Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/232

{{rh|192|{{smaller|LAND TENURE IN PALESTINE.}|}} Masha'â, undivided, held equally, in common, as the property of the whole community and not in plots or parcels of land belonging separately to any of the various individual members of the community. Masha'a lands cannot become mulk. They belong to the Imperial State and only, the Hak el Muzarâ'a, the right of sowing or cultivating, belongs to the community. No houses or buildings may be erected and no trees may be planted on these lands without special permission from the highest Imperial Treasury authorities. If this be obtained the house or trees then become mulk or freehold, but the land on which they stand is still regarded as ameeriyeh.

The masha'a lands of a village are distributed or apportioned each year for cultivation during that year to the various members of the community who desire or who are able to cultivate them—that is to plough and to sow them with grain.

Each individual member of the community has the right by inheritance to plough and to sow in the masha'a lands by virtue of the Hak el Muzarâ'a, the right of cultivating, and these lands are divided into equal portions according to the number of faddan (pl. fadadeen), in the village.

A faddan,, in the ordinary sense means a yoke of oxen; on the hills and light lands it is invariably so; but in the low country and on the plains a faddan means two yoke or pair of oxen, and, where the soil is very heavy, four pair.

A faddan of land,, faddan wattah, is a piece of land which it takes a day for a yoke of oxen to plough. Its size would be about the same in the hill country as in the low country; the soil on the former being light can be easily ploughed by a pair of oxen working from sunrise till sunset, while in the latter, being heavy, it would require two or four pair of oxen to plough in the same length of time.

A plough is called a, ô'od, stick or reed. The lands of a village may therefore be divided among ten faddan and yet be ploughed by 20 ô'ods.

The masha'a lands are divided equally among all the inhabitants who wish to cultivate them. Such are called shaddad, plural  shaddadeen, from, to gird, to bind, to prepare or make ready; and each shaddad receives an allotment of land according to the number of faddan he intends to employ. Thus one man receives an allotment of land for one faddan, another for two faddan, and so on. Sometimes the land is divided into half faddan for such a villager who only owns one ox. Two villagers owning one ox each work together on one plough drawn by the pair of oxen—one day on the land allotted to the one, and the next day on the land allotted to the other.