ChChapter 2: Origins and influences of nationality law Much of what is described in this project as the Middle East and North Africa and now comprises a multitude of nation-states once fell within the Ottoman Empire. As such, the region was united under one sovereign and one legal system. As the concept of nationality emerged and took increasing hold across the world as a means of regulating the membership of people within a state, the Empire adopted its own rules on affiliation in the Ottoman Nationality Law of 1869.47 With the entry into force of this law, anyone residing in the territory of the Ottoman Empire was recognised as a national, regardless of their racial or religious affiliation.48 Subsequently, Ottoman nationality was passed from parent to child or could be acquired by application by those who were born on Ottoman territory after reaching the age of majority, or by naturalisation after five years’ residence. There were also provisions on renunciation, loss and deprivation of nationality – thus all the ingredients of a contemporary nationality law. As the Ottoman Empire broke apart and finally fell, the influence of this law across the MENA region remained. It served not only as one 47 - This law is known as the Tabiiyet-i Osmaniye Kanunnamesi (or TOK). 48 - Prior to this law, religion played a major part in determining a person’s status within the Ottoman state, with Muslims (of any ethnicity) enjoying a privileged position of subject-hood and non-Muslims enjoying inferior rights. U. Davis, Citizenship and the State. A comparative study of citizenship legislation in Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, Garnet Publishing Limited, 1997; M. Campos, Ottoman Brothers. Muslims, Christians and Jews in Early-Twentieth Century Palestine, Stanford University Press, 2011. 45