Governing property, making the modern state - PSI424

Part two | 7
report (istintakname) in the case, the scribe of the court responds that ‘Abbada
had taken the document when the mutasarrıf was in Irbid. This ‘Abbada heatedly
denies, but the document remains out of view. Decidedly unimpressive witnesses
are produced by al-Zamil, whom ‘Abbada denounces as totally under the thumb
of his accuser. Issues of land and tax management appear central in this case.
This is followed by a deposition (arzuhal) from one of the sheikhs of the Bani
Hasan, Hamd al-Harmush, living in Zarqa, claiming that Da’ud ‘Abbada and
Jurji Qabawat extorted 70 French liras from the tribe. The matter appears more
complex since it arose following the abduction (perhaps elopement?) of two girls
from Kufrinja. When the order came from the governor to return the girls, fighting
broke out, and a number of the major sheikhs of the Bani Hasan were then
seized by the police and put in jail. Two brothers of the principal leaders of the
Jabal ‘Ajlun and al-Mi‘rad, Husain Barakat and ‘Attash al-Mindil, also intervened.
Although the sheikhs wrote an appeal (istirham) the governor demanded 100 liras
to release them. In their concluding remarks, the investigators state that Da’ud
‘Abbada imprisoned seven of the sheikhs of the Bani Hasan without a court order,
threatened them and then demanded 100 liras, later reduced to 20 liras actually
paid. 29 Given the gravity of the incident involving two girls where fighting had
broken out, it is not clear that the action of the governor would have shocked
his peers in the administration although it failed to respect to the letter the legal
requirement of a court order.
The next deposition is from Sa‘d Ibrahim Sa‘d al-Din of al-Rafid on behalf
of his father. 30 Sa‘d al-Ibrahim had come with a written statement from his
father to the effect that there had been two orders (buyuruldu), one concerning
appointment as member on the administrative council and the other as director
of al-Kafarat nahiye and that Da’ud ‘Abbada had demanded 64 French liras for
appointment to the council membership. In the second session Ibrahim Sa‘d al-Din
himself then comes. He explains that he had come to Irbid on the fourth day of
‘id al-fitr together with other village headmen from the Kafarat nahiye to give
his greetings to the governor; that he stayed on for two days in Irbid when the
mutasarrıf Salim Bey came and summoned the headmen ‘about the question of
tapu and the modification and settlement of emval-i miriye taxes’. 31 The issue of
appointment to the court of first instance arose, and Da’ud ‘Abbada demanded
100 liras. Afraid of imprisonment and damage to his honour like that meted out
to Muflih Abu Ra’s, 32 Ibrahim Sa‘d al-Din gave ‘Abbada 64 liras so as to protect
‘soul and honour’. In the third session he clarifies that after he had paid the money,
he was called to Irbid, where ‘Abbada told him that the order had came from the
liva and that he was now appointed director of the nahiye. After Salim Bey left,
Da’ud ‘Abbada, Antun Siyur and Jurji Qabawat spent a night in Sa‘d al-Din’s
village, and the following day they all went to Hartha village where the order of
his appointment as müdür was formally read out to the assembled crowd.
The deposition is read out to Da’ud ‘Abbada who responds that the whole
claim is without foundation and that he didn’t take a penny (para) from Ibrahim
Sa‘d al-Din. ‘Abbada counters that the claim is of a piece with the latter’s other
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