I hope you will like this lecture style video about the systems of Land Control in the Middle East. Please, don't be afraid to comment or voice any questions as I love interacting with you my dear viewers and I will try to respond as quickly as possible to you. Also, please like, subscribe & push the bell icon as those actions do help this channel to grow!
Sources and further reading: Ahmed, F. Z. (2021). Muslim conquest and institutional formation. Explorations in Economic History, 81, Alvi Amalia Lutfi, Miftahul Nur Khasanah, Erlinda Dhika Agustin, Denok Setiowati, Nasywa Ayu Yulita, & Fahmi Medias. (2024). Integrated Waqf Farm: A Contemporary Model for Waqf Land Development. Ulul Albab (Semarang), 7(2), 202-211. Amir Hossein Hatami. (2020). The study of historical evolution of the position of the dehgan from aristocratic landowner to rural farmer From ancient times to the sixth century AH. Pizhūhish/hā-yi tārīkhī-i Īrān va Islām 14(26), 73-92. Badian, E. (2015, December 22). cura(tio), curator. Oxford Classical Dictionary. Bartusis, Mark C. (2012). Land and privilege in Byzantium: the institution of pronoia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Bartusis, Mark C. (1984). The late byzantine soldier: a social and administrative study. Cuno, K. (1999). Ideology and Juridical Discourse in Ottoman Egypt: the Uses of the Concept Of Irsãd. Islamic Law and Society, 6(2), 136-163. Cohen, J. M. (1974). Peasants and feudalism in Africa: The case of Ethiopia. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 8(1), 155-157. Decker, M. (2009). Tilling the hateful earth: agricultural production and trade in the late antique East. Oxford University Press. Delattre, A. (2018). Authority and control in the countryside from antiquity to Islam in the Mediterranean and Near East (6th-10th century Dig. 50 tit. 8 s. 9 § 2; 2 tit. 14 s. 37. Frenkel, Y. (1999). Political and Social Aspects of Islamic Religious Endowments (awqāf): Saladin in Cairo (1169-73) and Jerusalem (1187-93). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 62(1), 1-20. Gäbrä Maryam, Aläqa Tayyä,1987, YaʾItyop'yā hezb tārik : History of the people of Ethiopia; translated by Grover Hudson and Tekeste Negash, Uppsala : Centre for Multiethnic Research Ibrahim, B. (2009). Beyond State and Peasant: The Egalitarian Import of Juristic Revisions of Agrarian and Administrative Contracts in the Early Mamlūk Period. Islamic Law and Society, 16(3-4), 337-382. Inalcik, Halil. An Economic and Social history of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994 Igarashi, D. (2019). The waqf-endowment strategy of a Mamluk military man: the contexts, motives, and purposes of the endowments of Qijmās al-Isḥāqī (d. 1487). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 82(1), 25-53. Kyrris, C. P. (1961). Urban and rural conditions in the Byzantine Empire from the end of the thirteenth to the middle of the fourteenth century. Lambton, Ann K. S. (1988). Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia. SUNY Press. Lewis, Bernard. “Ottoman Land Tenure and Taxation in Syria.” Studia Islamica. (1979), pp. 109-124 Livingston, D. (2020). Paperwork of a Mamluk Muqṭaʿ: Documentary Life Cycles, Archival Spaces, and the Importance of Documents Lying Around. Al-ʻUṣūr al-Wusṭá, 28(1). Maniati-Kokkini, T. (2013). Were Byzantine Monks Of The 13th-15th Centuries Holders Of Imperial Grants? Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta, 2013(50/2), 629-644. Miller, Isabel (2017). "Dihqān". In Madelung, Wilferd; Daftary, Farhad (eds.). Encyclopaedia Islamica Online. Brill Online. M.M. Amīn, Al-Awqāf wa-l-Ḥayāt al-Ijtimāʿiyya fī Miṣr 648-923 A.H./1250-1517 A.D. (Cairo: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya, 1980) Munro-Hay, Stuart,1991 ,Aksum : an African civilization of late antiquity, Edinburgh :Edinburgh University Press MOUSTAKAS, K. (2009). Early Evidence on the Introduction of Timar in the Balkans and its Use as a Means of Incorporation. The pronoia of Laskaris. Südost-Forschungen, 68, 63-95. Mutafčieva, Vera P. (1988). Agrarian relations in the Ottoman Empire in the 15th and 16th centuries. Boulder: East European Monographs NADVI, S. H. H. (1971). AL-"IQṬĀ’"-OR THEORY OF LAND OWNERSHIP IN ISLAM " ﺍﻻﻗﻂﺎﻉ ". Islamic Studies, 10(4), 257-276. Ozel, Oktay. “Limits of the Almighty: Mehmed II’s ‘Land Reform’ Revised.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 42 (1999), pp. 226-246 O’Fahey. (1997). Endowment, Privilege, and Estate in the Central and Eastern Sudan. Islamic Law and Society, 4(3), 334-351 Pankhurst, Richard, 1982. History of Ethiopian towns from the Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century. Wiesbaden: Steiner Pankhurst, Richard Keir Patrick, 1961, An introduction to the economic history of Ethiopia from early times to 1800. London: Lalibela House Paul, Jürgen (2015). "Dihqān". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. Pourshariati, Parvaneh (2008). Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire. I.B. Tauris. Rabie, H. M. (1968). The financial system of Egypt, 564-741 A.H./1169-1341 A.D. Reindl-Kiel, Hedda. “A Woman Timar Holder in Ankara Province during the Second half of the 16th Century.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 40 (1997), pp. 207-238 Tafażżolī, Aḥmad (2011). "DEHQĀN". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Ulpian, De Officio Curatoris Reipublicae. Yale Law School, “Agrarian Law; 111 B.C”, avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/agrarian_law.asp , 2008 Lillian Goldman Law Library from Ancient Roman statutes : translation, with introduction, commentary, glossary, and index by Allan Chester Johnson, Paul Robinson Coleman-Norton, Frank Card Bourne ; general editor, Clyde Pharr Austin : University of Texas Press, 1961 Zolotovskiy, V. A. (2015). Pronoia in the Military Organization of the Byzantine Empire at Early Palaeologian Period. Part 1. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Serii͡a︡ 4, Istorii͡a, 20(3). + own expertise + a lot of personal material & attended seminars that will not be revealed here due to privacy concerns, or that were too much to add to this list (or that was simply not added because I lost the original reference list for this video = I was dumb), but if you have questions ask as this is a field I have a lot of expertise in and I know that a lot of stuff related to the subjects discussed in this video.
@@mwarangethenjoguu7849 Hello, the source list is in the response of the pinned comment, I am sorry for the rough outline of it, I kind of lost the old reference list for this video 😅, but I hope it is good enough👍
This video interested me. Land-ownership in the Middle East in antiquity is not a topic one hears about everyday. TY for teaching me many things I did not know.
We need more videos like it and I have a question do you plan to do a video about what muslim and Christians and Jews and our groups at the Middle East think Of the past before The modern day how much about the religion culture history they knew how they got it how much is real how much is legends
I have had kind of ideas to talk about Arab popular history and how those things actually differ from what is thought happened according to academic studies and knowledge.
Great video 👍 I have a question do you plan do this The system of lthe land in different regions of the world and another question about vampires in media books and TV shows and movies do you ever see a vampire who has a weakness of religion use other than Christianity like Judaism Islam Hinduism and another question what is the reason anime is popular like it’s from a foreign countries many countries of the world like it in your opinion what is the reason
👍 I do plan to do some sort of land system comparison with systems outside of the Middle East (though this will be bit further in the future as I need to explain some things before that). Regarding vampires & various religions other than Christianity, in for example Vampire the Masquerade the vampires are affected by for example faith rather than by any specific religion. Anime is popular probably because there are so many different anime and the production quality and quantity is so high when you look at it as whole that at least some of it will catch on with at least some audience somewhere.
👍 I actually kind of did when I mentioned the Turks spreading the dihqan system as the iqtaa'iya systems that those used can actually be seen as continuations of the Persian dihqaan system(s) with just slight modifications.
The differences were not really large enough or clearly distinct enough that I thought it would be worth to mention them as distinct. The main differences were that the later systems were more in theory ((keyword: in theory )) formalized & centralized granting of land usage rather than ownership from the hegemony , but in practice it was still rather decentralized & informal and in theory a one way relationship of lord over client subjects, but in practice the sub-ordinate land grantees often were the deciders of land-usage informally too & sometimes also assumed direct ownership too & often were given ownership too and also previously under earlier dihqan & dihqan-like systems you had similar tendencies there too. The video is more of a rough overview and thus I did not go into these details about these sub-systems within these greater system types.
"Mosque congregation" ? Is this swede really just copy pasting the parish system found in europe to the lands of the true faith? Please do not make any more content regarding this subject. "mosque congregation" had never been a thing by which property is distributed, nor were there any 'mosque leaders.' They arranged themselves according to clans, not land. Waqf = Charitable trust. That's it, that's what it means. It is a private donation, it may be donated for a specific mosque, but it is strictly non-profit based. Not only is it non-profit based, the family of the person who donated the waqf may not be a part of its management. See the works of Professor Richard Bulliet for further reading, he had a course on history of modern middle east, discusses this in some detail. P.S. Use the hijri calendar, the common calendar was made up in the year 535 and dated retroactively (also only widely adopted ~9th century) , unlike the former which was continuously maintained.
It is sometimes rather hard to explain things plainly in detail and thus simplification and generalizations are needed. And the system has many similarities enough to be a useful short-hand. Furthermore, many of the awqaaf connected to land were managed through the local mosques (certain Sultanic/caliphal ones being an exception) which often in theory (depending on various factors) were a communal affair and though they often got taken over by one clan or the other and there often were "mosque leaders" in practice that managed a mosque, it was the mosque, connected to & answerable to God & the local community, as an institution that handled them, not individuals or families in theory (though practice often differed). Regarding the awqaaf and not managing them, sure in theory ideally people that donated were/are not supposed to mange them, but in practice, unofficially, they often did and they could still benefit from them. Like say a bit of farmland was donated and now formally was under X mosque's ownership/control 'management', but it was under the condition that x relative or friend got the ability to work the land (and the excess production was taken by the mosque and/or other services got rendered in exchange). And this could have various tax benefits and such. Lastly, I am using the BC/AD Gregorian calendar because, 1. I am dealing with more systems than just the Islamic systems here, 2. I am using a dating system that all viewers will be familiar with, the hijri system (which I tried in the past) usually causes confusion among people that are not familiar with it and 3 using both the hijri and the Gregorian is often too clumsy in videos. I hope this clarified matters.
It's an almost 40 minute video, there's more than enough space for some nuance. Waqf was not limited to land either, it could be land, or building for benefit of orphans, many schools as well were from a Waqf donation. Furthermore, there were no "serfs" under a mosque, or otherwise for that matter. Nor were there any slaves, as it is nonsenseical to have them under a 'mosque', seeing as how every verse in the Qur'an with regards to slaves is about freeing them, nor capturing or working them. serfdom is a peculiar European phenomenon. Christendom is the empirial religion, born under the auspices of constantine, the subjects were converted at the edge of the sword and rendered into slaves for his majesty, often referring to him as their lord. In Islam such slavery is unthinkable. The only lordship is that of the creator, no station into which man was brought into the lands of Islam was to any degree as bad as the repugnant chattel slavery brought by the primitive tribalism inherent in their texts. Constantine chose regularly to refer to himself as the “attendant of God” (famulus dei/therapon tou theou) in official writings. By the fifth century, this metaphor of subordination had been redeployed from theological to political contexts as the subjects of the emperor came to refer to themselves as “slaves of the emperor.” And by the sixth, Justinian insisted all his officials swear an oath that they would demonstrate their service to the emperor “with genuine slavehood” (gnesia douleia).b Building on Paul’s revalorization of the vocabulary of slavery, and particularly the word doulos came to be applied to a variety of hierarchical relationships, even as it also continued to be used specifically of chattel slaves. By the middle Byzantine period, this expansion of the semantic range of the root doul- eventually gave the abstract nominal form douleia, meaning laborer Insofar as everyone who partook in labor was considered to be a participant This epistemological world view is coherent with master-slave dynamic relationship between the head of the state and his subjects, or rather slaves. Scholars and rulers were not one and the same like in europe where the king claims divine authority. If anything most scholars were persecuted by the rulers (see Mihna or "A brief biography of al-Hajjaaj ibn Yoosuf ath-Thaqafi" for before that, as apparently there are no half decent English sources for him ). Separation of "church and state" was not a christian innovation, rather they copied it a millennia later. It's not an issue of in theory/in practice. It differed according to different schools of jurisprudence. BCE ought to be used, but it doesn't really make sense, seeing as how the first 7 centuries had not much new going on, whether that be intellectually or otherwise. Civilisation really started with Islam. P.S. The ethipian kafalah system, I doubt there are any documentation from that period regarding it, It's most likely retroactively dated and fabricated. As the name is Arabic.
@@mznxbcv12345 "It's an almost 40 minute video, there's more than enough space for some nuance. Waqf was not limited to land either, it could be land, or building for benefit of orphans, many schools as well were from a Waqf donation. " Well I actually never claimed it was limited to land, I just discussed the waqf with regards to land donations and sure I probably ought to have clarified what a waqf was more. But for the intents of the video it only dealt with land usage here. "Furthermore, there were no "serfs" under a mosque, or otherwise for that matter. Nor were there any slaves, as it is nonsenseical to have them under a 'mosque', seeing as how every verse in the Qur'an with regards to slaves is about freeing them, nor capturing or working them. serfdom is a peculiar European phenomenon." Serfdom is not an European exclusive phenomena, as it is simply inter-generational familiy agreements of land-usage and many of the waqf agreements connected to land were based upon several generations of a family working the land. Nor does serfdom mean that you are mistreated or have an unfair agreement, this is a stereotype born from some rather bad examples that are not applicable to all serfdom. And, sure there exist commands to free slaves in various circumstances, but the institution of slavery itself was not in question. Slavery was utilized and this is a historical fact and you can also go into various early works of fiqh and see that slavery definitely was a thing whose various legal considerations were discussed. Also slavery was often utilized indirectly too, with the one agreed upon to work the waqf donated land using them to work for him, Mosque institution -> Land caretaker/Serf -> slaves. "Christendom is the empirial religion, born under the auspices of constantine, the subjects were converted at the edge of the sword and rendered into slaves for his majesty, often referring to him as their lord. In Islam such slavery is unthinkable. The only lordship is that of the creator, no station into which man was brought into the lands of Islam was to any degree as bad as the repugnant chattel slavery brought by the primitive tribalism inherent in their texts. Constantine chose regularly to refer to himself as the “attendant of God” (famulus dei/therapon tou theou) in official writings. By the fifth century, this metaphor of subordination had been redeployed from theological to political contexts as the subjects of the emperor came to refer to themselves as “slaves of the emperor.” And by the sixth, Justinian insisted all his officials swear an oath that they would demonstrate their service to the emperor “with genuine slavehood” (gnesia douleia).b Building on Paul’s revalorization of the vocabulary of slavery, and particularly the word doulos came to be applied to a variety of hierarchical relationships, even as it also continued to be used specifically of chattel slaves. By the middle Byzantine period, this expansion of the semantic range of the root doul- eventually gave the abstract nominal form douleia, meaning laborer" Sure Islamic ideals generally and also practice does not have the centralized top-down lordship of certain christian polities, I have not claimed this and Islamicate structures were often more localized, but I very much disagree with the fact that the in Islam such slavery is unthinkable as you do have conquests and subjugation of non-muslims, beginning with the conquests of the polytheists on the Arabian peninsula and the imposition of Jiziya & kharaaj taxes which were generally higher than the zakaah and other taxes that had to be paid by Muslims, for example in Egypt during the immediate takeover the imposition was 2 dinars which on a normal wage of probably about 10-20 dinars was about 10-20% (and could be more if you were poorer), compare this with the zakah the was usually around 1/40 about 2.5% though could under certain circumstances be up to 1/20 and thus 5%. You also had executions of people declared apostates from Islam, and the killing of people doing missionary activity for other religions or people just declared as having done this, at various points in Islamicate history. Furthermore, you do have mass slavery that result in revolts at times such as the Zanj rebellion in the 9th century too, and this is not to even mention the various mamluuk revolts and take overs that also happen later. "Scholars and rulers were not one and the same like in europe where the king claims divine authority. If anything most scholars were persecuted by the rulers (see Mihna or "A brief biography of al-Hajjaaj ibn Yoosuf ath-Thaqafi" for before that, as apparently there are no half decent English sources for him )." I never claimed they were the same, though this does not mean that scholars were not men of power themself either. They were much did represent a type of an elite that had considerable power and often local control, which is why they ultimately won against the Mu'tazila Abbasids, who proved to be weaker in their central authority versus the scholars. Furthermore after the mihna the Mu'tazila were similarly persecuted too. And these were conflicts about the power of interpretation, because religion very much mattered as the guiding ideology of power. "Separation of "church and state" was not a christian innovation, rather they copied it a millennia later." Here I kind of disagree, though there have existed some similar thought elsewhere and even in Islamicate civilization, I would say that the concept of separation does descend from certain latin concepts, the christian focus upon orthodoxy rather than orthopraxy combined with the evolution of the 2 swords doctrine. As these factors clearly outline a theological groundwork for viewing "BCE ought to be used, but it doesn't really make sense, seeing as how the first 7 centuries had not much new going on, whether that be intellectually or otherwise." I use BC (before christ) rather than BCE (before common era) because I do not think it is good to pretend that the calendar comes from anything else but a christian origin with its relational dating (I am not a Christian, but I will not pretend about what this historical reality is, before common era implies a sort of universality that is not there). Sure the first 7 centuries were not as productive in the Middle East & Europe as before. But, you still have certain impressive thinkers such as Hero of Alexandria & Galen, you have the rise of Christianity & the codification of it alongside rather impressive theological thinking, the development of jewish theological and halakha(law) traditions, you have Justinian who codifies and standardizes law, in the first truly coherent unitary system of law, the Justinian code, and you actually do have pretty important developments happening elsewhere outside of the Middle East & Europe too such as paper being developed in China, porcelain being invented and the toothbrush (which I very much prefer over the miswak)! "Civilisation really started with Islam." Civilization has existed faar before the time of Muhammad's supposed revelation, you have cities being developed several thousands of years before including civilizations on the Arabian peninsula itself. You can see the development of early law & statecraft, mathematicians & rather impressive engineering in Mesopotamia. "P.S. The ethipian kafalah system, I doubt there are any documentation from that period regarding it, It's most likely retroactively dated and fabricated. As the name is Arabic." Kefl (kafaala is another word) is the Ethiopian ge'ez term (from the same consonant root as كفالة (being from k, f & l) but has a different core-semantic meaning, which is not that surprising as both Ge'ez and Arabic descend from a common shared language ancestor as both are Semitic languages) for a given land section (it can also be translated as "grant" or "allotment" outside of land more generally hence it is actually closer to waqf in meaning than anything else) and was used for divisions of land dedicated to churches and local trusted men and these sorts of dedications actually were marked upon stones to delineate borders.
No. There were no such thing as serfs in the Islamic world, disagree with BCE but use nonsense like islamicate? What a joke. Ge'ez is pidgin Arabic. It has no core whatever, the "semetic root" system is copied from Arabic, which Arabic grammarians innovated. Furthermore, civilisation really did start with Islam, up until then the ruler was perceived divine remained so in the lands of ignorance, until the Enlightenment of Islam shone through the translations from Arabic during the renaissance and the enlightenment.
Textual criticism in christianity began when the bible was first translated into european vernavular in the 16th century (was translated into Arabic in the 19th century), it reached a professional level around the 19-20th century and is still ongoing today, In Islam however it started in the first century. Unlike the Quran, the hadith are transmitted oral accounts which were written 1 century after they happened and even in the canonical collections of Bukhari and Muslim there are several narrations of the same hadith due to some people paraphrasing and others forgetting part of it. Most of the hadith are without context, this is not to take from the value of hadith as in practice it was the first serious endeavor of having authentication of the historical record. The hadith are transmitted by way of chains of narration, x heard from y who heard from z that .... took place, a study of who x, who y, and who z were and whether what they are saying is true by checking what others had said about them and whether they had indeed met those who they are purported to have taken the accounts from began and so the first "peer review" mechanism took place, all before the internet in the 2nd and 3rd centuries fo the hijra, which unlike the christian calendar has been continously kept, the current gregorian calendar for example was first instanced int he year 535 CE by Dionysius Exiguus, the 25th of December in addition for example being the pagan holdiay of the roman deirty 'Sol Invictus' is clearly shown in the "Chronograph of 354", the earliest christian calendar predating the current one, but I digress, the writing down of hadith was forbidden by the prophet himself for the aforementioned issue (people forgetting, paraphrasing, taking words out of context) only the Quran was ordered to have been written and linguistically they are too far apart, it is clear that the Matn of some hadith, the substance or the wording was altered as the language used seems to be more "modern" instead in instances. Arabic had not changed in any significant way since the Abbasids, 1200 years ago sound as "modern" as things written in the last 50 years. Arabic is the oldest continuously spoken language in the world, the only possible corollary, Chinese, has script which has no relation to the actual language hence why Japanese and old Vietnamese use it, event the script itself was only codified in the 1700s in the Kangxi emperor's dictionary. A miracle in plain sight Hadith for example has several levels of correctness, from Hasan which means "well" to rejected as pertains to the Matn or the substance of the hadith itself, the "isnad" of the Hadith or the chains of transmission / citation also have varying levels from Marfu' meaning quoted without having actually met any of the people in the transmission chain or a second hand account or Mudalas meaning plagarised from another transmitter of hadith without citing and Marfud meaning outright rejected for various reasons, There is another layer of complexity here called ilm-aa-rijal, the study of the bibliography of those in the chains of transmission themselves and their soundness whether objectively by crosschecking where they lived and whom they met or subjectively by seeing what their peers said about them regarding their character. Those unaware of the aforementioned would not only have not been allowed to cite hadith it would have been a criminal offense and there are hadith which clearly contradict one another and one ought not be citing hadith without knowing all other hadith from the colossal hadith collections that were written, even the earliest hadith collection, Musannaf Abdel Razaq Al-Sanani ( 137-211H / 744- 827 CE) and Musannaf of Ibn Abi Shaybah ( 159H-235H / 775-849 CE). for instance had over 53,000 hadith with their chains of transmissions included has yet to be translated into English . Yes, Bukhari and Muslim are taken the most correct as they had the most narrow criterion, but an enormous study is required before citing either one of them. Later scholars such an Al-Darqutni show that there were mistakes made. I say later here though he is still over a millennium old this seriousness of scholarship was the first endeavor of its kind in human history, what became today known as university degrees started with the institutions giving "ijaza" or certificate t transmit hadith and talk about it , indeed they are the origins of the University system we know today. This scientific method of studying hadith and jurisprudence was developed and already in practice in the 2nd and third centuries of the hijra (around 800 CE) back when most of europe did not have a written script for their vernacular, enormous encyclopedia such as the 40 volume history of Al-Tabari which, averages 400 pages per volume (and is only one of his works) were written, the only corollary of which in the west would have been the "decline and Fall of The Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbons in the 1700s, considered a watershed, a monument of its time, with a span that would have hardly constituted a volume and a half of Al-Tabari's encyclopedia and written a millennium later. Jabir Ibn Hayyan (101-199 H / 721-815 CE) the father of chemistry whose theories (distillation, measurement system, oxidaton, nature of substances, etc) remained dominant until the 18th century. and who was the first to elucidate the scientific method said: "The first thing that is required for anyone who seeks the knowledge of chemistry is that he should work with his hands and experiment, for he who does not work with his hands and does not experiment will not attain any degree of knowledge." Ibn al-Haytham (4th century of Hijra), referred to as "the Physicist" in Europe is famous for the first comprehensive scientific book on optics, before his study of optics and perspective paintings were entirely 2 dimensional, a leap after his treatises and works were translated is visible in how paintings became three dimensional, He discovered integral calculus (physicist, mathematician and astronomer who discovered calculus, Newton often references Arabic in his writings for a reason), is even still argued with today the work "The Enigma of Reason" primarily deals with his arguments. regarding the scientific method he said "The duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and... attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency." There are texts from the 800's CE debating whether, if one for example were to take a log of wood that was not theirs, make a column out of it and have it as a foundation of a house, later the original owner of the column comes back and demands the log to be retrieved into his custody and refuse monetary compensation ought the judge comply, tear down the structure and give him the log or ought he enforce a monetary compensation. this was 1200 years. Property rights were taken that seriously, you could not simply handwave it and enforce a monetary compensation as that property in question was not attained by proper channels, hence it' s ownership and how much ought be the compensation for it is judicated by its owner and no one else has the right to, not the governor or even the caliph. Stephen Langton, the writer of the Magna Carta (12th century, contemporary with the crusades for a reason) studied in the university of Paris which archives show had plenty of Arabic treatises in its procession, there can be no question about it being inspired by the "Sharia". Both the renessiance and the european enlightenment were directly preceded by massive translation movements form Arabic (see the Republic of Letters by Alexander Bevilacqua, The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization By: Jonathan Lyons. God did bring down the Qur’an, Mohamed is his Messenger.
I hope you will like this lecture style video about the systems of Land Control in the Middle East. Please, don't be afraid to comment or voice any questions as I love interacting with you my dear viewers and I will try to respond as quickly as possible to you. Also, please like, subscribe & push the bell icon as those actions do help this channel to grow!
Sources and further reading:
Ahmed, F. Z. (2021). Muslim conquest and institutional formation. Explorations in Economic History, 81,
Alvi Amalia Lutfi, Miftahul Nur Khasanah, Erlinda Dhika Agustin, Denok Setiowati, Nasywa Ayu Yulita, & Fahmi Medias. (2024). Integrated Waqf Farm: A Contemporary Model for Waqf Land Development. Ulul Albab (Semarang), 7(2), 202-211.
Amir Hossein Hatami. (2020). The study of historical evolution of the position of the dehgan from aristocratic landowner to rural farmer From ancient times to the sixth century AH. Pizhūhish/hā-yi tārīkhī-i Īrān va Islām 14(26), 73-92.
Badian, E. (2015, December 22). cura(tio), curator. Oxford Classical Dictionary.
Bartusis, Mark C. (2012). Land and privilege in Byzantium: the institution of pronoia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Bartusis, Mark C. (1984). The late byzantine soldier: a social and administrative study.
Cuno, K. (1999). Ideology and Juridical Discourse in Ottoman Egypt: the Uses of the Concept Of Irsãd. Islamic Law and Society, 6(2), 136-163.
Cohen, J. M. (1974). Peasants and feudalism in Africa: The case of Ethiopia. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 8(1), 155-157.
Decker, M. (2009). Tilling the hateful earth: agricultural production and trade in the late antique East. Oxford University Press.
Delattre, A. (2018). Authority and control in the countryside from antiquity to Islam in the Mediterranean and Near East (6th-10th century
Dig. 50 tit. 8 s. 9 § 2; 2 tit. 14 s. 37.
Frenkel, Y. (1999). Political and Social Aspects of Islamic Religious Endowments (awqāf): Saladin in Cairo (1169-73) and Jerusalem (1187-93). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 62(1), 1-20.
Gäbrä Maryam, Aläqa Tayyä,1987, YaʾItyop'yā hezb tārik : History of the people of Ethiopia; translated by Grover Hudson and Tekeste Negash, Uppsala : Centre for Multiethnic Research
Ibrahim, B. (2009). Beyond State and Peasant: The Egalitarian Import of Juristic Revisions of Agrarian and Administrative Contracts in the Early Mamlūk Period. Islamic Law and Society, 16(3-4), 337-382.
Inalcik, Halil. An Economic and Social history of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994
Igarashi, D. (2019). The waqf-endowment strategy of a Mamluk military man: the contexts, motives, and purposes of the endowments of Qijmās al-Isḥāqī (d. 1487). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 82(1), 25-53.
Kyrris, C. P. (1961). Urban and rural conditions in the Byzantine Empire from the end of the thirteenth to the middle of the fourteenth century.
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+ own expertise + a lot of personal material & attended seminars that will not be revealed here due to privacy concerns, or that were too much to add to this list (or that was simply not added because I lost the original reference list for this video = I was dumb), but if you have questions ask as this is a field I have a lot of expertise in and I know that a lot of stuff related to the subjects discussed in this video.
Hi. References please? Thanks 🙏
@@mwarangethenjoguu7849 Hello, the source list is in the response of the pinned comment, I am sorry for the rough outline of it, I kind of lost the old reference list for this video 😅, but I hope it is good enough👍
@@vardekpetrovic9716 It might be that beer was important for the development of the neolithic revolution, I will have to look it up.
@@vardekpetrovic9716 What do you mean about reliable source?
33:50 could you do a video about it
I will write it up on my potential to do list.
30:58 could you do a video about it
👍
Already on my to do list!
very well researched and informative video, thanks for your efforts.
👍 I am glad you appreciate my efforts!
For years i have waited for some information on this!
I hope it did not disappoint! 👍
This video interested me. Land-ownership in the Middle East in antiquity is not a topic one hears about everyday. TY for teaching me many things I did not know.
👍 Always glad to provide knowledge about topics like this!
We need more videos like it and I have a question do you plan to do a video about what muslim and Christians and Jews and our groups at the Middle East think Of the past before The modern day how much about the religion culture history they knew how they got it how much is real how much is legends
I have had kind of ideas to talk about Arab popular history and how those things actually differ from what is thought happened according to academic studies and knowledge.
Really good video👍
Keep it going❤️
👍 I will keep it up!
Great video 👍 I have a question do you plan do this The system of lthe land in different regions of the world and another question about vampires in media books and TV shows and movies do you ever see a vampire who has a weakness of religion use other than Christianity like Judaism Islam Hinduism and another question what is the reason anime is popular like it’s from a foreign countries many countries of the world like it in your opinion what is the reason
👍
I do plan to do some sort of land system comparison with systems outside of the Middle East (though this will be bit further in the future as I need to explain some things before that). Regarding vampires & various religions other than Christianity, in for example Vampire the Masquerade the vampires are affected by for example faith rather than by any specific religion. Anime is popular probably because there are so many different anime and the production quality and quantity is so high when you look at it as whole that at least some of it will catch on with at least some audience somewhere.
Been waiting for this for a loong time
I am happy to provide!👍 And this is kind of an expertise of mine!
As another said, thabks man
I am always happy to hear the appreciation of my viewers! 👍
you should have included the systems under the seljuks and mongol empires which diminated the middle east for long periods of time
👍 I actually kind of did when I mentioned the Turks spreading the dihqan system as the iqtaa'iya systems that those used can actually be seen as continuations of the Persian dihqaan system(s) with just slight modifications.
The differences were not really large enough or clearly distinct enough that I thought it would be worth to mention them as distinct. The main differences were that the later systems were more in theory ((keyword: in theory )) formalized & centralized granting of land usage rather than ownership from the hegemony , but in practice it was still rather decentralized & informal and in theory a one way relationship of lord over client subjects, but in practice the sub-ordinate land grantees often were the deciders of land-usage informally too & sometimes also assumed direct ownership too & often were given ownership too and also previously under earlier dihqan & dihqan-like systems you had similar tendencies there too.
The video is more of a rough overview and thus I did not go into these details about these sub-systems within these greater system types.
"Mosque congregation" ? Is this swede really just copy pasting the parish system found in europe to the lands of the true faith? Please do not make any more content regarding this subject. "mosque congregation" had never been a thing by which property is distributed, nor were there any 'mosque leaders.' They arranged themselves according to clans, not land.
Waqf = Charitable trust. That's it, that's what it means. It is a private donation, it may be donated for a specific mosque, but it is strictly non-profit based. Not only is it non-profit based, the family of the person who donated the waqf may not be a part of its management. See the works of Professor Richard Bulliet for further reading, he had a course on history of modern middle east, discusses this in some detail.
P.S. Use the hijri calendar, the common calendar was made up in the year 535 and dated retroactively (also only widely adopted ~9th century) , unlike the former which was continuously maintained.
It is sometimes rather hard to explain things plainly in detail and thus simplification and generalizations are needed. And the system has many similarities enough to be a useful short-hand. Furthermore, many of the awqaaf connected to land were managed through the local mosques (certain Sultanic/caliphal ones being an exception) which often in theory (depending on various factors) were a communal affair and though they often got taken over by one clan or the other and there often were "mosque leaders" in practice that managed a mosque, it was the mosque, connected to & answerable to God & the local community, as an institution that handled them, not individuals or families in theory (though practice often differed).
Regarding the awqaaf and not managing them, sure in theory ideally people that donated were/are not supposed to mange them, but in practice, unofficially, they often did and they could still benefit from them. Like say a bit of farmland was donated and now formally was under X mosque's ownership/control 'management', but it was under the condition that x relative or friend got the ability to work the land (and the excess production was taken by the mosque and/or other services got rendered in exchange). And this could have various tax benefits and such.
Lastly, I am using the BC/AD Gregorian calendar because, 1. I am dealing with more systems than just the Islamic systems here, 2. I am using a dating system that all viewers will be familiar with, the hijri system (which I tried in the past) usually causes confusion among people that are not familiar with it and 3 using both the hijri and the Gregorian is often too clumsy in videos.
I hope this clarified matters.
It's an almost 40 minute video, there's more than enough space for some nuance. Waqf was not limited to land either, it could be land, or building for benefit of orphans, many schools as well were from a Waqf donation.
Furthermore, there were no "serfs" under a mosque, or otherwise for that matter. Nor were there any slaves, as it is nonsenseical to have them under a 'mosque', seeing as how every verse in the Qur'an with regards to slaves is about freeing them, nor capturing or working them. serfdom is a peculiar European phenomenon. Christendom is the empirial religion, born under the auspices of constantine, the subjects were converted at the edge of the sword and rendered into slaves for his majesty, often referring to him as their lord. In Islam such slavery is unthinkable. The only lordship is that of the creator, no station into which man was brought into the lands of Islam was to any degree as bad as the repugnant chattel slavery brought by the primitive tribalism inherent in their texts. Constantine chose regularly to refer to himself as the “attendant of God” (famulus dei/therapon tou theou) in official writings. By the fifth century, this metaphor of subordination had been redeployed from theological to political contexts as the subjects of the emperor came to refer to themselves as “slaves of the emperor.” And by the sixth, Justinian insisted all his officials swear an oath that they would demonstrate their service to the emperor “with genuine slavehood” (gnesia douleia).b Building on Paul’s revalorization of the vocabulary of slavery, and particularly the word doulos came to be applied to a variety of hierarchical relationships, even as it also continued to be used specifically of chattel slaves. By the middle Byzantine period, this expansion of the semantic range of the root doul- eventually gave the abstract nominal form douleia, meaning laborer
Insofar as everyone who partook in labor was considered to be a participant This epistemological world view is coherent with master-slave dynamic relationship between the head of the state and his subjects, or rather slaves.
Scholars and rulers were not one and the same like in europe where the king claims divine authority. If anything most scholars were persecuted by the rulers (see Mihna or "A brief biography of al-Hajjaaj ibn Yoosuf ath-Thaqafi" for before that, as apparently there are no half decent English sources for him ). Separation of "church and state" was not a christian innovation, rather they copied it a millennia later.
It's not an issue of in theory/in practice. It differed according to different schools of jurisprudence.
BCE ought to be used, but it doesn't really make sense, seeing as how the first 7 centuries had not much new going on, whether that be intellectually or otherwise. Civilisation really started with Islam.
P.S. The ethipian kafalah system, I doubt there are any documentation from that period regarding it, It's most likely retroactively dated and fabricated. As the name is Arabic.
@@mznxbcv12345
"It's an almost 40 minute video, there's more than enough space for some nuance. Waqf was not limited to land either, it could be land, or building for benefit of orphans, many schools as well were from a Waqf donation. "
Well I actually never claimed it was limited to land, I just discussed the waqf with regards to land donations and sure I probably ought to have clarified what a waqf was more. But for the intents of the video it only dealt with land usage here.
"Furthermore, there were no "serfs" under a mosque, or otherwise for that matter. Nor were there any slaves, as it is nonsenseical to have them under a 'mosque', seeing as how every verse in the Qur'an with regards to slaves is about freeing them, nor capturing or working them. serfdom is a peculiar European phenomenon."
Serfdom is not an European exclusive phenomena, as it is simply inter-generational familiy agreements of land-usage and many of the waqf agreements connected to land were based upon several generations of a family working the land. Nor does serfdom mean that you are mistreated or have an unfair agreement, this is a stereotype born from some rather bad examples that are not applicable to all serfdom.
And, sure there exist commands to free slaves in various circumstances, but the institution of slavery itself was not in question. Slavery was utilized and this is a historical fact and you can also go into various early works of fiqh and see that slavery definitely was a thing whose various legal considerations were discussed. Also slavery was often utilized indirectly too, with the one agreed upon to work the waqf donated land using them to work for him, Mosque institution -> Land caretaker/Serf -> slaves.
"Christendom is the empirial religion, born under the auspices of constantine, the subjects were converted at the edge of the sword and rendered into slaves for his majesty, often referring to him as their lord. In Islam such slavery is unthinkable. The only lordship is that of the creator, no station into which man was brought into the lands of Islam was to any degree as bad as the repugnant chattel slavery brought by the primitive tribalism inherent in their texts. Constantine chose regularly to refer to himself as the “attendant of God” (famulus dei/therapon tou theou) in official writings. By the fifth century, this metaphor of subordination had been redeployed from theological to political contexts as the subjects of the emperor came to refer to themselves as “slaves of the emperor.” And by the sixth, Justinian insisted all his officials swear an oath that they would demonstrate their service to the emperor “with genuine slavehood” (gnesia douleia).b Building on Paul’s revalorization of the vocabulary of slavery, and particularly the word doulos came to be applied to a variety of hierarchical relationships, even as it also continued to be used specifically of chattel slaves. By the middle Byzantine period, this expansion of the semantic range of the root doul- eventually gave the abstract nominal form douleia, meaning laborer"
Sure Islamic ideals generally and also practice does not have the centralized top-down lordship of certain christian polities, I have not claimed this and Islamicate structures were often more localized, but I very much disagree with the fact that the in Islam such slavery is unthinkable as you do have conquests and subjugation of non-muslims, beginning with the conquests of the polytheists on the Arabian peninsula and the imposition of Jiziya & kharaaj taxes which were generally higher than the zakaah and other taxes that had to be paid by Muslims, for example in Egypt during the immediate takeover the imposition was 2 dinars which on a normal wage of probably about 10-20 dinars was about 10-20% (and could be more if you were poorer), compare this with the zakah the was usually around 1/40 about 2.5% though could under certain circumstances be up to 1/20 and thus 5%. You also had executions of people declared apostates from Islam, and the killing of people doing missionary activity for other religions or people just declared as having done this, at various points in Islamicate history. Furthermore, you do have mass slavery that result in revolts at times such as the Zanj rebellion in the 9th century too, and this is not to even mention the various mamluuk revolts and take overs that also happen later.
"Scholars and rulers were not one and the same like in europe where the king claims divine authority. If anything most scholars were persecuted by the rulers (see Mihna or "A brief biography of al-Hajjaaj ibn Yoosuf ath-Thaqafi" for before that, as apparently there are no half decent English sources for him )."
I never claimed they were the same, though this does not mean that scholars were not men of power themself either. They were much did represent a type of an elite that had considerable power and often local control, which is why they ultimately won against the Mu'tazila Abbasids, who proved to be weaker in their central authority versus the scholars. Furthermore after the mihna the Mu'tazila were similarly persecuted too. And these were conflicts about the power of interpretation, because religion very much mattered as the guiding ideology of power.
"Separation of "church and state" was not a christian innovation, rather they copied it a millennia later."
Here I kind of disagree, though there have existed some similar thought elsewhere and even in Islamicate civilization, I would say that the concept of separation does descend from certain latin concepts, the christian focus upon orthodoxy rather than orthopraxy combined with the evolution of the 2 swords doctrine. As these factors clearly outline a theological groundwork for viewing
"BCE ought to be used, but it doesn't really make sense, seeing as how the first 7 centuries had not much new going on, whether that be intellectually or otherwise."
I use BC (before christ) rather than BCE (before common era) because I do not think it is good to pretend that the calendar comes from anything else but a christian origin with its relational dating (I am not a Christian, but I will not pretend about what this historical reality is, before common era implies a sort of universality that is not there).
Sure the first 7 centuries were not as productive in the Middle East & Europe as before. But, you still have certain impressive thinkers such as Hero of Alexandria & Galen, you have the rise of Christianity & the codification of it alongside rather impressive theological thinking, the development of jewish theological and halakha(law) traditions, you have Justinian who codifies and standardizes law, in the first truly coherent unitary system of law, the Justinian code, and you actually do have pretty important developments happening elsewhere outside of the Middle East & Europe too such as paper being developed in China, porcelain being invented and the toothbrush (which I very much prefer over the miswak)!
"Civilisation really started with Islam."
Civilization has existed faar before the time of Muhammad's supposed revelation, you have cities being developed several thousands of years before including civilizations on the Arabian peninsula itself. You can see the development of early law & statecraft, mathematicians & rather impressive engineering in Mesopotamia.
"P.S. The ethipian kafalah system, I doubt there are any documentation from that period regarding it, It's most likely retroactively dated and fabricated. As the name is Arabic."
Kefl (kafaala is another word) is the Ethiopian ge'ez term (from the same consonant root as كفالة (being from k, f & l) but has a different core-semantic meaning, which is not that surprising as both Ge'ez and Arabic descend from a common shared language ancestor as both are Semitic languages) for a given land section (it can also be translated as "grant" or "allotment" outside of land more generally hence it is actually closer to waqf in meaning than anything else) and was used for divisions of land dedicated to churches and local trusted men and these sorts of dedications actually were marked upon stones to delineate borders.
No. There were no such thing as serfs in the Islamic world, disagree with BCE but use nonsense like islamicate? What a joke. Ge'ez is pidgin Arabic. It has no core whatever, the "semetic root" system is copied from Arabic, which Arabic grammarians innovated. Furthermore, civilisation really did start with Islam, up until then the ruler was perceived divine remained so in the lands of ignorance, until the Enlightenment of Islam shone through the translations from Arabic during the renaissance and the enlightenment.
Textual criticism in christianity began when the bible was first translated into european vernavular in the 16th century (was translated into Arabic in the 19th century), it reached a professional level around the 19-20th century and is still ongoing today, In Islam however it started in the first century. Unlike the Quran, the hadith are transmitted oral accounts which were written 1 century after they happened and even in the canonical collections of Bukhari and Muslim there are several narrations of the same hadith due to some people paraphrasing and others forgetting part of it. Most of the hadith are without context, this is not to take from the value of hadith as in practice it was the first serious endeavor of having authentication of the historical record. The hadith are transmitted by way of chains of narration, x heard from y who heard from z that .... took place, a study of who x, who y, and who z were and whether what they are saying is true by checking what others had said about them and whether they had indeed met those who they are purported to have taken the accounts from began and so the first "peer review" mechanism took place, all before the internet in the 2nd and 3rd centuries fo the hijra, which unlike the christian calendar has been continously kept, the current gregorian calendar for example was first instanced int he year 535 CE by Dionysius Exiguus, the 25th of December in addition for example being the pagan holdiay of the roman deirty 'Sol Invictus' is clearly shown in the "Chronograph of 354", the earliest christian calendar predating the current one, but I digress, the writing down of hadith was forbidden by the prophet himself for the aforementioned issue (people forgetting, paraphrasing, taking words out of context) only the Quran was ordered to have been written and linguistically they are too far apart, it is clear that the Matn of some hadith, the substance or the wording was altered as the language used seems to be more "modern" instead in instances. Arabic had not changed in any significant way since the Abbasids, 1200 years ago sound as "modern" as things written in the last 50 years. Arabic is the oldest continuously spoken language in the world, the only possible corollary, Chinese, has script which has no relation to the actual language hence why Japanese and old Vietnamese use it, event the script itself was only codified in the 1700s in the Kangxi emperor's dictionary. A miracle in plain sight
Hadith for example has several levels of correctness, from Hasan which means "well" to rejected as pertains to the Matn or the substance of the hadith itself, the "isnad" of the Hadith or the chains of transmission / citation also have varying levels from Marfu' meaning quoted without having actually met any of the people in the transmission chain or a second hand account or Mudalas meaning plagarised from another transmitter of hadith without citing and Marfud meaning outright rejected for various reasons,
There is another layer of complexity here called ilm-aa-rijal, the study of the bibliography of those in the chains of transmission themselves and their soundness whether objectively by crosschecking where they lived and whom they met or subjectively by seeing what their peers said about them regarding their character.
Those unaware of the aforementioned would not only have not been allowed to cite hadith it would have been a criminal offense and there are hadith which clearly contradict one another and one ought not be citing hadith without knowing all other hadith from the colossal hadith collections that were written, even the earliest hadith collection, Musannaf Abdel Razaq Al-Sanani ( 137-211H / 744- 827 CE) and Musannaf of Ibn Abi Shaybah ( 159H-235H / 775-849 CE). for instance had over 53,000 hadith with their chains of transmissions included has yet to be translated into English . Yes, Bukhari and Muslim are taken the most correct as they had the most narrow criterion, but an enormous study is required before citing either one of them. Later scholars such an Al-Darqutni show that there were mistakes made. I say later here though he is still over a millennium old this seriousness of scholarship was the first endeavor of its kind in human history, what became today known as university degrees started with the institutions giving "ijaza" or certificate t transmit hadith and talk about it , indeed they are the origins of the University system we know today.
This scientific method of studying hadith and jurisprudence was developed and already in practice in the 2nd and third centuries of the hijra (around 800 CE) back when most of europe did not have a written script for their vernacular, enormous encyclopedia such as the 40 volume history of Al-Tabari which, averages 400 pages per volume (and is only one of his works) were written, the only corollary of which in the west would have been the "decline and Fall of The Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbons in the 1700s, considered a watershed, a monument of its time, with a span that would have hardly constituted a volume and a half of Al-Tabari's encyclopedia and written a millennium later.
Jabir Ibn Hayyan (101-199 H / 721-815 CE) the father of chemistry whose theories (distillation, measurement system, oxidaton, nature of substances, etc) remained dominant until the 18th century. and who was the first to elucidate the scientific method said: "The first thing that is required for anyone who seeks the knowledge of chemistry is that he should work with his hands and experiment, for he who does not work with his hands and does not experiment will not attain any degree of knowledge."
Ibn al-Haytham (4th century of Hijra), referred to as "the Physicist" in Europe is famous for the first comprehensive scientific book on optics, before his study of optics and perspective paintings were entirely 2 dimensional, a leap after his treatises and works were translated is visible in how paintings became three dimensional, He discovered integral calculus (physicist, mathematician and astronomer who discovered calculus, Newton often references Arabic in his writings for a reason), is even still argued with today the work "The Enigma of Reason" primarily deals with his arguments. regarding the scientific method he said "The duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and... attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency."
There are texts from the 800's CE debating whether, if one for example were to take a log of wood that was not theirs, make a column out of it and have it as a foundation of a house, later the original owner of the column comes back and demands the log to be retrieved into his custody and refuse monetary compensation ought the judge comply, tear down the structure and give him the log or ought he enforce a monetary compensation. this was 1200 years. Property rights were taken that seriously, you could not simply handwave it and enforce a monetary compensation as that property in question was not attained by proper channels, hence it' s ownership and how much ought be the compensation for it is judicated by its owner and no one else has the right to, not the governor or even the caliph. Stephen Langton, the writer of the Magna Carta (12th century, contemporary with the crusades for a reason) studied in the university of Paris which archives show had plenty of Arabic treatises in its procession, there can be no question about it being inspired by the "Sharia".
Both the renessiance and the european enlightenment were directly preceded by massive translation movements form Arabic (see the Republic of Letters by Alexander Bevilacqua, The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization By: Jonathan Lyons.
God did bring down the Qur’an, Mohamed is his Messenger.