Noisy life and the center of the judiciary .. Gaza before the occupation in the record of rare documents

Raed Moussa-Gaza

In the period covered by the Sharia Court Register from 1857 to 1861 as present-day Gaza, Gaza was not small and besieged; it was the center of the judiciary in historic southern Palestine, known as the Gaza Brigade, which is affiliated with fifty towns and villages.

It is the only historical manuscript that covers the history of Gaza City in the late Ottoman period, and is the only survivor of World War I, which destroyed all records and documents.

He survived the destruction and loss
The director of the Department of Manuscripts and Antiquities in the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs Abdul Latif Abu Hashem told Al-Jazeera Net that this record survived the destruction of the First and Second World Wars, and remained hidden for about 150 years, until it was discovered in Damascus, which may have arrived to cite his documents in a case at the time.

This record, according to Abu Hashem, which was documented and investigated, consists of 465 pages of large pieces, and includes 1,700 very important historical documents, which are official decrees issued by the Ottoman ruler "mayor of Gaza", and community issues related to marriage, divorce, dislocation and public and civil endowment And buying and selling.

Some cases of the record show that the Shari'a court at that time was not limited to Muslim cases and disputes, but it was the cases of people of different religions, and proved the right of its owner, and ruled in favor of the sons of other religions, and forced the Muslim to return the right to its owner, according to Abu Hashem.

History of Gaza
He said that it is not an ordinary record, but we find the social, economic and political movement, and its importance lies in that it is an important and unique source of the history of Gaza City before 1900 BC.

Abu Hashim added that at that time the area of ​​Gaza was about three times larger than it is now, and was an important center of the judiciary before the Nakba and the establishment of Israel in 1948, in this record cases of cities and villages currently within the occupation, such as Majdal, Deir Sneid, Hatta and Beit Thrash and Webna.

Abu Hashem explained that the importance of the rare documents contained in the register is to give historians the opportunity to identify episodes that have been for many years unknown and missing from the history of Gaza City, and even helped families find their genealogy until the sixth grandfather.

A rare national document
As this record has great historical significance, it has national significance. Abu Hashem says that it is a talking document that demonstrates the lie of the Zionist narrative that Palestine is "a land without a people for a people without a land"; in the documents of this record we find a vivid picture of the daily existence of a people with roots. In this land, and his civilization extended over time.

Abu Hashim adds that Israel is aware of the importance of these historical documents that refute its false narrative, so seized tens of thousands of books and manuscripts and hidden them, and confiscated books by Palestinian authors with contributions to science and culture, more than the age of this emergency state, even if it found the record of the court The legitimacy of his confiscation, and perhaps decimated him.

Displacement
Abu Hashim stressed that Gaza, which is suffering today from the scourge of the occupation and the siege and wars, showed the documents of the register that they had experienced similar circumstances before the First World War; in these documents, which indicates that thousands of families of Gazans who lived in Gaza were forcibly and arbitrarily displaced, in "blow up" Demographic "lasted three days, and then became completely empty of human beings, as it was a" war line. "

Abu Hashem estimates that some 2,000 families emigrated from Gaza in 1917, most of them no longer after the end of the war, and many of them no longer have any trace; they were forcibly displaced to Egypt, Syria and cities in historic northern Palestine, and their news was interrupted.

The record was discovered in Damascus by accident about five years ago by a Syrian academic specializing in history and archeology. There are Palestinian demands to return it to Gaza, as a Palestinian right, and the blogging stopped there, because a court in Damascus used it to rule on a case at the time. He was sent back to Gaza, but this has not happened.

Abu Hashem said that this record, with its rare documents, and everything on this land, proves the credibility of the Palestinian people and the lie of the occupation's narrative, and that the Palestinians have roots and an extended history.