Dunam Explained

A dunam (Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: دونم; Turkish: dönüm; Hebrew: דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount of land that could be ploughed by a team of oxen in a day. The legal definition was "forty standard paces in length and breadth",[1] but its actual area varied considerably from place to place, from a little more than in Ottoman Palestine to around in Iraq.[2] [3]

The unit is still in use in many areas previously ruled by the Ottomans, although the new or metric dunam has been redefined as exactly one decare, which is 1/10 hectare (1/10 ×), like the modern Greek royal stremma.[3]

History

The name dönüm, from the Ottoman Turkish dönmek (Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: دونمك, "to turn"), appears to be a calque of the Byzantine Greek stremma and had the same size. It was likely adopted by the Ottomans from the Byzantines in Mysia-Bithynia.[4]

The Dictionary of Modern Greek defines the old Ottoman stremma as approximately,[5] but Costas Lapavitsas used the value of for the region of Naoussa in the early 20th century.[6]

Definition

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro

In Bosnia and Herzegovina and also Serbia, the unit is called dulum (дулум) or dunum (дунум). In Bosnia and Herzegovina dunum (or dulum) equals 1000m2. In the region of Leskovac, south Serbia, One dulum is equal to 1600m2. In Albania it is called dynym or dylym. It is equal to 1000m2.[7]

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, the decare (декар) is used, which is an SI unit, literally meaning 10 ares.

Cyprus

In Cyprus, a donum is or 14400 square feet.[8] In the Republic of Cyprus older Greek-Cypriots also still refer to the donum using the local Greek Cypriot dialect word σκάλες [skales], rather than the mainland Greek word stremma (equivalent to a decare). However, since 1986 officially Cyprus uses the square metre and the hectare.

A donum consists of 4 evleks, each of which consists of or 3.600 square feet.

Greece

See main article: stremma.

In Greece, the old dönüm is called a "Turkish stremma", while today, a stremma or "royal stremma" is exactly one decare, like the metric dönüm.[3]

Iraq

In Iraq, the dunam is 2500m2.[9]

Israel and Turkey

In Israel and Turkey, the dunam is 1000m2, which is 1 decare. From the Ottoman period and through the early years of the British Mandate for Palestine, the size of a dunam was 919.3m2, but in 1928, the metric dunam of 1000m2 was adopted, and this is still used today in Israel.[10] [11]

United Arab Emirates

The Dubai Statistics Center and Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi use the metric dunam (spelt as donum) for data relating to agricultural land use. One donum equals 1000m2.

Variations

Other countries using a dunam of some size include Libya and Syria.

Conversions

A metric dunam is equal to:

Comparable measures

See also: Acre. The Byzantine Greek stremma was the probable source of the Turkish unit. The zeugarion (Turkish çift) was a similar unit derived from the area plowed by a team of oxen in a day. The English acre was originally similar to both units in principle, although it developed separately.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. V.L. Ménage, Review of Speros Vryonis, Jr. The decline of medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the process of islamization from the eleventh through the fifteenth century, Berkeley, 1971; in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) 36:3 (1973), pp. 659–661. at JSTOR (subscription required)
  2. Cowan, J. Milton; Arabic-English Dictionary, The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (4th Edition, Spoken Languages Services, Inc.; 1994; p. 351)
  3. Λεξικό της κοινής Νεοελληνικής (Dictionary of Modern Greek), Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών, Θεσσαλονίκη, 1998.
  4. Ménage, op.cit.
  5. Λεξικό, 1998
  6. Web site: Social and Economic Underpinning of Industrial Development: Evidence from Ottoman Macedonia . Costas Lapavitsas . Costas . Lapavitsas . Ηλεκτρονικό Δελτίο Οικονομικής Ιστορίας . 2012-08-26 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070928095353/http://www.hdoisto.gr/Keimena/Lapavitsas4112005.pdf . 28 September 2007.
  7. Web site: http://www.rgz.gov.rs/template1.asp?PageName=merne_jedinice&MenuID=0000162&LanguageID=1 . sr:Мерне јединице у КЗ и КН . Republic Geodetic Authority of the Republic of Serbia . 6 September 2010 . sr . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120304030340/http://www.rgz.gov.rs/template1.asp?PageName=merne_jedinice&MenuID=0000162&LanguageID=1 . 4 March 2012.
  8. Department of Lands and Surveys web site http://www.moi.gov.cy/moi/dls (retrieved April 2014)
  9. Book: A Glimpse of Iraq. 9781411695184. Al-Shawi. Ibrahim. 2006.
  10. Book: El-Eini . Roza I.M. . Mandated landscape: British imperial rule in Palestine, 1929–1948 . 2009-05-05 . 2006 . . 978-0-7146-5426-3 . xxiii . Currency and Measures . https://books.google.com/books?id=ekQOAAAAQAAJ&q=El-Eini+%22Mandated+Landscape%22 .
  11. Web site: Israel Central Bureau of Statistics . explanatory notes . 2 August 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131217052043/https://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton62/e_symbols.pdf. 17 December 2013.
  12. Web site: Chapter 8: Agriculture Statistical Yearbook. 2009. Dubai Statistics Center. 184. 17 April 2019.