Governing property, making the modern state - PSI424

Part two | 5
N
Jordan River
Lake
Tiberias
Yarmuk River
Wadi al-'Arab
Wadi Ziqlab
Wadi
Wadi
10 km
AL-SARU
AL-WUSTIYA
AL-KURA
al-Yabis
'AJLUN
K u frinja
KUFRINJA
AL-KAFARAT
'Ajlun
Zarqa River
BANI JUHMA
Irbid
BANI 'UBAYD
AL-MI'RAD
58
BANI HASAN
Elevation
Metres Approximate
900
300
delimitation
of nahiye s
0
Below sea level
Map 5.2 The district
of `Ajlun: topography
and nahiyes
although here even greater caution is needed in interpreting the results. No houses
appear to have been registered among the Bani Hasan, where structures were
generally tents, carved cave dwellings, and grain stores. 7 But lack of houses did
not mean an absence of agriculture in the area. Even in the core of the district,
where built settlements were the rule, we should be wary of assuming a one-to-one
correspondence between housing, population and cultivation. Thus, no houses
were registered in the village of al-Mukhaiba in the valley of the Yarmuk River,
whose inhabitants Schumacher described as Arabs, i.e. tent dwellers. 8 The people
of al-Mukhaiba cultivated both rain-fed and irrigated plots in date palm plantations
and field crops. The area under cultivation compares well, moreover, with
that farmed in the important village of Malka on the plateau above (Map 5.4).
And the form of their dwellings was not to prevent the people of al-Mukhaiba
from waging a fierce battle in defence of their titles to land. 9
Nevertheless, the distribution of houses reveals certain patterns (Map 5.5).
Although the number of houses was small in most villages, several distinct
regional clusters of settlement can be distinguished. 10 The number of houses is a
telling index, but the base, that of a house, does not represent an identical unit