Governing property, making the modern state - PSI424

Part three | 11
branches of Gharaibas in Hawwara in 1895 and 1933. The 1895 tax holdings of
Na’il, his brother Muhammad and cousin ‘Abdullah (nos 72, 74 and 73 of 2½,
2 and 1½ shares, respectively) were not in accordance with tapu mutations, and
it was these that were regularized in 1921. The regularization of holdings in 1921
involved a redistribution of the 4½ shares registered in Na’il’s and Muhammad’s
names in 1895 among Nail’s brothers’ heirs, Na’il having died almost twenty years
earlier in 1902 and tapu title to 3½ shares having remained in his name. The heirs
were all male. Regularization of tax holdings did not seem to require statements
from the shar‘i court listing all heirs, male and female, with shares calculated
according to both shar‘ and civil law, in the manner required of tapu mutations.
And Na’il had died before the household census of 1910, so no statement was
cited from the civil registry either.
One of the mutations of 1921 did mention female heirs. This related to
Mahmud’s one-third of one share bought jointly with Faris’ son ‘Abid and their
cousin Irhail al-Ahmad in 1892, and registered in Mahmud’s name in 1895, holding
76. Mahmud had died in February 1921, the month the mutation was registered. 59
Statements from the village council and the head of the civil registry were cited,
as were tax receipts, but nothing from the shar‘i court. In the same transaction
Mahmud’s heirs by Karma ‘Ali al-Muhafiza, who included four daughters and
the widow herself, sold their 6½q to the two sons of his other wife as well as
to a (male) cousin, ‘Awad al-Hamid. The complexity of the settlement in 1921
concerned not only the gap between tapu and tax registration but also the varying
fortunes of different stems and the exclusion of female heirs. Although Na’il
had been in the grave for twenty years, it was as though his ghost had written
the settlement.
The other branches of the Gharaiba
Lastly, we turn to two other branches of the Gharaiba, those of Mufaddi
al-Ahmad and Khalaf al-‘Abdul-Ghani Shahada. Unlike his brothers, Irhail and
‘Abdullah, who lived in the compound and farmed in Hawwara, and ‘Ali al-‘Isa
who appears to have moved to Mughaiyir, Mufaddi al-Ahmad never left Jumha.
See Figure 11.6. By his first wife Filwa al-Ibrahim, Mufaddi had two sons Mustafa
and Ahmad and three daughters Shamsiya, Ghazala and Hamda. Later in life
Mufaddi married again; it was then that Filwa and her children moved to Hawwara.
Mufaddi preferred to stay with the sheep in Jumha. It was Mustafa who
bought land in Hawwara where prospects were better. The land was registered
in his mother Filwa’s name since Mustafa was not considered one of the village;
in this way none of the village men could challenge the sale during the time that
a legal objection could be lodged. According to Budaiwi al-Mustafa, his father’s
brother Ahmad did not have land until he married, when Mustafa formally gave
him 3q of land and paid the mahr for his bride. Ahmad then established himself
separately. Ahmad left one son Muhammad; he pre-deceased his mother Filwa
who died in 1917. 60 At the cadastre of 1933 Muhammad had only 3q but in terms
of legal title that derived from his grandmother Filwa’s land.
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