The Real Estate Market in Jerusalem between Muslims and Christians 1800-1810

Abstract

The stable political situation in Jerusalem during the Ottoman Era contributed to the increase in economic activities in the city. Those economic transactions included all religious groups in Jerusalem such as Muslims, Jews and Christians. In spite of the division of Jerusalem into quarters based on the religious affiliation such as the Muslim quarter, Jewish neighbourhood, and Christian neighbourhood, neither quarter was devoted exclusively to a specific religious group. For instance, the Muslims lived in Christian quarters and Jewish people lived in Muslim quarters and vice versa. Such quarter relations among the people from the three aforementioned religions contributed to the development of intertwined economic relations that served their personal economic interests despite of religious differences. The current study aims at examining the sale transactions that are available at the Jerusalem Legislative Court in the nineteenth century shows that the real estate transactions between Muslims and Christians in Christian quarters were very active. This study aims also finding out if there were any religious reasons behind those real estate transactions. That is, was it in the best interest of the Muslims to convert Christian quarters to Muslims ones? Or was it in the best interest of Christians aiming at eliminating the Muslim existence in those quarters by buying all their real estate in an attempt to change the neighbourhood into a Christian one? Or, was the main goal behind all those transactions purely financial gains and they were not motivated by religious incentives? This study will investigate and study this issue through the examination and analysis of all the sales transactions that are available at the Jerusalem Legislative Court. That is, a thorough statistical analysis of all those real estate transactions types will be conducted to find answers to the above questions.