Land Confiscation Introduction 27 State seizure.94 Thus, much land in Palestine was converted to waqf. Later laws, however, loosened the prohibition against seizures of waqf. Article 4 of the Ottoman Land Code95 defines waqf land as: That which having been true mulk originally…The legal ownership and all the rights of possession over this land belong to the Ministry of Evqaf. (I) Mulk The Ottoman Land Code defines mulk land as plots in cities and villages, which are considered to be connected to homes.96 It is the only category of land where both the raqaba and the tassaruf rights rested with an individual. Article 2 of the Ottoman Land Code specifies four kinds of mulk: (I) Sites (for houses) within towns or villages; (II) Land separated from State Land and made mulk in a valid way; (III) Tithe-paying land, which was distributed at the time of conquest; (IV) Tribute-paying land.97 Quasi Mulk Quasi mulk is land (miri or mulk) that had ‘certain accretions’ put on it by the land possessor. Such accretions included ‘wells’, ‘water courses’, ‘buildings’ or ‘plantations of trees or vines’. Accretions solidified the quasi mulk nature of the land. Should the accretions remain, the land devolves under mulk inheritance and is acquisitionable after a period of 15 years prescribed in mulk.98 Miri Miri land is agricultural land. For the most part, rural land in Palestine belonged to the miri category.99 In the case of miri lands, the raqaba, or ultimate ownership, 94 95 96 97 98 99 Richard Clifford Tute, The Ottoman Land Laws with a Commentary on the Ottoman Land Code of the 7th Ramadan 1274 (Jerusalem, 1927), 2; available from http://weblaw.haifa.ac.il/he/Faculty/Kedar/ lecdb/bedouins/900.pdf; accessed 23 April 2013. The Ottoman Land Code of 7th Ramadan 1274 (1858), 1858 Article 4. The Ottoman Land Code of 7th Ramadan 1274 (1858) Article 1. The Ottoman Land Code of 7th Ramadan 1274 (1858) Article 2. Tute, The Ottoman Land Code, 7. Bisharat, ‘Land, Law and Legitimacy in Israel and the Occupied Territories’, 492.