The Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (Ottoman Turkish: قُدس شَرِيف مُتَصَرِّفلغى, Kudüs-i Şerif Mutasarrıflığı; Arabic: متصرفية القدس الشريف, Mutaṣarrifiyyat al-quds aš-šarīf, French: Moutassarifat de Jérusalem), also known as the Sanjak of Jerusalem, was a district in Ottoman Syria with special administrative status established in 1872.

[7] The district was separated from the Damascus Eyalet and placed directly under the supervision of the Ottoman central government in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1841, and formally created as an independent province in 1872 by Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasha.

[8] Scholars provide a variety of reasons for the separation, including increased European interest in the region, and strengthening of the southern border of the Empire against the Khedivate of Egypt.

[4] After less than two months,[4] the sanjaks of Nablus and Acre were separated and added to the Vilayet of Beirut, leaving just the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem.

[9] In 1906, the Kaza of Nazareth was added to the Jerusalem Mutasarrifate as an exclave,[10] primarily in order to allow the issuance of a single tourist permit to Christian travellers.

[14] Towards the end of the 19th century, the idea that the region of Palestine or the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem formed a separate political entity became widespread among the district's educated Arab classes.

The tax in the Mulk-lands has been definitely fixed, without regard to the difference of the harvests in good and bad years.Administrative divisions of the Mutasarrifate (1872–1909): The Mutasarrıfs of Jerusalem were appointed by the Sublime Porte to govern the district.

They were usually experienced civil servants who spoke little or no Arabic, but knew a European language - most commonly French - in addition to Ottoman Turkish.