Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T10:38:16.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Politics of church land administration: the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in late Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine, 1875–1948

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

Konstantinos Papastathis  and
Ruth Kark
Konstantinos Papastathis
Affiliation:
University of Luxembourg konstantinos.papastathis@uni.lu
Ruth Kark
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ruthkark@mail.huji.ac.il
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article follows the course of the prolonged land dispute within the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem between the Greek religious establishment and the local Arab laity from the late Ottoman period to the end of the British Mandate (1875–1948). The article examines state policies in relation to Church-owned property and assesses how the administration of this property affected the inter-communal relationship. It is argued that both the Ottoman and the British authorities effectively adopted a pro-Greek stance, and that government refusal of the local Arab lay demands was predominantly predicated on regional and global political priorities.

Keywords

Vakf administrationLate Ottoman PalestineBritish MandateOrthodox Churchintra-communal relations
Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , October 2016 , pp. 264 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We are grateful to Professor Peter Mackridge and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. We also gratefully acknowledge the participants of the 21st International Congress of the Comité International des Études Pré-Ottomanes et Ottomanes (CIEPO) (Budapest, 2014) for their substantial critique and valuable feedback.

References

1 Kedourie, E., ‘Religion and politics’, in Kedourie, E. (ed.), The Chatham House Version and Other Middle Eastern Studies (Chicago 2004) 317 Google Scholar–42; Tsimhoni, D., ‘The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem during the formative years of the British Mandate in Palestine’, Asian and African Studies 12 (1978) 77–121 Google Scholar; Roussos, S., ‘Patriarchs, notables and diplomats: the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in the modern world’, in O'Mahony, A. (ed.), Eastern Christianity: Studies in Modern History, Religion and Politics (London 2004) 372–87;Google Scholar S. Roussos, ‘Greece and the Arab Middle East: the Greek Orthodox Communities in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, 1919–1940’, PhD thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1994, 134–211; Hopwood, D., The Russian Presence in Syria and Palestine, 1843–1914: Church and Politics in the Near East (Oxford 1969)Google Scholar; Stavrou, Th. G., Russian Interests in Palestine, 1882–1914: a Study of Religious and Educational Enterprise (Thessaloniki 1963)Google Scholar.

2 Matalas, P., ‘Το Πατριαρχείο Ιεροσολύμων και η ελληνορθοδοξία’, in School, Moraiti (ed.), Ορθοδοξία, έθνος και ιδεολογία (Athens 2007) 116.Google Scholar

3 K. Papastathis, ‘Secularizing the sacred: the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem as a representative of Greek nationalism in the Holy Land’, in Modern Greek Studies Yearbook (forthcoming).

4 Finn, J., Stirring Times: Or Records from Jerusalem Consular Chronicles of 1853 to 1856 (London 1878)Google Scholar I, 32–3, 82–3.

5 Bertram, A. and Luke, C. H., Report of the Commission Appointed by the Government of Palestine to Inquire into the Affairs of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem (London 1921) 195 Google Scholar.

6 Tamari, S., ‘Issa al Issa's unorthodox Orthodoxy: banned in Jerusalem, permitted in Jaffa’, Jerusalem Quarterly 59 (2014) 21 Google Scholar.

7 Katz, I. and Kark, R., ‘The Church and landed property: the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem’, Middle Eastern Studies 43 (2007) 385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Musaee, A. H. M., et. al., ‘Waqf land in the West Bank and investment current state of affairs’, Asian Social Science 10 (2014) 30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Katz, I. and Kark, R., ‘The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and its congregation: dissent over real estate’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 37 (2005) 509–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Katz and Kark, ‘The Church and landed property’.

11 Spyridon, N. S., Extracts from Annals of Palestine, 1821–1841, Manuscript, Monk Neophitos of Cyprus (Jerusalem 1979) 28.Google Scholar

12 Helias, A., Τα μετόχια του Παναγίου Τάφου και της μονής Σινά στην Ελλάδα (Athens 2003).Google Scholar

13 Schölch, A., Palestine in Transformation, 1856–1882 (Washington, DC 1993) 49–168.Google Scholar

14 Fotić, A., ‘The official explanations for the confiscation and sale of monasteries (Churches) and their estates at the time of Selim II’, Turcica 26 (1994) 43 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 S. Tzortzakaki-Tzaridou, ‘Το νομικό καθεστώς των Αφιερωμάτων–Βακουφίων στα πλαίσια του Οθωμανικού εμπράγματου δικαίου (15ος–19ος αιώνας)’, PhD thesis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 1998.

16 Barnes, J. R., An Introduction to Religious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire (Leiden 1986) 5 Google Scholar.

17 Eleftheriadis, N. P., Η ακίνητος περιουσία εν Τουρκία (Athens 1903) 79–80 Google Scholar, 96–102.

18 Eisenman, R. H., Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel: a History of the Survival of Tanzimat and Sharia in the British Mandate and the Jewish State (Leiden 1978) 52–69.Google Scholar

19 Kermeli, E., ‘Ebū’s Su‘ūd's definition of Church vaḳfs: theory and practice in Ottoman law’, in Cleave, R. and Kermeli, E. (eds), Islamic Law: Theory and Practice (London 1997) 141–56.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., 142. Cf. Leewen, R. V., Notables and Clergy in Mount Lebanon: The Khāzin Sheikhs and the Maronite Church, 1736–1840 (Leiden 1994) 30.Google Scholar

21 Shaham, R., ‘Christian and Jewish “waqf” in Palestine during the late Ottoman period’, Bulletin of the School of African and Oriental Studies 54 (1991) 460–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Cohen, A. and Lewis, B., Population and Revenues in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century (Princeton 1978) 171.Google Scholar

23 A. Fotić, ‘The official explanations’, 39.

24 Ibid., 40.

25 Kermeli, ‘Ebū’s Su‘ūd's definition of Church vaḳfs’, 146–8.

26 Ongley, F., The Ottoman Land Code (London 1892) 65.Google Scholar

27 Eleftheriadis, Η ακίνητος περιουσία, 24–6.

28 Krämer, G., A History of Palestine: from the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel (Princeton 2008) 81 Google Scholar–5

29 Kotzageorgis, Ph. P., ‘Τα μοναστήρια ως οθωμανικές πολιτικές ελίτ,’ in Kolovos, I. (ed.), Μοναστήρια, οικονομία και πολιτική: από τους μεσαιωνικούς στους νεώτερους χρόνους (Heraclion 2011) 163–90Google Scholar.

30 Eleftheriadis, Η ακίνητος περιουσία, 88–9.

31 Tute, R. C., The Ottoman Land Law, with Commentary on the Ottoman Land Code of 7th Ramadan 1274 (Jerusalem 1927) 116.Google Scholar

32 Kermeli, ‘Ebū’s Su‘ūd's definition of Church vaḳfs’, 148–153.

33 Greek Foreign Office Archives (henceforth GFOA). File B/35, sub File 4: Jerusalem (1924), Report of the Commissioners on the Finances of the Orthodox Patriarchate for the Financial Year ended August 31st, 1922.

34 GFOA, File B/35, sub File 4: Jerusalem (1924), Report of the Commissioners on the Finances of the Orthodox Patriarchate for the Six Months ended August 31st, 1923.

35 H. Ҫolak, ‘Relations between the Ottoman Central Administration and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria: 16th–18th Centuries’, PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012, 224–6.

36 Papadopoulos, Ch. A., Ιστορία της Εκκλησίας Ιεροσολύμων (Alexandria, 1910) 636–7.Google Scholar

37 Platanistos, G. D., Στοιχειώδεις τινές πληροφορίαι εκ της Οθωμανικής νομοθεσίας (Jerusalem 1903) 18–20.Google Scholar

38 Bertram and Luke, Report, 239-42.

39 Krämer, A History of Palestine, 45–9.

40 Eleftheriadis, Η ακίνητος περιουσία, 112–18.

41 Papastathis, K., ‘Church finances in the colonial age: the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem under British control, 1921–1925’, Middle Eastern Studies 49 (2013) 715–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Eleftheriadis, Η ακίνητος περιουσία, 79–84, 96–102.

43 Israel State Archives, Record Group 22, Box 3380, File LD 54\1. Firman of the Armenian Patriarchate (Sultan Abdul Aziz Ibn Mahmud Khan), Dhil Qida, 1281 (1865), appendix VII, Report of Committee Appointed to Report as to the Relevant History and Present Position of the Religious Institutions, Monastic Orders, Convents etc. in Palestine, July 1935.

44 Bertram and Luke, Report, 239–42.

45 Ҫolak, Relations, 54, 104–7, 165–9.

46 Bertram, A. and Young, J. W. A., The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem: Report of the Commission Appointed by the Government of Palestine to Inquire and Report upon Certain Controversies between the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Arab Orthodox Community (London 1926) 138.Google Scholar

47 Miliaras, K., ‘Τα επί Πατριάρχου Προκοπίου (1872–1875) αναφυέντα σοβαρά ζητήματα εν τη Εκκλησία Ιεροσολύμων’, Νέα Σιών 27 (1932) 308–12Google Scholar.

48 Young, G., Corps de Droit Ottoman, II (Oxford 1905) 25.Google Scholar

49 el-Rousse Slim, S. A., The Greek Orthodox Waqf in Lebanon during the Ottoman Period (Beirut 2007) 177–81.Google Scholar

50 Bertram and Luke, Report, 243–9.

51 Themelis, T., Επίσημα έγγραφα περί των δικαίων του Πατριαρχείου Ιεροσολύμων (1908–1913) (Jerusalem 1914) 50–5.Google Scholar

52 Papadopoulos, Ιστορία της Εκκλησίας Ιεροσολύμων, 637-9.

53 Bertram and Luke, Report, 242.

54 Op. cit., 318–27.

55 Matossian, B., ‘The 1908 revolt and religious politics in Jerusalem’, Jerusalem Quarterly 40 (2009/10) 18–33.Google Scholar

56 Muslih, M., ‘Arab politics and the rise of Palestinian nationalism’, Journal of Palestine Studies 16 (1987) 77–94 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Papastathis, K. and Kark, R., ‘Orthodox communal politics in Palestine after the Young Turk Revolution (1908–1910)’, Jerusalem Quarterly 56/57 (Winter 2013/Summer 2014) 133 Google Scholar.

58 Tamari, ‘Issa al Issa's unorthodox Orthodoxy’, 26.

59 Archim. Meliton (Agiotafitis), Σκιερά σελίς της ιστορίας της Εκκλησίας Ιεροσολύμων. Τις ο ένοχος; (Athens 1920).

60 Eisenman, R., ‘The Young Turk legislation, 1913–1917, and its application in Palestine/Israel’, in Kushner, D. (ed.), Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period: Political, Social and Economic Transformation (Jerusalem 1986) 59–61.Google Scholar

61 Stamatopoulos, D., Το Αγιοταφικό μετόχι Κωνσταντινουπόλεως. Αρχειακές πηγές (18°–20° αιώνας) (Athens 2010)Google Scholar.

62 Bertram and Luke, Report, 191.

63 Ibid., 326–33.

64 British National Archives: Colonial Office (henceforth TNA CO), 733/15, ‘J. E. Shuckburgh to W. Deedes’ (1 December 1921).

65 Bertram and Luke, Report, 326–33.

66 Ibid.

67 Papastathis, ‘Church finances’, 714–16.

68 Bertram and Young, Report, 273–8.

69 GFOA: File 39, ‘Greek Consul in Jerusalem to the Greek Foreign Office’, no. 231 (25 June 1923).

70 Bertram and Young, Report, 275–6.

71 Op. cit.,144.

72 Op. cit., 291–316.

73 British National Archives: Foreign Office (henceforth TNA FO), 371/21886.

74 Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem Archives (henceforth OPJA), Jerusalem. File: Various Draft Ordinances of the Orthodox Patriarchate, 1938–1942, Dispatch of the Locum Tenens Keladion to the Acting Chief Secretary of the Palestine Government Sydney Moody (9/5/1939), reg. num. 484.

75 TNA CO, 733/373/8.

76 TNA CO, 733/335/1.

77 TNA CO, 733/373/8.

78 Papastathis, K. and Kark, R., ‘Colonialism and religious power politics: the question of new regulations within the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem during the British Mandate’, Middle Eastern Studies 50 (2014), 596–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

79 OPJA, File: Various Draft Ordinances of the Orthodox Patriarchate, 1938–1942, Memorandum of C.D. Harvey: Suggestions for Amendments of the Orthodox Patriarchate Draft Ordinance (1938), (18/4/1938).

80 TNA FO, 371/24568.

81 TNA CO, 733/400/5.

82 OPJA, File: Various Draft Ordinances of the Orthodox Patriarchate, 1938–1942, Dispatch of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Timotheos to the Acting Chief Secretary of the Palestine Government J.S. MacPherson, (5/6/1942), reg. num.269.

83 OPJA, File: Various Draft Ordinances of the Orthodox Patriarchate, 1938–1942, Dispatch of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Timotheos to the Acting Chief Secretary of the Palestine Government J.S. MacPherson, (9/2/1942), reg. num. 68.

84 Robson, L., ‘Communalism and nationalism in the Mandate: the Greek Orthodox controversy and the national movement’, Journal of Palestine Studies 41 (2011) 17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85 TNA CO, 733/478/4.

86 TNA FO, 371/68663A.

87 TNA CO, 733/335/1, no. 28 (25 Sept. 1937).

88 TNA CO, 733/335/1.