Vakf means that the Ottoman Sultan has assigned the tithes or taxes to a specific object as opposed to an individual.
[4] Prior to the enactment of the Ottoman Land Code, 1858, land was held by virtue of Sultanic decrees, grants made by conquerors of various areas, judgments of both civil and Muslim religious courts, orders of administrative authorities and deeds of sale executed before the Muslim courts.
Encroachment on unoccupied land belonging to the State and various other unauthorised methods accounted for large holdings.
The extent of mulk or allodial lands (privately owned property) in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem was limited, and was usually only found in the old cities or in garden areas.
[20] Customary practice however under the British was reviewed to consider all land within village and town boundaries as no longer miri but mülk.
[22] The laws then in place were officially recognized by Article 46 of the King's Speech (enacted in the name of King George V on 10 August 1922, Palestine Order in Council), according to which provisions the validity of the Ottoman law that existed in Palestine on November 1, 1914, was recognized, and made subject to orders and regulations issued from then on by the mandate government.
In 1928, as a measure of reform, the Mandate Government of Palestine began to apply an Ordinance for the "Commutation of Tithes," this tax in effect being a fixed aggregate amount paid annually.
It was related to the average amount of tithe (tax) that had been paid by the village during the four years immediately preceding the application of the Ordinance to it.
[28] Claims for land in the other two thirds depended on either a Turkish or British certificate of registration, or through tax registers and proof of purchase under Jordanian law.
[29] On assuming control, Israel suspended these procedures, and asserted that of five categories of land in the old Ottoman Law – waqf.