Governing property, making the modern state - PSI424

Part three | 12
who had been present at the tapu in 1884. Sheikh ‘Awad was a religious mystic
(mutasawwif) but it had been ‘Awad’s father Mustafa whose spiritual powers
were remembered, a true mystic who did not follow any one tariqa although
he was close to the Qadiriya. Sheikh Mustafa had once been in Tibna with the
Kura leader Yusuf al-Sharaida when he had a vision that his son ‘Awad had fallen
into a well in Kufr ‘Awan; Yusuf al-Sharaida immediately dispatched horses to
Kufr ‘Awan where his men rescued ‘Awad from the well. ‘Ali Qasim’s wife, who
was from Khanzira, added that if Sheikh Mustafa threw a stone, it turned into
sugar. As a wali (saint) with powers of healing, even after his death, his turban
continued to cure the sick. His son ‘Awad was a lesser mystic though he, too,
possessed powers to cure illness.
In 1884 Sheikh ‘Awad was registered with nine qirat of land in a joint holding
with ‘Abdul-‘Aziz al-Mustafa of the Dawaghira; at the time of the tapu ‘Awad’s
eldest son Muhammad would have been a young man capable of farming and just
married. ‘Awad’s first wife was Falha Sa‘d al-Ahmad (a father’s sister of Ahmad
Khalifa whom we met above). Falha bore him Muhammad and Ahmad, both of
whom were to pre-decease their father, and a girl Fatima (b. 1869). His second
wife was Sa‘da Ahmad al-‘Ariyan from Fara who bore Mahmud and ‘Ali (twins
b. 1874), Zahiya (b. 1879), Qasim (b. 1883), Mustafa (b. 1888), a second Fatima
(b. 1889) and another daughter Shaikha. ‘Awad’s third marriage to Fandiya Hamd
al-Ahmad renewed the alliance with the family of his first wife. Fandiya bore
him five sons, the oldest Ibrahim born in 1888. ‘Awad’s fourth and last wife was
a lady in Tubas across the valley in Palestine (not shown on Figure 12.5). ‘Awad
would tend his sheep until four in the afternoon, walk over to Tubas to spend
the night, and return the following day.
Sheikh ‘Awad thus left an entire small lineage behind – nine surviving sons
and two surviving grandsons – but only 9q of land. Not surprisingly, in 1908
the division of ‘Awad’s land was effected only between his male heirs, excluding
all daughters and wives, each male heir obtaining just under one qirat. 45 But
inheritance through women and purchases of land allowed the sons of ‘Awad
to possess some 21q of land between them by 1939. In 1912 Muhammad ‘Isa
‘Abdul-Qadir, who was married to ‘Awad’s daughter Shaikha, sold three qirat of
land to ‘Awad’s sons ‘Ali, Mahmud and Qasim. 46 In 1923 Muhammad Sulaiman
al-Fallah sold 1½q of land to Mahmud and Qasim. 47 And finally in 1932 the eight
sons of Qasim and Mahmud bought a total of 2¼q from eight members of a
family affiliated to the Sulaiman ‘Abdul-Nabi and Salim al-Fallah Khashashna
families in an elaborate transaction. 48 Thus all the indications are that the sons
of ‘Awad and Sa‘da were doing well until the early 1930s during years when many
other families suffered considerably.
Concerning the immediate family of ‘Ali Qasim, his mother Muhra ‘Uthman
al-Shihab had been married in an exchange marriage with Qasim’s sister Fatima
marrying Muhra’s brother Muhammad. Qasim’s other full sister Zahiya married
Musa Hamd al-Ahmad, their mother’s co-wife’s brother. Muhra bore Muhammad
(b. 1908), ‘Ali, Husain and Ni‘ma, and his second wife Fatima Muhammad ‘Id
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