"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [و‎‎١‎٢‎٨] (٧٣٨/٢٦٠)

LAND TENURE
249
Most of the land in Syria is mlrlyeh. It perpetuates a land
system inherited by the Turks from the days of the Arab
conquest. According to this system the state is the real owner
of the land. The annual payment by the holder to the state
is a recognition of this. Besides, he cannot sell the land nor
gift it without permission. Nor can he erect buildings nor
plant trees or vineyards upon it without permission. If the
land is not cultivated for three years it reverts to the state
(being mahlul), and also if the holder has no legal heirs. Such
property cannot be disposed of by will.
AfwZHand is found mostly in villages and towns and is, more
strictly, private property. It reverts to the state only if the
owner dies intestate and has no natural heirs.
Waqf land is assigned to the support of religious or public
institutions (mosques, schools, libraries, &c.) and provides
funds for poor relief. Much of it was granted by the state at
the time of the Arab Conquest. Some of it is transformed
miriyeh or mulk land. Mirlyeh land cannot become waqf
without the sanction of the state. The owner of mulk land
determines the conditions upon which it shall become waqf.
He may transfer it free of all taxation and may require that
he and his heirs shall continue to cultivate it, subject to a fixed
annual payment. The tithes payable on mulk land are also
capable of conversion into waqf. The supervision of waqf
land under the Ottoman regime was entrusted to a local judge
and to a special department in Constantinople.
Metrukeh land is communal property used as market-places,
pasture lands, roads, &c. Mewdt land is unoccupied and
unused. It may be taken into cultivation by any one, with
official sanction, and then becomes miriyeh land. Since 1908
crown property, jiftlik, has become national property and
may be distinguished as a sixth kind of property in land.
The most extensive of these domains are in the Jordan valley
and the neighbourhood of Aleppo.
A very large part of Syria, perhaps the greater part, is
cultivated by metayers, who pay the owner of the land
a proportion of their harvests in kind, usually one-fifth part.