Cast of Dittrichia Viscosa (also known as false yellowhead, woody fleabane, sticky fleabane, and yellow fleabane), which belongs to the category of “pioneer plants” and whose biochemical composition prevents other plants from growing in its immediate surroundings. In Israel, it is often one of the first vegetation types to take root on disturbed soil.
Image credit: Mawat & Muşah, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. photo: Elie Posner and Laura Lachman. Courtesy of Harlan Levey Projects.
The Ottoman Land Law of 1858 was enacted as part of the Tanzimat reform of the mid-19th century. This extensive reform aimed to bring significant changes to the legal and judicial system intended to strengthen the central authority in Istanbul’s control over the diverse territories of the empire. It was a response to Western imperial pressures and an attempt to address the growing economic difficulties.[1]
The Ottoman Land Law was based on earlier laws, primarily the Kanun (Sultanic Law), which was interpreted with new meanings. The categories of private land (mulk) and state land (miri), which had existed before 1858 as flexible concepts, became expressions of individual ownership exclusively. This ownership became the sole legal relationship between land and the empire’s subjects, leaving no room for rights to revenues, processing, and improvements that had previously not necessarily been tied to land ownership. The regulation of ownership and taxation laws shifted the economic perspective on lands from focusing on agricultural production to a commodity for consumption.
The Ottoman Land Law defined five types of lands that represented various forms of ownership, use, and taxation:
- Mulk – Full ownership land, which was rare and mostly found in urban areas.
- Mevkufe – Land dedicated for religious purposes.
- Metruke – Land designated for public use, such as grazing areas or public spaces.
- Miri – State-owned agricultural lands.
- Mewat – Uncultivated and deserted lands, distant from any settlements.
The Israeli Land Law is based on the Ottoman Land Law, and the state makes significant use of it in its ongoing struggle with the Bedouin population in the Negev region. Two terms central to this struggle are “Mewat” and “Mushaa”:
“Mewat” refers to uncultivated or uninhabited lands. In the context of land classification and Ottoman Land Law, this type of land falls under the category of “Mahlul land.” Mahlul land encompasses deserted or ownerless land that the state can allocate to individuals or communities for cultivation or development. The term “Mewat” often describes land that is not used for industrial or agricultural purposes. Such land can be allocated to individuals or groups for cultivation, turning it into productive land, and it becomes subject to taxation.
“Mushaa” refers to a form of collective ownership of land or a system of shared ownership in Islamic law, where property is collectively owned by multiple individuals or families. In the context of land classification and ownership according to the Ottoman Land Law, Mushaa lands would be categorized differently based on specific characteristics and usage. If the Mushaa land was actively cultivated and productive for a decade, it might be classified as “Miri land,” which was state-owned land subject to taxation. The revenues from the land would be divided among the collective owners, who would collectively pay taxes to the state. If the collective owners privately owned the Mushaa land, it might be classified as “Mulk,” representing private ownership with full rights. The collective owners could buy, sell, lease, or inherit their share of the land without state intervention.[2]
[1] Huri Islamoğlu, “Property as a Contested Domain: A Reevaluation of the Ottoman Land Code of 1858”, in New Perspectives on Property and Land in the Middle East, ed. Roger Owen (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 200), 5-7
[2] Oren Yefthal, Sandy Keder, and Ahmed Amara, “Re-examination of the rule of ‘the dead Negev’: property rights in the Bedouin region,” Law and Government, 2012. [Hebrew]