Ar. Vol.10;Schick

ARAM, 9-10 (1997-1998), 563-575 R. SCHICK 563 THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF PALESTINE/JORDAN IN THE EARLY OTTOMAN PERIOD ROBERT SCHICK The Early Ottoman period (16th-17th centuries) in Palestine/Jordan has not yet been fully accepted as a serious topic for archaeological inquiry. The later 19th and 20th centuries have been the topic of numerous ethnographic and ethno- archaeological studies, and the earlier Crusader-Ayyubid/Mamluk periods is re- ceiving increasing attention. But studies of the material remains of the earlier Ottoman period remain few. One glaring example of that lack of interest is the recent handbook of the types of pottery in Jordan,1 which covers everything from the Neolithic period up to the Mamluk period, and which could easily have added a couple more pages to include the Ottoman and modern period to make the book complete, but doesn't. Also the Seventh Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan in Copenhagen in June, 1998 had no presentations on any sites later than the Ayyubid period; the earlier conferences, by contrast, did. But rather than bemoan further such lack of interest, this article has the objec- tive of surveying the state of knowledge of the material culture of the early Otto- man period. The situation is not all bleak; indeed there have now been four Ph.D. theses that deal at least in part with the archaeology of Palestine/Jordan in the 16th-17th centuries: Ziadeh's study of the excavated Ottoman period archaeological remains of the village of Ti‘innek;2 Brown's study of pottery production in the Late Islamic period;3 Kareem's study of settlement in the Jordan Valley in the Late Islamic period, based on his excavations at the site of Dhra‘ al-Khan;4 and Baram's theoretical modeling for the study of the material culture of the Ottoman period, in which he examines tobacco pipes as an exceptionally informative class of objects about broader economic and social developments.5 There are also several MA theses of note, such as Brown's study of Late Is- lamic settlement of the Karak plateau in Jordan,6 as well as al-Malkawi's study of Late Mamluk-Early Ottoman period water mills in Wadi Kufranjah in north- 1 R. Hendrix, P. Drey and J. B. Storfjell, Ancient Pottery of Transjordan. (Berrien Springs, 1996). 2 G. Ziadeh, Change and Continuity in a Palestinian Village: An Archaeological Study of Otto- man Ti‘innek. (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1991). 3 R. Brown, Late Islamic Ceramic Production and Distribution in the Southern Levant: A Socio- Economic and Political Interpretation. (Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1992). 4 Kareem, J., The Settlement Patterns in the Jordan Valley in the Mid- to Late Islamic Period. (Ph.D. dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin, 1993). 5 U. Baram, Material Culture, Commodities, and Consumption in Palestine, 1500-1900. (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1996). 6 R. Brown, Late Islamic Settlement Patterns on the Kerak Plateau, Trans-Jordan. (MA thesis, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1975). 564 THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF PALESTINE/JORDAN IN THE EARLY OTTOMAN PERIOD ern Jordan;7 Abu Armayis' study of the Late Islamic period remains of the village of Artas and Solomon's Pools south of Bethlehem;8 and ‘Ubaydat's study of the Ottoman hajj forts in southern Jordan,9 among a larger number dealing with pottery typologies of the Mamluk period that could well be continuing into the early Ottoman period. Archaeological work on the early Ottoman period was pioneered by the Franciscans. The Franciscans have been the custodians of the various Christian Holy Places since the Mamluk period and they have maintained a continuous presence in Palestine since then. In the course of the 20th century, the Franciscans carried out excavations at the various Christian holy places, often in conjunction with the construction of modern churches over the remains of earlier Byzantine and Crusader churches, and their excavation reports frequently mention some finds from the Franciscan presence there in the early Ottoman period. Thus, for example, Bagatti's excavations at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, where there was a Franciscan presence since 1620, when they obtained the grotto, followed by their construction of a major new church in 1730, produced a quan- tity of fine ware pottery that the Franciscans were importing from Tuscany.10 The reports of the Franciscan excavations at Ein Kerem are also noteworthy for the information they include about the early Ottoman period, often documented from historical records.11 Indeed the first person to pay attention to the architectural monuments of the Ottoman period was another Franciscan, Elzear Horn, who was resident in Jeru- salem in the early 1700s.12 He mentioned a number of early Ottoman buildings in Jerusalem, including the baths and produced elevation drawings of them. He connects the Tekkiye of Khasseki Sultan with the spurious Christian association as the hospital of St. Helena and also records the bath building of the Sultan Sulayman the Magnificent on the Via Dolorosa, which Christians later were to adopt for the commemoration of the Third Station of the Cross. There have been a few excavation projects that have paid close attention to the remains from the early Ottoman period, such as at the villages of Ti‘inek in Palestine, Khirbat Faris, and Dhra‘ al-Khan in Jordan.13 But other excavators have been less broad-minded. The uppermost Ottoman strata at tell sites, com- 7 M. al-Malkawi, al-Tawahin al-Ma’iyah fi Wadi Kufranjah fi al-‘Asr al-Mamluki al- Muta’akhkhir – wa-Mustahall al-‘Asr al-‘Uthmani (Dirasat al-Taqniyah). (MA thesis, Yarmouk University, 1994); see J. Greene, “The Water Mills of the ‘Ajlun-Kufranja Valley: The Relation- ship of Technology, Society and Settlement”. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 5 (1995), pp. 757-765. 8 I. Abu Armayis, al-Athar al-Islamiyah fi Qaryat Artas. (MA thesis, al-Quds University, 1996). 9 I. ‘Ubaydat, al-Khanat al-Islamiyah fi Janub al-Urdun Khilal al-‘Asr al-‘Uthmani. (MA thesis, Yarmouk University, 1998). 10 B. Bagatti, Gli Scavi di Nazaret. Volume 2: Dal secolo XII ad oggi. (Jerusalem, 1984). 11 S. Saller, Discoveries at St. John's, ‘Ein Karim 1941-1942. (Jerusalem, 1946); B. Bagatti, Il Santuario della Visitazione ad ‘Ain Karim (Montana Judaeae). (Jerusalem, 1948). 12 E. Horn, Ichnographiae Monumentorum Terrae Sanctae (1724-1744). (Jerusalem, 1962). 13 Ziadeh, Change.; A. McQuitty and R. Falkner, The Faris Project: Preliminary Report on the 1989, 1990 and 1991 Seasons. Levant 25 (1993), pp. 37-61; Kareem, Settlement, idem, The Site of R. SCHICK 565 monly cemeteries, have often been summarily removed by excavation projects interested in earlier remains with at best only perfunctory publication. The me- ticulous documentation of hundreds of cist burials in the Muslim bedouin cemetery at Tell Hesi is a remarkable exception.14 HISTORICAL STUDIES The 16th and 17th centuries are the first period for which there is an extensive surviving documentary record, and so the history of the period is better known than the archaeological remains. The types and varieties of Ottoman government documents remain a vast source of information that awaits study, and can only be noted in passing here. Among the studies of history and historical geography that are based on primary Ottoman documents, one can cite Heyd's collection of Ottoman documents;15 Hütteroth and Abdulfattah's study of a late-16th century defter (census document produced for taxation purposes);16 Cohen and Lewis' study of population;17 al-Bakhit and Hmoud's defter publications;18 and Arna’ut's publication of the endowment document of Sinan Bek, the Ottoman governor of Syria in the late 16th century.19 Collections of texts of the records of the Islamic law court in Jerusalem have also been published.20 But much more information can be gained from the Ottoman documents along the lines of some other gen- eral historical studies.21 Dhra‘ al-Khan: A Main Caravanserai on Darb al-Quful. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, 6 (1997), pp. 365-369. 14 L. Toombs, Tell el Hesi: Modern Military Trenching and Muslim Cemetery in Field I, Strata I- II. Waterloo, 1985); J. K. Eakins, Tell el-Hesi: The Muslim Cemetery in Fields V and VI/IX (Stratum II). The Joint Archaeological Expedition to Tell el-Hesi Volume Five. Winona Lake, 1993). 15 U. Heyd, Ottoman Documents on Palestine, 1552-1615. (Oxford, 1960). 16 W.-D. Hütteroth and K. Abdulfattah, Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. (Erlangen, 1977); W.-D. Hütteroth, “The Pattern of Set- tlement in Palestine in the Sixteenth Century. Geographical Research on Turkish Defter-i Mufassal”, Pp. 3-10 in Moshe Ma‘oz, (ed.), Studies on Palestine During the Ottoman Period. (Jerusalem, 1975). 17 A. Cohen and B. Lewis, Population and Revenue in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century. Princeton, 1978). 18 M. al-Bakhit and N. Hmoud,The Mufassal Defter of Marj Bani ‘Amir and its Dependents Entrusted to Amir Tarabey 945 A.H./1538 A.D.. (Amman, 1989); idem, The Detailed Defter of al- Lajjun Tapu Defteri No:181 1005 A.H./1596 A.D. (Amman, 1989); idem,The Detailed Defter of Liwa’ ‘Ajlun (The District of Ajlun) Tapu Defteri No: 970 Istanbul. (Amman, 1989), among others. 19 M. al-Arna’ut, Mu‘atiyat ‘an Dimashq wa-Bilad al-Sham al-Janubiyah fi Nihayat al-Qarn al-Sadis ‘Ashar. (Damascus, 1993). 20 M. ‘Ata Allah,Watha’iq al-Tawa’if al-Hirafiyah fi al-Quds fi al-Qarn al-Sabi‘ ‘Ashar.

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