The Politics of Land Management in Medieval Islam: The Village of Hisban, Jordan

FAIN: FT-52524-04

Bethany Joelle Walker
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater (Stillwater, OK 74078-0001)

This project assesses the human factors that impacted Jordan’s environment and ecology during the late medieval and Ottoman periods. This period witnessed important shifts in land management and agricultural practices, the effects of which can be identified in some of the most pressing socio-political problems in the country today, such as water conflicts, regional political divisions, and demographic pressures. My research agenda for the summer of 2004 is to analyze the critical watershed of the fifteenth century in terms of changes in rural administration, settlement, and agriculture. The study relies on a novel combination of written sources and material culture and, in this way, crosses the disciplines of history and archaeology.