"[T]he product of two workshops on land and land records ... at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard in the spring of 1995 and 1996"--P. vii. Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-333) and index. Contents: Property as a contested domain : a reevaluation of the Ottoman land code of 1858 / Huri Islamoglu -- Village authority and the legal order of property (the southern Hawran, 1876-1922) / Martha Mundy -- A comparative examination of the provisions of the Ottoman land code and Khedive Sa�id's law of 1858 / Denise Jorgens -- Demarcating the British colonial state : land settlement in the Palestinian Jiftlik villages of Sajad and Qazaza / Martin Burton -- A note on land and identity : from Ze�amet to Waqf / Amy Singer -- Ownership of real property by foreigners in Syria, 1869 to 1873 / Abdul-Karim Rafeq -- Practicing Musha� : common lands and the common good in southern Syria under the Ottomans and the French / Birgit Schaebler. Gift of Hugh Galford.