Governing property, making the modern state - PSI424

Part three | 9
Figure 9.4 Hawwara, holdings of the Abu Kirsanna family, 1876–95
though at that time he had no title to land. An important recruit to the Shatnawi
group of families, his descendants would hold more than three shares out of 48
in 1933. The other two high-value houses were held by two sons of ‘Abdullah
al-Ahmad Abu Kirsanna with their father’s brother’s son Salih al-‘Abdul-Qadir
(6,000 guruş), and by Muhammad and Ahmad al-Hasan Shatnawi (5,000 guruş).
These families led the opposition to the Gharaibas. Muhammad Hasan Shatnawi
was the person listed first among the co-partners in the contested sale and had
been registered with two shares of land in 1876. In 1933, when the Kirsannas
were no longer a force in the village, Hawwara would be divided into two sections
named Gharaiba and Shatnawiya.
These were the biggest houses in 1882–83. But there were houses of less value
belonging to other families which would later buy land. Thus, Mustafa Taha
al-Shar‘, with a house valued at 1,600 guruş, would buy one share of land from
Na’il Gharaiba in 1892, registered in his name in the 1895 tax register. 32 Part
of Na’il Gharaiba’s early purchase of five shares was used to bring in allies.
A second family was associated less directly with the Gharaibas. Two sons of
‘Abdul-‘Aziz Ghazlan, Hasan and Muhammad, held houses valued at 1,800 and
1,000 guruş respectively. In the 1895 tax register Muhammad was listed with a
full two shares of land, although no mutation of land title survives for him before
1901. Heirs of the Ghazlan brothers would win title to those two shares in 1921,
claiming that they had first bought land in 1876.
At this point in the narrative it may be helpful to refer to Table 9.3 which
gives the holdings in 1876 and their brief history up to 1895. At the same time
a genealogy of the top generation of the four branches of the Gharaibas may
be referred to in Figure 9.3, showing their holdings in 1895 and 1933. The top
generation of the Abu Kirsanna family is shown in Figure 9.4.
We now jump to 1921 before returning to analyse the pattern of landholding
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