Dunam
Template:Short description Template:Refimprove Template:DMCA A dunam (Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: Script error: No such module "Lang".; Template:Langx; Template:Langx; Template:Langx), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma,[1] was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount of land that could be ploughed by a team of oxen in a day. The legal definition was "forty standard paces in length and breadth",[2] but its actual area varied considerably from place to place, from a little more than 900 m2 in Ottoman Palestine to around 2 500 m2 in Iraq.[3][4]
The unit is still in use in many areas previously ruled by the Ottomans, although the new or metric dunam has been redefined as exactly 1 000 m2.[4]
History
The name dönüm, from the Ottoman Turkish Template:Translit (Script error: No such module "Lang". 'to turn'), appears to be a calque of the Byzantine Greek stremma and had the same size. It was likely adopted by the Ottomans from the Byzantines in Mysia-Bithynia.[5]
The Dictionary of Modern Greek defines the old Ottoman stremma as approximately 1,270 square metres (13,700 sq ft),[6] but Costas Lapavitsas used the value of 1,600 square metres (17,000 sq ft) for the region of Naoussa in the early 20th century.[7]
Definition
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro
In Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia the unit is called the Script error: No such module "Lang". (Script error: No such module "Lang".) or Script error: No such module "Lang". (Script error: No such module "Lang".). In Bosnia and Herzegovina a Script error: No such module "Lang". (or Script error: No such module "Lang".) equals 1,000 square metres (10,764 sq ft). In the region of Leskovac, south Serbia, one dulum is equal to 1,600 square metres (17,222 sq ft). In Albania it is called a Script error: No such module "Lang". or Script error: No such module "Lang". and is equal to 1,000 square metres (10,764 sq ft).[8]
Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the Script error: No such module "Lang". (Script error: No such module "Lang".) is used, which is an SI unit, literally meaning 10 ares.
Cyprus
In Cyprus, a donum is 1337.803776 m2 or 14400 square feet.[9] In the Republic of Cyprus older Greek-Cypriots also still refer to the donum using the local Greek Cypriot dialect word σκάλες [skales], rather than the mainland Greek word stremma (equivalent to a decare). However, since 1986 officially Cyprus uses the square metre and the hectare.
A donum consists of 4 evleks, each of which consists of 334.450944 m2 or 3.600 square feet.
Greece
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In Greece, the old Script error: No such module "Lang". is called a "Turkish stremma", while today, a Script error: No such module "Lang". (Script error: No such module "Lang".) or "royal stremma" is exactly one decare, like the metric Script error: No such module "Lang"..[4]
Iraq
In Iraq, the dunam is 2,500 square metres (0.25 ha).[10]
Israel, Palestine and Turkey
In Israel, Palestine and Turkey, the dunam is 1,000 square metres (10,764 ft2), which is 1 decare. From the Ottoman period and through the early years of the British Mandate for Palestine, the size of a dunam was 919.3 square metres (9,895 sq ft), but in 1928, the metric dunam of 1,000 square metres (0.10 ha) was adopted, and this is still used today in Israel and Palestine.[11][12]
United Arab Emirates
The Dubai Statistics Center and Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi use the metric dunam (spelt as donum) for data relating to agricultural land use.[13] One donum equals 1,000 square metres (10,764 sq ft).
Variations
Other countries using a dunam of some size include Libya and Syria.[citation needed]
Similar units
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The Byzantine Greek Script error: No such module "Lang". was the probable source of the Turkish unit. The Script error: No such module "Lang". (Script error: No such module "Lang".; Turkish Script error: No such module "Lang"., Script error: No such module "Lang".) was a similar unit derived from the area plowed by a team of oxen in a day. The English acre was originally similar to both units in principle, although it developed separately.[citation needed]
See also
- Orders of magnitude (area) for further comparisons
- Conversion of units
- Script error: No such module "Lang". (Script error: No such module "Lang".), a similar non-SI unit of area used in Egypt, Sudan, and Syria
- Script error: No such module "Lang"., a land tax based on the area of a farm
References
Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dunam". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
- ^ V.L. Ménage, Review of Speros Vryonis, Jr. The decline of medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the process of islamization from the eleventh through the fifteenth century, Berkeley, 1971; in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) 36:3 (1973), pp. 659–661. at JSTOR (subscription required)
- ^ Cowan, J. Milton; Arabic-English Dictionary, The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (4th Edition, Spoken Languages Services, Inc.; 1994; p. 351)
- ^ a b c Λεξικό της κοινής Νεοελληνικής (Dictionary of Modern Greek), Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών, Θεσσαλονίκη, 1998. Template:ISBN
- ^ Ménage, op.cit.
- ^ Λεξικό, 1998
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Lapavitsas, Costas. "Social and Economic Underpinning of Industrial Development: Evidence from Ottoman Macedonia" (PDF). Ηλεκτρονικό Δελτίο Οικονομικής Ιστορίας. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Мерне јединице у КЗ и КН (in српски / srpski). Republic Geodetic Authority of the Republic of Serbia. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2010.
- ^ Department of Lands and Surveys web site http://www.moi.gov.cy/moi/dls[permanent dead link] (retrieved April 2014)
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Al-Shawi, Ibrahim (2006). A Glimpse of Iraq. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-4116-9518-4.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.El-Eini, Roza I.M. (2006). "Currency and Measures". Mandated landscape: British imperial rule in Palestine, 1929–1948. Routledge. p. xxiii. ISBN 978-0-7146-5426-3. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. "explanatory notes" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Chapter 8: Agriculture Statistical Yearbook" (PDF). Dubai Statistics Center. 2009. p. 184. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
