or a place to gather. In subsequent years, Rihiyya
would be designated a village. In 1922, the Mandate census counted 231 individuals living
“° ISAM, Salname-! Suriye 1288 (1871), 164-168.
146 ISA, Esas-i Emlak, entry #13892.
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From the Pages of the Defter

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المنشئ

Susynne McElrone

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