Yuval BEN-BASSAT 89 IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE∞: Petitions sent from Palestine to Istanbul from the 1870’s Onwards “∞The rich people in our village have become utterly poor and they need alms, and for the same reason some of the people of the village have even had to leave their original place of birth and flee to other lands.∞” The villagers of Sarafand al-Kubra in a petition to the Grand-Vizier in 1879 M uch of the fast growing body of studies dealing with the history of Palestine at the end of the 19th century focuses either on the political and ideological aspects pertaining to the early Arab — proto-Zionist encoun- ters,1 including the Jewish immigration and colonization activity,2 or the Department of Middle Eastern History, University of Haifa [email protected] 1 To cite only a few of the main works dealing political-ideological issues, see Neville J. MANDEL, The Arabs and Zionism before World War I (Berkeley∞: University of Califor- nia Press, 1976)∞; Kemal KARPAT, “∞Ottoman Immigration Policies and Settlement in Pal- estine,∞” in Abu-Lughod, Ibrahim and Baha Abu-Laban (eds.), Settler Regimes in Africa and the Arab World∞: The Illusion of Endurance (Wilmette∞: Medina University Press International, 1974), p. 57-72∞; Mim Kemal ÖKE, “∞The Ottoman Empire, Zionism and the Question of Palestine (1880-1908),∞” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 14 (1982), p. 329-341∞; Yosef GORNY, Zionism and the Arabs, 1882-1948∞: a Study of Ideology (Oxford∞: Clarendon Press, 1987)∞; Anita SHAPIRA, Land and Power∞: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948 (New-York∞: Oxford University Press, 1992). 2 For instance see Yossi BEN-ARTZI, Early Jewish Settlement Patterns in Palestine, 1882-1914 (Jerusalem∞: Magnes Press, 1997)∞; Ran AARONSOHN, Rothschild and Early Jew- ish Colonization in Palestine (Lanham∞: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000). Turcica, 41, 2009, p. 89-114. doi: 10.2143/TURC.41.0.2049289 © 2009 Turcica. Tous droits réservés. 993119_Turcica41_04_Bassat-ME.indd3119_Turcica41_04_Bassat-ME.indd 8899 77/07/10/07/10 115:275:27 90 YUVAL BEN-BASSAT effects of the Ottoman reforms and efforts to achieve greater centraliza- tion on the political, administrative, legal, and bureaucratic levels.3 How- ever, generally speaking, in comparison to other areas of interest less attention has been directed to social studies, especially based on Ottoman and Arabic sources.4 Rarely used documents from the collections of the Prime Ministerial Ottoman Archive in Istanbul, the Ba≥bakanlık Osmanlı Ar≥ivi, enable us an in-depth bottom-up socio-historical investigation of the history of Palestine during the late Ottoman period and provide an invaluable firsthand account of the ongoing transformations experienced by its population, while setting these events into their broader Ottoman context. In particular, the petitions shed new light on rural areas of Pal- estine about which there is shortage of primary sources5 and relatively few studies,6 which reflect the voice of the local population.7 3 To cite only a few of the main works dealing with various aspects of the Ottoman reforms, see Haim GERBER, “∞The Ottoman Administration of the Sanjaq of Jerusalem, 1890-1908,∞” The New East, vol. XXIV/1 (1974), p. 1-33 [in Hebrew]∞; GERBER, Ottoman Rule in Jerusalem, 1890-1914 (Berlin∞: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1985)∞; GERBER, “∞A New Look at the TanÂimat∞: The Case of the Province of Jerusalem,∞” in Kushner, David (ed.), Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period∞: Political, Social, and Economic Transformation (Leiden∞: Brill, 1986), p. 30-45∞; David KUSHNER, “∞The Last Generation of Ottoman Rule in Eretz Israel, 1882-1914,∞” in Israel Kolatt (ed.), The History of the New Jewish Com- munity in Eretz-Israel since 1882∞: The Ottoman Period (vol. I), p. 1-74 [in Hebrew]∞; KUSHNER, “∞Ottoman Rule in Palestine during the Second Aliyah Period,∞” in Israel Bartal (ed.), The Second Aliyah- Studies (Jerusalem∞: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Press, 1997), p. 60-74 [in Hebrew]∞; KUSHNER, A Governor in Jerusalem∞: The City and Province in the Eyes of Ali Ekrem Bey, 1906-1908 (Jerusalem∞: Yad Ben-Zvi, 1995) [in Hebrew]∞; Butrus ABU- MANNEH, “∞The Rise of the Sanjak of Jerusalem in the Late Nineteenth Century,∞” in Ilan Pappe’ (ed.), The Israel/Palestine Question (London∞: Routledge, 1999), p. 41-51∞; Alex- ander SCHÖLCH, Palestine in Transformation 1856-1882∞: Studies in Social, Economic and Political Development (Washington, D.C∞: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2006). 4 One field of research which has developed considerably in recent years and teaches us a great deal about Palestine’s social history at the end of the 19th century is the study of shari’a records. However, these records primarily reflect the life of the urban popula- tion, whereas the rural population tends to play only a secondary role in the sicils. More- over, as valuable as they are, the shari‘a records provide only part of the picture since the shari‘a courts were increasingly restricted to family and inheritance matters. Several key works on this topic include Mahmud YAZBAK, Haifa in the Late Ottoman Period, 1864- 1914∞: a Muslim Town in Transition (Leiden∞: Brill, 1998)∞; Amnon COHEN, Jews in the Moslem Religious Court∞: Society, Economy and Communal Organization in the XIX Cen- tury∞: Documents from Ottoman Jerusalem (Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2003) [in Hebrew]∞; Iris AGMON, Family & Court∞: Legal Culture and Modernity in Late Ottoman Palestine (Syra- cuse, NY∞: Syracuse University Press, 2006). 5 The result of the destruction of hundreds of Arab villages in the war in 1948, the fact that a-priori virtually all the rural Arab population was illiterate and left scant written evidence for the next generations, and the paucity of well established and well organized Palestinian national archives and research institutions to date. For more information see 993119_Turcica41_04_Bassat-ME.indd3119_Turcica41_04_Bassat-ME.indd 9900 77/07/10/07/10 115:275:27 IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE 91 During the second half of the 19th century, as part of the general reforms in the Ottoman Empire and the effort to revive and strengthen the hold of the central government over the Empire’s provinces, a series of new bureaucratic, fiscal, and administrative measures were carried out in an ongoing process that was implemented unevenly in various parts of the Empire. One key measure was land reforms which were designed to achieve greater uniformity and centralization in the land system and increasing revenues from land taxes. Its centerpiece was “∞the registration of all lands in the land registry office, in the name of the actual posses- sors of the right of usufruct (tasarruf). A no less important consideration was the wish to consolidate the state’s rights and privileges over the land, which legally, of course, belonged to it as miri-land.∞”8 Other measures included a reorganization of the tax collection system and various admin- istrative changes aimed at strengthening governmental control and make it more efficient. In Palestine, as will be seen in this article, these reforms Rashid KHALIDI, Palestinian Identity∞: The Construction of Modern National Conscious- ness (New-York∞: Columbia University Press, 1997), p. 89-93. 6 The most developed field of research on rural Palestine during the late Ottoman period is historical geography. Research, however, is often based on European and Jewish sources whereas less attention has been paid throughout the years, until recently, to Arabic and Ottoman sources. In addition, the research questions that tend to be explored are usu- ally very different from the kind which interests historians, and examine population dis- tribution, the density of the population, patterns of settlement, purchase of lands, govern- mental settlement policies and the like. Several major works in this field include David GROSSMAN, Arab Demography and Early Jewish Settlement in Palestine∞: Distribution and Population Density during the Late Ottoman and Early Mandate Periods (Jerusalem∞: Magnes, 2004), p. 144-181 [in Hebrew]. Grossman’s book is the most comprehensive work written in recent years on Palestine demography during the late Ottoman period, particularly with regard to the rural population∞; Yehoshua BEN-ARIEH, “∞The Population of the Sandjak Acre in the 1870s,∞” Shalem, 4 (1984), p. 306-328 (in Hebrew)∞; BEN-ARIEH, “∞The Villages in Sancak Gaza (including Jaffa and Ramla) in the 1870s,∞” Shalem, 5 (1987), p. 139-187 [in Hebrew]∞; Ruth KARK and Michal OREN-NORDHEIM, Jerusalem and its Environs∞: Quarters, Neighborhoods, Villages, 1800-1948 (Detroit∞: Wayne State Uni- versity Press, 2001)∞; Ruth KARK, Jaffa∞: a City in Evolution, 1799-1917 (Jerusalem∞: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Press, 1990)∞; Roy FISCHEL and Ruth KARK, “∞Sultan Abdülhamid II and Palestine∞: Private lands and Imperial Policy, New Perspectives on Turkey, 39 (Fall 2008), p. 126-166. 7 The best example of a manuscript of this kind is Beshara DOUMANI’s Rediscovering Palestine∞: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900 (Berkeley∞: University of California Press, 1995)∞; however, there is still no comprehensive study based on Ottoman sources or shari‘a records of Palestine’s rural population at the end of the 19th century comparable to the one written by Amy Singer on the region of Jerusalem in the 16th cen- tury. See Amy SINGER, Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials∞: Rural Administration around Sixteenth-Century Jerusalem (Cambridge∞: Cambridge University Press, 1994). 8 GERBER, Ottoman Rule in Jerusalem, p. 199. 993119_Turcica41_04_Bassat-ME.indd3119_Turcica41_04_Bassat-ME.indd 9911 77/07/10/07/10 115:275:27 92 YUVAL BEN-BASSAT dramatically transformed the lives of the agriculturally based population and the nature of its interaction with the state. The latter was working to tighten its control over the Holy Land particularly in light of growing international attention it attracted after the restoration of Ottoman rule there in the early 1840’s. Much can be learned about these transformations from petitions (arzuhals) submitted to the central Ottoman government by various segments of the population of Palestine.