Jerusalem Sanjak

The Sanjak of Jerusalem (Ottoman Turkish: سنجاق قدس, romanized: Sancâk-ı Kudüs; Arabic: سنجق القدس, romanized: Sanjaq al-Quds) was an Ottoman sanjak that formed part of the Damascus Eyalet for much of its existence.^[1] It was created in the 16th century by the Ottoman Empire following the 1516–1517 Ottoman–Mamluk War.^[2] It was detached from the Syrian eyalet and placed directly under the Sublime Porte, the Ottoman central government, first for a brief period in 1841, and again in 1854.^[3]

During Ottoman period, the population around Jerusalem was organized into distinct village clusters (nahiyas) based on an apparent tribal basis, each with their own village-cluster sheikhs: Bani Murra, Bani Salim, Bani Hasan, Bani Zeid (see: Western and Eastern Bani Zeid municipalities), Bani Harith (see Kharbatha Bani Harith), Bani Malik (headed by Abu Ghosh) and more.^[4]

An independent province, the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, was created in 1872.^[5] It ceased to exist in 1917 during World War I as a result of British progress on the Middle Eastern front,^[6] when it became a British-administered occupied territory and later part of Mandatory Palestine as established by the League of Nations.^[7]