Governing property, making the modern state - PSI424

which merited a new entry in the tax
register, unless it was because it happened
to be the first of the 27 such mutations
registered in September 1906 (DLS.
AT.Zabt 1320–22, p. 90, nos 618–19).
11 A village of the plains:
Hawwara
1 The term rub‘a appears in the shar‘i
court records. No one we interviewed
could provide a satisfactory etymology
for rub‘a, most suggesting logically that
rub‘a could mean ‘a quarter’ and therefore
‘a share’, a usage coherent with reference
to the faddan as a thumna, i.e. an eighth.
If, on the other hand, the term were
derived from ruba‘, a variant of rubâ‘,
then it would mean ‘four at a time’, with
reference to the four oxen required for
ploughing. Douwes: The Ottomans, p. 135,
concerning the mal faddan, a tax assessment
on cultivated area according to the
number of faddan, in central Syria in the
years 1785–1830, writes: ‘The faddan, or
span (Turkish çift) was not a fixed square
measure but represented the area which
could be ploughed by one or two yokes
of cows or oxen during the season, which
lasted for about 28 days in the Hama
area. […] The Hama area appears to have
been unique in that a double faddan was
used. But not only “four cows” or two
span faddan figure in the Hama records;
also “six cows” and “eight cows” faddan
are mentioned.’ It would appear that
the ‘Ajlun area generally was an area of
fiscal reckoning by four oxen, a rub‘a in
vernacular parlance.
2 Interview with Muhammad Khair al-
Shar‘ and Mahmud Humaiyid al-Shatnawi,
10 December 1992.
3 Interview with Budaiwi Mustafa
Mufaddi Gharaiba, Abu Hashim, 22
November 1992.
4 Interview with Mahmud Humaiyid
al-Shatnawi, 10 December 1992.
5 al-Zu‘bi: Daur al-nashat, p. 40,
describes how pastoral production
dropped dramatically from the mid-
279
twentieth century following the end of
collective discipline in cropping.
6 Joint interview with Muhammad
Khair al-Shar‘ and Mahmud Humaiyid
al-Shatnawi, 10 December 1992.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid. On one qirat of land the cameldriver
would get between 1 and 1½ mudd
of grain.
9 ‘Abdul-Rahman Mahmud al-Ahmad
was not a genealogist, perhaps here
confusing Ahmad al-Mustafa with Ahmad
al-Muhsin, an important figure in the
Shatnawi group of families, with which
his own family line was closely allied.
Or it may be that the establishment of
the Ahmad in question in Hawwara
concerned a generation well above that
of the men registered in the tapu in the
1870s and early 1880s, the growth of
permanent settlement in Hawwara dating
from the 1840s. See Lewis, ‘The Syrian
steppe during the last century of Ottoman
rule’, in Mundy and Musallam (eds), The
Transformation of Nomadic Society in the
Arab East (2000), pp. 34–41.
10 Interview with ‘Abdul-Rahman
Mahmud Ahmad Mustafa al-Tannash, 26
November 1992.
11 ACR.SC sijill 5, vol. 2, p. 163,
no. 206, dated 14.C.1339 [23 February
1921], where the date of his death is given
as 5.L.1321 [25 December 1903].
12 DLS.AT.Zabt 1315–19, September
1901, p. 71, nos 27–9, and ibid. January
1903, p. 99, nos 67–9.
13 DLS.AT.Dabt 1920–21, March 1921,
p. 97, nos 20/73–5.
14 The house is described as containing
one old arch and a yard (DLS.AT.Dabt
1920–21, April 1921, p. 112, no. 36).
15 When recalling the household of his
youth, ‘Abdul-Rahman did not mention an
elder brother Qasîm, who was killed as a
young unmarried man in a revenge killing
which pitted the Khatib family against
the Tannash as allies of the Shatnawi
some time in the middle 1920s. See ACR.
CC 1925–27 jaza‘i, p. 356, no. 179/166, 11
Notes to chapters 10 and 11