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Sijillāt maḥkāma shar‘īya al-Quds

  • IL-UH/Sijillat
  • Fonds
  • 1834-01-01-1920-12-31

The Sharia court records constitute one the richest sources for the social and economic history of Jerusalem, since this court was, “by and large, the sole legal arbiter and a primary instrument of social control” (Doumani, 1985) until Ibrahim Pasha’s reforms in the 1830s. These records deal with all realms of human interaction, from personal status issues, sales contracts, building permits to civil and criminal cases. However, after the Ottoman judicial reforms of 1876 and the establishment of the nizamîya court system, the sharia courts were no longer dealing with criminal cases and less civil cases could be taken before them. Their function was further curtailed by the British mandate authorities who limited them to the Muslim community.

The shari‘a court registers (sijillât mahkama shar‘îyya) of Jerusalem represent the oldest and most complete collection of Ottoman period court registers in Palestine, covering the years 1529-1917. Microfilms dating from the Ottoman period are accessible in the Islamic Archives in Abu Dis, at the Centre for Manuscripts and Documents of the University of Jordan in Amman, in the library of the University of Al-Najah in Nablus and in the library of the University of Haifa.

The described items were selected according to the period covered by the project and the earthquake of 1837.

Islamic Court of Jerusalem (MSQS)

محاضر جلسات مجلس بلدية القدس العربية

  • JM-AIY/B936-1-B938-9
  • Fonds
  • 1948-07-02-1967-07-24

This fonds consists in the minutes of meetings of the Arab Municipal Council of Jerusalem from its creation in 1948 to its dissolution in 1967. In most cases, one minute matches one meeting, except for one relating to meetings held during three days in a row (1961-04-16 to 1961-04-18 - B937-3). The lacks observed in the original numbers given to these meetings and documents point out that one minute is missing for the beginning of summer 1955 and another one for autumn 1955 (B936-7). Moreover, the minutes of the meetings held between January 1958 and December 1959 could not be found. Therefore, a chronological gap exists between the folders B936-11 and B937-1.
Order numbers were given by the Arab Municipality itself to each of these meetings, apparently starting back from 1 when a new council was composed, except for opening sessions and irregular meetings which were named as such and not counted. From December 1963, confidential debates could occur during a meeting. In this case, two minutes were issued with the same meeting order number: a regular one and a confidential one (e.g. minutes of the meeting of the Municipal Council held on 1963-12-11 – B938-2).
The fonds allows to retrace not only the creation of the Arab Municipal Council of Jerusalem after 1948, but also the relations established with other political, social, religious institutions, its humanitarian action and its ordinary management until the 1967 war.

Arab Municipality of Jerusalem (AMJ)