Register n° 321, from 10 December 1836 to 27 March 1838 (Gregorian) - 1 Ramadân 1252 to End of Dhû al-Hijja 1253 (Islamic)

Identity area

Reference	IL-UH/Sijillat
Title	Sharia Court Registers of Jerusalem (Sijillat)
Covering dates	1834-01-01-1920-12-31
Dates Start	1834-01-01
Dates End	1920-12-31
Level of description	Fonds
Extend and medium	Global extent: to be completed; 102 selected and described registers

Context area

Repository	Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa (UH)
Name of creator(s)	Islamic Court of Jerusalem (MSQS)

Content and structure area

Description	The Sharia court records constitute one the richest sources for the social and economic history of Jerusalem, since this court was, “by and large, the sole legal arbiter and a primary instrument of social control” (Doumani, 1985) until Ibrahim Pasha’s reforms in the 1830s. These records deal with all realms of human interaction, from personal status issues, sales contracts, building permits to civil and criminal cases. However, after the Ottoman judicial reforms of 1876 and the establishment of the nizamîya court system, the sharia courts were no longer dealing with criminal cases and less civil cases could be taken before them. Their function was further curtailed by the British mandate authorities who limited them to the Muslim community. The shari‘a court registers (sijillât mahkama shar‘îyya) of Jerusalem represent the oldest and most complete collection of Ottoman period court registers in Palestine, covering the years 1529-1917. Microfilms dating from the Ottoman period are accessible in the Islamic Archives in Abu Dis, at the Centre for Manuscripts and Documents of the University of Jordan in Amman, in the library of the University of Al-Najah in Nablus and in the library of the University of Haifa. The described items were selected according to the period covered by the project and the earthquake of 1837.
Accruals	The collection is increasing.
System of arrangement	Chronological.

Conditions of access and use

Conditions governing access	Subject to the authorization of Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa (UH)
Finding aids	Index prepared by University of Jordan: “Al Quds al-Sharîf: wathâiqha wa sijillâtha wa makhtûtâtha al musawwira fî marqaz al wathâiq wa’l makhtûtât fî al jâmi‘â al-urduniya, 936/1529 - 1404/1984”, edited by A.M. Bakhit, N. R. Hmûd, A. A. Khraysât, Amman, 1991.

Allied materials area

Publication notes

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-middle-east-studies/article/palestinian-islamic-court-records-a-source-for-socioeconomic-history/BF4B70014BD52F9E3D898B2D1DCB7284
Beshara B. Doumani, “Palestinian Islamic Court Records: A Source for Socioeconomic History”, in Middle Eastern Studies Bulletin, Volume 19, Issue 2, December 1985 , pp. 155-172, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026318400016114
Musa Sroor, “Jerusalem’s Islamic Archives,” Jerusalem Quarterly 22/23 (2005): 80-85.
Abla S. Al-Muhtadi, “The Social history of Jerusalem during late Ottoman and Mandate from Sharia Court Registers of Jerusalem”, lecture at Institut français du Proche-Orient (IFPO), Amman, on November 24th, 2014.
Abla Muhtadi and Falestin Naïli, "Back into the Imperial Fold: The End of Egyptian Rule through the Court Records of Jerusalem, 1839–1840", in Angelos Dalachanis, Vincent Lemire (eds), Ordinary Jerusalem, 1840-1940: Opening New Archives, Revisiting a Global City, Leiden: Brill, 2018 (forthcoming).

Catalogue references area

Rules or conventions	International standard for archival description, General, etc.
Date of the catalogue	Catalogue prepared on November 2017
Archivist's notes	Description of 102 registers from the Sharia Court Registers of Jerusalem (1834-1920) held by University of Jordan (Amman) by Katharine Halls, Alya Tarek, Falestin Naili, Abla Muhtadi, 2017.
Sources	http://www.archives.openjerusalem.org/index.php/sharia-court-registers-of-jerusalem-sijillat

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Fonds - 1 : Sharia Court Registers of Jerusalem (Sijillat)