Urban planning and urban structure in late Ottoman Palestine

Abstract

The Ottomans stayed in Palestine around 400 years characterized by great changes and developments. They significantly impinged the life of the Palestinians with numerous effects from language to the urban style and architecture. The Ottoman government controls depended upon the Islamic law and included several regulations for the built environment and the urban structure. The main government systems that included such laws and regulations are the administrative, judicial and land systems. This article depends on historical research to dig through these systems in order to explore the different controls they used over the Palestinian urban structures and to what extent did they established a comprehensive framework for the control and management of urban structures in Palestine. It was discovered that these systems did not establish such a framework which also did not exist outside the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, the dependence of these systems on Islamic laws provided them unique and distinguished mechanisms that did not exist in other non-Ottoman systems. They also are considered significant developments in Islamic government systems and contributed positively to the development of Palestinian urban structures.