Palestinian Islamic Court Records: A Source for Socioeconomic History

The Major Lacuna in Palestinian historiography is the lack of social and economic histories, especially for the Ottoman period. Sijillāt al-maḥākim airshar‘īya (records of the Islamic religious courts), preserved in the major cities and towns of historic Palestine, are local Palestinian archives which can go a long way towards filling this gap. These records, some of which date from the first decades of the Ottoman occupation to the present, are akin to a people’s history. Literally hundreds of volumes illustrate in a concrete and detailed manner nearly every aspect of daily human interaction – be it in the personal, social, economic, religious, or administrative fields.