2.17 Status of Bahais under the British Mandatory Regime in Palestine

2.17.1 Followers of Mirza Muhammad Ali
They were governed by the law regulating Moslem personal status administered by Moslem Sharia (Religious) courts. They had no Mukhtar (Headmen of a community who served as a link between members of a community and the government.

2.17.2 Followers of Sir Abbas Effendi
They had a Mukhtar of their own, who recorded marriages, births and deaths on prescribed statutory Forms and furnished a copy of them to the Commission of the district. No divorce proceeding were instituted by a Bahai in a Civil Court to argue the significance and validity of such marriage certificates. The Mukhtar was Mirza Inayatullah of Isfahan, who was later excommunicated by Shoghi Effendi, together with all the members of his family. He was a near relative of Sir Abbas Effendi’s wife lady Munira.

For certificates of succession and inheritance they applied to the Civil Court, which applied the Law in force in Palestine.

Exemption from the payment of wergo (immovable property tax or House and Land tax) was granted in respect of the buildings of recognised charitable and religious institutions and buildings and playgrounds owned and maintained by recognised Educational Institutions provided that the buildings were solely used for charitable, religious, or education purposes and were not revenue producing.

In accordance with the Ottoman Musaqqafat law (Roofed property tax), a roofed property tax was levied in lieu of the wergo in the township of Haifa, Acre, and Shefa Amr.

At a later stage the wergo and Musaqqafat tax and other taxes were replaced within all the urban areas by a new tax known as urban property tax under the provisions of the urban property tax Ordinance. Under the Ordinance exemption was granted in respect of properties which formerly enjoyed exemption in respect of House and Land Tax.

Bahaism was treated as a sect of Islam. As such exemption may have been extended to several Bahai properties.

Therefore, the appointment of a Mukhtar, application to a civil court for a certificate of succession, and extension of the exemption were not ultra vires of the status quo and did not necessarily mean recognition of Bahaism as an independent religion.

2.17.3 Succession and inheritance under the British Mandatory regime in Palestine
The law governing interests in immovables in Palestine was the Ottoman law of land as it stood on November 1, 1914, supplemented and modified by the legislation of the Palestine government. The term Miri (State) land means land over which a heritable right of possession (tasarruf) is granted by the State to a private person, through the Raquba (ownership) remains in the State.

Immovable property classified as Mulk (freehold) is in the absolute ownership of the proprietor. Mulk and Mir interests followed different canons of inheritances, and though the law governing Miri interest was same in the case of Miri land in Palestine, the law governing Mulk inheritance varied according to the religious or national status of the deceased person. Primarily the law relating to inheritance to Mulk was the sacred (Moslem) law.

The law applied in Palestine in all cases in which the deceased was a Moslem, the law applicable was the Sunni law of the rite. Under Section 19 of the succession Ordinance, 1923, every court having jurisdiction in matters of succession had in all cases to determine the right of succession to Miri land in accordance with the provision of the Ottoman law set forth in the second schedule attached to the Ordinance [i.e. the Law and Inheritance, A.H. 1331 (1913).

When Baha’s daughter Bahiyya Khanum, died during Shoghi Effendi’s tenure of office one of Sir Abbas Effendi’s son-in-law and one of Sir Abbas Effendi’s grandsons applied to the district court in Haifa, through their advocate, for a certificate of succession for the distribution of the estate of Bahiyya Khanum. In the affidavit they furnished to the court, the son-in-law and the grandson stated that the descendant’s heirs were Sir Abbas Effendi’s four daughters only. Attention of Baha’s son Mirza Badiullah was called by a Moslem clerk in the court to the application. Mirza Badiullah applied to the Moslem Sharia (Religious) Court in Acre for a certificate of succession, beginning with the death of Mirza Husayn Ali of Nur (Baha) and ending with the death of Bahiyya Khanum.

The certificate of succession issued by the Moslem Sharia Court declared that the heirs of Bahiyya Khanum were not only the four daughters of Sir Abbas Effendi but also half-brothers Mirza Muhammad Ali and Mirza Badiullah, who were entitled in law to receive a share in the estate of the deceased in accordance with the Ottoman law of inheritance.

Mirza Badiullah submitted to succession to the district in Haifa, contested the application of the son-in-law and the grandson, and put in appearance on the day fixed for the hearing of the application. The son-in-law’s and grandson’s attorney was dumbfounded, his clients had committed perjury. He removed them from the court room, apologised to the court for the error, and prayed for the acceptance of the certificate of succession produced by Mirza Badiullah. The court admitted the certificate of succession, on the strength of which interest and estate of the deceased was registered in the relevant land registers in the names of the heirs as set out in the certificate.

The same laws, namely, the Ottoman law of Inheritance and the Sacred (Moslem) Law applied to Sir Abbas Effendi’s Mii and Mulk interests in Jordan, which devolved by way of inheritance on his heirs.

It appears from Awara’s Kashf-al-Hiyal, Vol. I., 6th impression, P. 121, as well as from Subhi’s Payam-i-Padar, PP. 247-249 that after the death of Sir Abbas Effendi and on the strength of a ‘tablet’ from Haifa addressed to the Bahai Spiritual Assembly in Tehran, immovables donated by Iranian Bahai to the Cause were ordered to be registered in the name of Shoghi Effendi, the son of Mirza Hadi of Shiraz and that some of these properties were sold and the proceeds realised from their sale were remitted to Shoghi Effendi for the promotion of the Cause.

It is now learnt on good authority that after Shoghi Effendi’s death some of the donors demanded the restitution of their properties and the heirs of Shoghi Effendi had to restore them to their original owners on the strength of a certificate of succession.


2.17.4 Jurisdiction
The Palestine Order-in-Council 1922 gave to the Civil Courts jurisdictions in all matters and even all persons in Palestine. This general rule was, however, subject to an important reservation which provided that jurisdiction in matters of personal status shall be exercised by the Court of Religious Community established and exercising jurisdiction at the date of the Order (1st September, 1922). Jurisdiction under the Order-in-Council and consequently under the succession ordinance 1923 can be exercised only by the Courts of Religious Communities established and exercising jurisdiction at the date of the Order, the schedule to the succession ordinances gave a list of those communities having jurisdiction under the ordinance. They were:
The Eastern (Orthodox) Community;
The Latin (Catholic) Community;
The Armenian (Georgian) Community;
The Syrian (Catholic) Community;
The Chaldean (Uniate) Community;
The Jewish Community;
The Armenian (Catholic) Community;

To these were added as having established their claims since the Ordinances:
The Greek Catholic (Melkite) Community (1st September 1923),
The Maronite Community (1st September, 1924);
The Syrian Orthodox Community (11 December, 1929).

The Moslem religious court did not require express sanction, and it may be observed that their jurisdiction is not strictly command. It is exercised over matters of personal states of all Moslems, and not merely (as is the often cases) over members of the community.

The Bahai community was not a prescribed community within the meaning of the Order-in-Council. Bahais of the faction of Mirza Muhammad Ali followed Moslem personal states and their marriages were solemnized by a duly authorized officer of the Moslem Religious Court by whom certification of marriage were issued, to each one of the parties to the marriage.

The certificate is documentary evidence of the legal union of a man and woman, and is admissible in evidence in any court or tribunal. Followers of Abdul Baha had a Bahai Mukhtar of their own whose function was, as far as I can remember, to notify the district commissioner. Bahai marriages, births and deaths, I do not know who was the competent authority who celebrated marriages of members of this faction.
The account given by Ruhiyya Khanum of her marriage to Shoghi Effendi is defective. She does not say whether her marriage to Shoghi Effendi was celebrated by a competent authority or a marriage officer duly authorized for the purpose.

The matter may be verified from the Colonial records for Palestine kept in London or from Bahai headquarters.

2.17.5 Pilgrim Houses
The pilgrim House opposite Sir Abbas Effendi’s House in Haifa is for Westerners. The pilgrim House on Mt. Carmel is for Easterners. According to Subhi’s Payam-i Padar, P. 166, during, Sir Abbas Effendi’s [and Shoghi Effendi’s] tenure of office visiting pilgrims, Eastern and Western, were accommodated in their respective houses. Westerners had Sir Abbas Effendi’s [and Shoghi Effendi’s] pleasure of company at lunch and dinner … Easterners were denied such pleasures. The origin of either pilgrim Houses is not known. The existing protocol is not known.


2.17.6 Taxation and Religious Propaganda in Israel
No Bahai is exempt from taxation in Israel. Religious propaganda is not permitted in Israel.


 

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