Ottoman Land Code of 1858

The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 (recorded as 1274 in the Islamic Calendar) was the beginning of a systematic land reform programme during the Tanzimat (reform) period of the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 19th century. This was followed by the 1873 land emancipation act.

The Ottoman Land Code of 1858, prepared by the Tanzimat Council, was an original Ottoman creation, neither European nor entirely Islamic. It was founded on traditional land practices and included categories of land cited in Islamic law.

Prior to 1858, land in Ottoman Syria, then a part of the Ottoman Empire since 1516, was cultivated or occupied mainly by peasants. Land ownership was regulated by people living on the land according to customs and traditions. Usually, land was communally owned by village residents, though land could be owned by individuals or families. The Ottoman Empire classified land into five categories: "1)Arazi Memluke- Lands held in fee simple, freehold lands 2)Arazi Mirie- Crown lands belonging to the state exchequer 3)Arazi Mevkufe- Lands possessed in mortmain, but tenanted by a kind of copyhold 4)Arazi Metruke- Lands abandoned without cultivation or ostensible owner 5)Arazi Mevat- Dead lands, uncultivated and unappropriated.

Arazi Memluke lands were properties that were owned by private individuals that were collected through conquest, state endowment, or inheritance. These lands were subject to taxation by the Ottoman Empire. Arazi Mirie lands were state owned properties that the Ottoman sultan could bestow to loyal subjects, viziers, and military commanders (these lands were kept through payments to the Ottoman Empire).Arazi Mevkufe is land constituting Arazi Memluke which has been made Vakf in accordance with the Sharia. Vakf means that the Ottoman Sultan has assigned the tithes or taxes to a specific object as opposed to an individual. Arazi Metruke is land that has been allocated for public use (ex. roads). Arazi Mevat is land that nobody has claimed ownership of which has subsequently been neglected and remains uncultivated".

In 1858 the Ottoman Empire introduced The Ottoman Land Code of 1858, requiring land owners to register ownership. The reasons behind the law were twofold. (1) to increase tax revenue, and (2) to exercise greater state control over the area. Peasants, however, saw no need to register claims, for several reasons:

The registration process itself was open to manipulation. Land collectively owned by village residents was registered in the name of a single landowner, with merchants and local Ottoman administrators registering large stretches of land in their own name. The result was land that became the legal property of people who may have never lived there, while peasants, even those who had lived on the land for generations, became tenants of absentee owners.

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