The 1888 Ottoman Land Law: How Registration Changed Palestine

In 1888, the Ottoman Empire issued a new land registration decree that would reshape Palestine for decades to come. While earlier episodes have explored land disputes and peasant revolts, this episode dives into the bureaucratic machinery behind it: the 1888 Law of 1858 Amendments, the role of the Tapu (land registry) offices, and how absentee ownership and debt pushed many fellahin off their ancestral plots. Lucas and Luna unpack the story through the lens of a single village — Beit Jibrin — tracing how its residents navigated the new system, the rise of the effendi class, and the legal loopholes that allowed large-scale land transfers to Zionist settlers in the 1890s and 1900s. They also discuss the controversy around the 1858 Ottoman Land Code itself, whose 'miri' (state-owned) land category became a battleground for competing claims. By focusing on the administrative and legal mechanics, this episode reveals how a seemingly dry regulation paved the way for the land conflicts that define Palestinian history.

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