Glossary

  • Abu-il-kalb – “father of the dog”
  • barhash – biting midges, no-see-ums
  • bek – an Ottoman title of nobility
  • bismillah ar-rahman ar-rahim – “in the name of Allah the merciful and compassionate”
  • dunam – an Ottoman unit of area, roughly one quarter of an acre
  • effendi – a squire, a title of respect
  • fallah (pl. fellahin) – an Arab peasant
  • gazeta – newspaper
  • gum – a blood vengeance
  • haram – the highest status of prohibition in Islam
  • hareth – a hired hand
  • ibrik ­– a small brass or copper pot, usually for making coffee
  • inglizi – English
  • Jabal al-Shaykh – “mountain of the sheikh”, Mount Hermon
  • kardosh (pl. karadish) – a type of bread made with yeast
  • khawaja – a foreigner
  • Kinneret – The Sea of Galilee
  • la allah ila allah wa-sayeduna muhammed rasul allah – “there is no god but Allah and our lord Muhammed is the messenger of Allah”
  • mabruk – blessed
  • mukhtar – a village big shot
  • medina – a big city
  • moshava – a type of Jewish agricultural colony of the Ottoman era, all land in which was privately owned
  • Mughrabi – someone from North Africa
  • nimr – a leopard
  • qadi – an Islamic judge
  • saj – a domed gridle
  • Shulchan Aruch – a 16th century text compiling the code of Jewish law
  • taboon – a large oven, usually clay, often communal
  • verko – an Ottoman excise tax
  • wadi – a seasonal riverbed
  • yahud – Jews
  • yishuv – Jews living in the Land of Israel
  • Yibnawi – someone from Yibna

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