Governing property, making the modern state - PSI424

own) labour. In the new law they were granted rights equal to sons and, in
the absence of a son, they could receive all the estate. How was this change
legitimated? 37
The text of the irade notes that in the old law female children were completely
excluded from rights of inheritance whereas now they partake in the right of
inheritance of land. 38 Although women are not cultivators, they are nevertheless
able to form an agricultural family and so to contribute to the flourishing
cultivation of the land to which they will succeed. 39 The widening of the circle of
rights to miri land is seen as evidence of ‘the justice, concern and compassion of
the sultan and the splendid effect of his imperial presence working for an age
of equity’. 40
After four pages entitled the sultanic kanun, where the principles are set forth
as crisp rules, the remaining thirty-six pages of the Ahkam-ı Meriye, penned by
the sheikh-ul-Islam Ahmed Arif Hikmet el-Hüseyni, are composed of fetwas
with a question and response, positive or negative. 41 The whole ends with a long
paragraph of praise for the sultan’s noble grace in widening access to rights in
miri lands. The text was sent to muftis throughout the realm; in Damascus the
law is found in a slightly abridged version copied by hand and in an addition to
an earlier fetwa collection. 42
The change to rules governing the devolution of miri land was first announced
modestly behind two other legal undertakings: that all abandoned land (mahlulat)
should revert to the treasury and that to counter the production of irregular and
unsuitable titles, all tapu temessükü documents should be presented to and entered
into ledgers in the registry (defterhane) which in turn was to deliver stamped and
printed documents for the same. 43 Thus, the widening of rights to miri land,
its transmission down the family line in the manner of property not office, was
linked to the promise of greater administrative control over certification of that
right. A tapu regulation of 1847 gave detailed instructions for the voluntary
exchange of tapu documents in government offices. 44 No longer was the court or
local administrator empowered to issue a new tapu for land, rather the district
council was to prepare a first document to be sent to the administration of the
sanjak from where, once the fee had been paid, a document was to be issued to
the persons concerned.
1850s–60s: law as blueprint for institution
Taken against the background of earlier law what major changes did the
legislation of the late 1850s and 1860s introduce? The central acts of this period
are the Land Code (Kanun-i Arazi) of 1858, the Tapu Nizamnamesi of 1859 and
the Vilayet Law of 1864.
In its form the Land Code breaks with earlier law; it makes no reference to
earlier laws or sultanic proclamations, summarizing all provisions within its
bounds. Every clause from the introductory section through the last is numbered.
The introduction of the Code divides land into five types (memluke, emiriyye,
mevkufe, metruke and mevat) but the Code effectively concerns only miri lands
45
Legal reform from the 1830s