Text, court, and family in late-nineteenth-century Palestine

In this chapter I analyze some of the textual and orthographical features of the shari'a court records in the port cities of Palestine, Jaffa, and Haifa, following the reforms of the Tanzimat. In this analysis these records constitute both source material for and an object of historical investigation. I discuss the late-nineteenth-century innovative recording procedures according to which some of these records were registered, and offer some ideas about their historical context and novelty and how their implementation may have affected the construction of the family in these communities.