BRITAIN AND THE GHAWR ABI עUBAYDA WAQF CONTROVERSY IN TRANSJORDAN

Extract

From 1924 to 1928, authorities of the British Mandate in Transjordan expended considerable energy trying to prove that the extensive lands on the Transjordanian side of the Ghawr (Jordan River Valley) known as Ghawr Abi עUbayda were not waqf but mīrī lands, as several parties had claimed over the years.¹ British authorities established both an investigative commission and a special court to rule on the question as part of their wider attempt to regulate land matters in the new Emirate of Transjordan. These legal remedies succeeded not because the British resorted to unilateral colonial fiat but because of their strict accordance with Ottoman law, to the detriment of local custom regarding land usage. By enforcing these laws through the decisions of the commission and the court, the British hoped to forestall the disposal of land for what they considered partisan political purposes, thus averting political unrest and a loss of revenue.