Author(s)

L. AL-OSSMI & V. AHMED

Abstract

There has been an increasing interest from architects and urban planners regarding the influence of the local/traditional regulations particularly for land, property and user’s rights issues. It is worth noting here that in Islamic countries, land, property and user’s rights are ruled and protected according to per- mit forms controlled by specific religious contexts. In the Iraqi situation, the Islamic administration of user’s rights in relation to land has itemized during the Ottoman period in the 15th century and fin- ished in 20th century. The objective of this research is to produce a body of material, a closer look at the Ottoman law, which could enhance the real influences of this period on Iraqi administration. This article offers therefore basic opportunity to revisit elementary principles regarding Islam Ottoman period in Iraq. Prior work, however, has focused extensively on the historical and on certain aspects in recent systems of Iraqi law. This article showed that Iraqi current administration of land, proper- ty and user’s rights is still influenced by regulations that were established during the Ottoman period. It concludes that the reform of Iraqi institutional framework can be held by socio-religious and political factors which potentially offer opportunities for the development of ‘authentic’ Islamic ownership tools that can support the campaign for the realization of fuller land rights for various sections of Muslim societies.

Keywords

Iraq, Islamic-Ottoman reforms, land, tenure security, user’s rights