The Syrian code,[462] following Roman Law,[463] insisted upon three-twelfths of a man's property going to his children equally, and left him at liberty to dispose of the remaining nine-twelfths among them at his pleasure. But an emancipated son had no claim to a share in the three-twelfths.[464] These local or Roman usages have an interesting connexion with the permission which, as we shall see in the next section, was given by the Bavarian code of the seventh century, to free possessors of land 'after they had made division with their sons' to surrender their 'own portion,' by way of commendation, to the Church.[465] [p313]
It is remarkable that, to the present day, in those districts of Bavaria where the Code Napoléon has not superseded ancient custom and law, the 'Pflicht-theil' of not less than one-half or one-third, as fixed by the later Roman law, still remains inalienable from the heirs, whilst a custom for the father to hand over the whole or a part of the family holding to a son during his lifetime also occurs.[466]
These coincidences between customs of Syria and Bavaria—both once Roman provinces—refer to land of inheritance. But there were also in Syria as elsewhere in the fifth century, between the freeholders and the slaves, a class of semi-servile tenants—adscriptitii—who were, in a sense, the property of a lord.[467] And besides these, again, from the time of the New Testament[468] to the present, there have been tenants paying a tithe or other portion of the produce in return for a usufruct only of public or private lands.
There is no direct reference to public tithe lands in the Syrian code, but the following description of present customs as regards such lands may be valuable in the absence of earlier evidence. It describes the tenants of the Crown tithe lands in Palestine as having only a usufruct, expiring at their death, and as conducting their husbandry upon an open-field system, which being so widely spread is no doubt very ancient, and likely enough to resemble [p314] more or less closely local methods followed on the 'Agri Decumates' under Roman rule.[469]
Land system in Palestine.
Land tenure in Palestine is of three kinds:—
I. Ard miri,[470] or taxed Crown land.
In this class are included nearly all the large and fruitful plains like those of Jaffa, Ramleh, and Esdraelon. These lands are leased by the Government to various individuals, or sometimes to a whole village. The lessee pays a tenth of the produce of the soil for his right of cultivation. Miri land, therefore, cannot be sold by the lessee, nor has he the power to transfer it; he merely possesses the right of cultivation for a given time, and this only holds good during the lifetime of the lessee. In the event of his death, the contract he has made becomes null and void, even though its term be not expired.
II. Ard wakûf, or glebe-land. . . .
III. Ard mulk, or freehold, is chiefly composed of small pieces of ground in the neighbourhood of the villages, such as fig and olive plantations, gardens, and vineyards. . . .