Gaza Sanjak Explained

Native Name:	سنجق غزة
Conventional Long Name:	Gaza Sanjak
Common Name:	Gaza Sanjak
Subdivision:	sanjak
Nation:	the Ottoman Empire
Capital:	Gaza
Year Start:	1516
Year End:	1916
Event End:	Sykes–Picot Agreement
Date End:	16 May 1916

Gaza Sanjak (Arabic: سنجق غزة), known in Arabic as Bilād Ghazza (the Land of Gaza), was a sanjak of the Damascus Eyalet, Ottoman Empire centered in Gaza, northwards up to the Nahr al-‘Awja/the Yarkon River. In the 16th century it was divided into nawahi (singular: nahiya; third-level subdivisions): Gaza in the south and Ramla in the north along the Nahr Rūbīn/Wādī al-Ṣarār.^[1]

Gaza Sanjak "formed a passageway connecting Egypt and the Levant, precipitating bi-directional trade, conquest and population movements". Situated in the southern part of the Levantine coastal plain, Gaza Sanjak received less precipitation and was more prone to drought and nomadic incursion than more northerly regions.^[2]

Marom and Taxel have shown that during the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, nomadic economic and security pressures led to settlement abandonment around Majdal ‘Asqalān, and the southern coastal plain in general. The population of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, while the lands of abandoned settlements continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages.

List of settlements (1596)

In the 1596- daftar, the sanjak contained the following nahiyah and villages/town

Gaza Nahiyah

• Al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya, Bayt Tima, Hamama,^[3] Al-Tina, Yibna, Isdud, Arab Suqrir,^[4] Deir al-Balah, Burayr, Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Al-Majdal, Askalan, Bayt 'Affa, Najd, Ni'ilya,^[5] Bayt Jirja, Hiribya, Qatra, Iraq Suwaydan, Kawkaba, Beit Jimal Monastery, Al-Batani al-Sharqi,^[6] Al-Qubayba, Al-Faluja, Bayt Daras, Al-Maghar,^[7] Hatta, Jusayr, Zikrin, Zayta, Barqa, Beit Hanoun, Dayr Sunayd, Simsim,^[8] Al-Jaladiyya, 'Ajjur,^[9] Al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya, Julis, Karatiyya, Bayt Jibrin, Iraq al-Manshiyya, Qastina, Ibdis,^[10] Idnibba, Jilya, Rafah, Al-Jura, Tell es-Safi, Abasan al-Kabera,^[11] Al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya, Summil, Barbara, Al-Muharraqa, Mughallis, Yasur

Ramla Nahiyah

• Qula, Dayr Tarif, Jaffa,^[12] Jimzu, Kharruba, Barfiliya, Sarafand al-Amar, Artuf, Bayt Susin, Islin,^[13] Al-Khayriyya, Khulda, Al-Tira, Dayr Ayyub, Qibya, Bayt Nabala, Budrus, Bnei Brak, Imwas, Aqir,^[14] Deir Qaddis, Yalo, al-Midya, Shuqba, Salama, Sar'a, Saqiya, Lod,^[15] Jisr Jindas, Bayt Dajan, Al-Safiriyya, Al-'Abbasiyya, Yazur, Innaba, Rantiya, Bir Ma'in, Bayt Shanna, Ni'lin, Kharbatha Bani Harith, Kasla,^[16] Aboud, Beit Sira, Kafr 'Ana^[17]

Bibliography

• Book: Wolf-Dieter . Hütteroth . Kamal . Abdulfattah . Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century . 1977 . Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft.

Notes and References

1. Book: Cohen . Amnon . Lewis . Bernard . Population and Revenue in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century . 1978 . Princeton University Press . Princeton . 12 . 9781400867790 .
2. Marom . Roy . Taxel . Itamar . 2023-10-01 . Ḥamāma: The historical geography of settlement continuity and change in Majdal 'Asqalan's hinterland, 1270–1750 CE . Journal of Historical Geography . 82 . 49–65 . 10.1016/j.jhg.2023.08.003 . 0305-7488. free .
3. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 142
4. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 143
5. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 144
6. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 145
7. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 146
8. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 147
9. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 148
10. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 149
11. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 150
12. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 151
13. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 152
14. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 153
15. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 154
16. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 155
17. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 156