Ottoman Land Code of 1858 Facts for Kids

The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 was a big step in changing how land was owned and managed in the Ottoman Empire. This happened during a time of major reforms called the Tanzimat period in the mid-1800s. It was followed by another important law in 1873 that further changed land rules.

Understanding Land Before 1858
- How Land Was Tracked Before the Code
The 1858 Land Code: A New Beginning
The 1858 Land Code in Palestine
See also

Understanding Land Before 1858

Before 1858, in places like Ottoman Syria (which was part of the Ottoman Empire), local farmers usually worked the land. How land was owned depended on old customs and traditions. Often, a whole village would own land together. Sometimes, individuals or families owned it.

The Ottoman Empire had five main types of land:

Arazi Memluke: These were lands owned completely by private people. They could get these lands through winning battles, gifts from the state, or by inheriting them. The Ottoman Empire collected taxes on these lands.
Arazi Mirie: These were lands owned by the state or the Sultan. The Sultan could give these lands to loyal people, important officials (like viziers), or army leaders. People kept these lands by paying money to the Empire.
Arazi Mevkufe: This was land that was given for a good cause, like supporting a religious or charity foundation (called a Vakf). The taxes from these lands would go to that specific cause instead of to a person.
Arazi Metruke: These were lands set aside for public use, like roads or paths.
Arazi Mevat: These were "dead lands." This meant they were empty, not farmed, and nobody claimed to own them.

The idea that land was owned by a group of people in a village (called Musha land tenure) was often thought to be ended by the 1858 law, but this wasn't actually the case.

How Land Was Tracked Before the Code

Before the 1858 Land Code, people held land based on different things. This included special orders from the Sultan, gifts from conquerors, decisions from courts, orders from government officials, and sales recorded in religious courts. Sometimes, people also took over empty state land or used other unofficial ways to get large land holdings.

If land was obtained legally, it was supposed to be reported to Constantinople (the capital city). There, officials tried to keep records in special books called the daftar khaqani, which were like imperial land registers.

The 1858 Land Code: A New Beginning

The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 was a new law created by the Ottoman government. It wasn't exactly like European laws or entirely based on traditional Islamic law. Instead, it combined old land practices with some ideas from Islamic law.

In 1858, the Ottoman Empire introduced this new law. It made it a rule that all land owners had to register their land. The government had two main reasons for this:

To collect more taxes from land.
To have more control over the different areas of the empire.

Why Some People Didn't Like It

Many small farmers didn't think they needed to register their land. There were a few reasons for this:

If you registered your land, you might have to join the Ottoman Army for military service.
Many people simply didn't like new rules from the Ottoman government.
People wanted to avoid paying new taxes and registration fees.

What Happened After the Code

The process of registering land wasn't always fair. Land that was owned by a whole village was sometimes registered in the name of just one person. Also, rich merchants and local Ottoman officials registered huge areas of land in their own names.

This meant that land legally belonged to people who might not have ever lived there. Meanwhile, the local people, who had farmed the land for many generations, became tenants (renters) for owners who lived far away.

How Land Was Classified by the New Law

Along with the 1858 Land Code, the government also passed the Land Registration Law of 1858. This was to help manage land laws better and make it easier to collect taxes on property.

The Ottoman land law divided land into five main types:

Waqf: This was property given for a religious or charitable purpose. The income from this land would go to support foundations like schools or mosques.
Mülk: This was private land, owned completely by individuals. It was often land given by the Ottoman conquerors to Muslims, or taxed land given to Christians in exchange for protection.
Miri: This was state-owned land. It was given out for public use, but the ultimate owner was still the state. This could also mean empty state land or private land where people had the right to use it. If miri land was left uncultivated for three years, or became empty, it could go back to the state (this was called mahlul).
Matruka: This was communal land used by everyone, like roads, cemeteries, and pastures. This included Meraʿa land, which was pasture land mainly for nearby villages.
Mewat/Mawat: This was "dead" land – empty and not farmed. It was usually more than 1.5 miles away from any town or village and not claimed by anyone.

Differences in Different Regions

How much these land laws applied varied from one country under Ottoman rule to another. It depended a lot on the specific region.

The 1858 Land Code in Palestine

During Late Ottoman Rule (1858-1918)

In Palestine, for example, not all these land types were common. There was very little mulk (privately owned) land, mostly found in old cities or garden areas. Rural mulk land was rare. Most land in Palestine was either Waqf, miri, or matruka and mawat (dead and undeveloped land).

Under British Rule (1917-1948)

When the British took control of Palestine in late 1917 after the Ottoman Empire broke apart, they continued to use the Ottoman Land Code of 1858. The British government officially recognized these laws.

Under the Ottoman law that the British used, houses were mostly privately owned (called mulk land). However, most land was seen as miri land. This meant it was given by the state to a village or group of villages, and individuals couldn't own it privately. Instead, people leased it for an unlimited time, and their lease meant they had to pay land taxes and registration fees. The state kept the ultimate ownership of miri land.

When the British took over, the land tax was about 12.5% of the total crops produced. This tax was collected from farmers. In 1925, new laws said that taxes on crops shouldn't be more than 10%. Later, in 1928, the British government in Palestine started a new system where villages paid a fixed amount of tax each year, based on what they had paid in the previous four years.

In 1936, a survey showed that out of Palestine's total area, about 500 square miles were State Lands. At that time, Arabs used 51% of these State Lands, and Jews used 17%.

West Bank Under Jordanian and Israeli Rule

By June 1967, only about a third of the land in the West Bank had been officially registered. After taking control, Israel quickly stopped people from registering their land with the Jordanian Land Register in 1968. For the other two-thirds of the land, claims depended on old Turkish or British registration papers, or tax records and proof of purchase under Jordanian law.

Israel stopped these procedures and claimed that three of the five old Ottoman land categories – miri, matruke, and mawat – were state land. They used changes made by the British, like the Mawat Land Ordinance of 1921, to support this. However, the Jordanian government had never considered these three types as state land, and only a very small part of the West Bank was registered as such under Jordanian rule.

Ottoman Land Code of 1858 facts for kids

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