Governing property, making the modern state - PSI424

Part three | 10
proved childless she married Ahmad Muhammad Muflih of family-20 (interview
with Ni‘ma Muhammad Mahmud al-‘Abid, 25 October 1991). In the final 1939
register Labiba shared holding 3–46 with her husband Ahmad and his sons (we do
not know if they are her sons) (DLS.CR Kufr ‘Awan, jadwal al-huquq 16 March
1939, no. 242, and jadwal al-tasjil, 3–46). In 1910 Ahmad had recently married
his father’s half-sister’s daughter Khadra (shown in Figure 12.6 but not in Figure
10.6) and they were living in his father’s household M55, as yet without children
(ANR Kufr ‘Awan). Labiba’s marriage to Ahmad is connected with two other
landholding women in 1939, Ahmad’s sister Hana and his daughter Khashfa.
Ahmad’s sister Hana was married first to Labiba’s brother Mahmud and then,
after his death, to his brother ‘Ali with whom in the final register of 1939 she
shared holding 5–55. Hana’s ¾q parallels Labiba’s ¾q. Hana had been named as
one of the heirs of the sons of Muflih in another large retrospective inheritance
mutation of 1932 (corresponding to a shar‘i inheritance case of 1930) (ACR.SC
sijill 12, hasr al-irth 1929–31, p. 163, case 83/177/4, 12 November 1930, and DLS.
AT.Dabt 1931–32, p. 65, nos 44–7 [March 1932]). At the 1939 cadastre Hana
claimed ¾q as her share of this inheritance, and she won ½q. Like Labiba she
too filed a suit in court claiming that her brother Ahmad had registered ½q of
her 1q inheritance in his name; and like Labiba Hana won another ¼q (DLS.CR
Kufr ‘Awan, Report 25, 6 March 1939, and Court Case 6, 9 May 1939).
Ahmad’s daughter Khashfa held a full qirat in a joint holding with her
husband ‘Abdul-Qadir of family-19. Khashfa’s share equals those of her brothers,
perhaps the result of a marriage settlement paralleling a pre mortem gift by her
father of one qirat to each of his sons. We do not know if she had other sisters.
It is possible that she and her brothers had inherited land through her mother
Khadra – if Khadra, not Labiba, was indeed their mother – but the inheritance
case relating to Muflih’s sons stopped at Khadra’s mother Tamam, a daughter
of Muflih and half-sister of Khashfa’s father’s father, who had inherited land
from her full brother ‘Abdullah when he died without issue (see further Figure
12.6 concerning Ahmad’s brother’s wife Yumna Mustafa Nimr al-Muflih). In any
case Khashfa did not file a claim for land in 1939. Her father Ahmad still held
4¼q in his own name even after initial settlements of 4q on his children and after
relinquishing ¾q to his sister Hana.
Labiba’s case should also be considered with that of her sister Hamda. Hamda
had already inherited land from both her husbands (Mahmud and ‘Ali) through
their mother Hamda, daughter of Sulaiman ‘Abdul-Latif. Her share was 112
where 11200 represented 24 qirat, i.e. roughly ¼q (see Figure 10.4). At the 1939
cadastre Hamda claimed 3q from her brother ‘Abdullah as her mahr, resulting
in ¼q being settled on her daughter Zarifa (DLS.CR Kufr ‘Awan, Report 18, 5
March 1939). She also claimed in court that her brother had registered ½q in his
name that was properly her mahr given by her husband ‘Ali al-‘Abdul-‘Aziz, as a
result of which she was awarded another ¼q (ibid., Court Case 5, 9 May 1939).
It seems that this ¼q she immediately sold to her son-in-law Nayif with whom
Zarifa, in the final 1939 register, shared a holding (ibid., Sale 10, 16 January
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