British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 232

CHAPTER VIII.

Under Ottoman practice matruka (communal or common lands) were not registered in the Land Registries. Since the British Occupation the Land (Settlement of Title) Ordinance requires that all such land be registered at settlement.

Mahlul (option land).

24. Laud assumes the status of mahlul land when existing usufruct grants over miri land lapse for any reason. Usufruct land does not directly escheat to the State, but is open to statutory options which must be exercised within prescribed times by persons of specified classes. If the option is exercised the grant is made against payment of the immediate consideration. Otherwise, the land is auctioned. Should the auction fail because the highest bid is insufficient, 1111thlul land reverts to the State and becomes meant State land.

Waqf gheir sahih or miri mauquf or takhsisat waqf (quasi mortmain).

25. Land of this category is not waqf (mortmain) land in the true sense of the word. It is miri land of which the State revenues are dedicated to pious uses or the usufruct of which is dedicated to pious foundations. The ownership remains vested in the State. Qnasi-mortrnain land is held by private usufructuaries in the same way as any miri (usufruct) land proper. There are extensive areas of this nature in Palestine, mostly subject to the payment of the tithe by the Government to ancient imperial Moslem pious foundations instead of incorporating such tithe in the normal State budget. The Palestine Government, under an agreement with the Supreme Moslem Council, the authority controlling Moslem pious foundations, commuted the pious foundations tithes to a fixed sum payable annually to the Supreme Moslem Council for the purpose of the Moslem pious foundations.

Quasi-mulk (quasi-allodium).

26. Before 1913 A.D. accretions added to usufruct land (miri) were deemed the mulk (allodial) property of the usufructuary. Allodial accretions on usufruct land could, prior to 1913 A.D., be dedicated to waqf (mortmain). As the inheritance Jaw applicable ro miri land was different from the inheritance law applicable to mulk property, the land was deemed to follow the accretions for the purposes of devolution. Some miri land, though iu theory State land, becomes in practice assimilated to mulk land. If the accretions disappeared, the land was deemed to have recovered its miri status. All accretions added to State land since 1913 A.D. follow

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