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Life Courses of Women and Men in the Village of Isdud (1905-1916)

Franzis Heßling

The subject of this article is how the typical life courses of men and women in late Ottoman Palestine differed, and how these can be reconstructed using Ottoman census data. Over the course of the LOOP project, the village of Isdud in the Gaza region has received special attention. We were able to obtain a complete collection of data from Nüfus Book 250 of the Esas Defteri (Basic Register) type. It ultimately became a key primary source for a seminar on digital analysis of historical datasets taught by Johann Büssow and Olaf Berg in 2024, and the village itself has since been one of the most researched rural communities in our sample.

Isdud at the turn of the 20th century

The register for Isdud was kept in a very uniform and orderly manner, and lists 2,212 people. These include 1,149 women and 1,063 men. At the time the census register was compiled, Isdud was one of the three most populous villages in the Gaza region, alongside al-Majdal and Hamama (Marom and Fantalkin 2025, 7; see Fig. 1). In his encyclopedia on Palestine (first published in 1936), Mustafa al-Dabbagh highlighted the economic importance of the village, noting its agricultural potential and its advantageous location. Isdud sat along one of the most important trade and transport routes in the southeastern Mediterranean – the Cairo-Damascus Road – which was the main link between Egypt and Syria (al-Dabbāgh 1991: I, 193-195, Marom and Fantalkin 2025, 7).

We can gain additional insights from an Arabic-language travel report by Nuʿman al-Qasatli (1855-1920) from 1875. Qasatli was an Arab surveyor and scribe who worked for the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) in the mid-1870s and participated in the Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) (Talmon-Heller 2019, 124). His report dedicated the most attention to a description of a dilapidated khan (caravan station and trading place). It also describes the geographical and historical location of the village of Isdud and its surroundings in Gaza. According to him, the village was located two hours’ travel time north of al-Majdal. Its name was derived from an ancient city of the same name (Philistine Ashdūd, Hebrew Ashdod, Latin Azotus), which was located half an hour’s ride to the west. The text described ancient Isdud as a former important hub, which is now covered by ruins and sand (al-Qasatli 2011, pp. 188-191).

Another historical sketch of Isdud was provided by the Gazan Muslim scholar and chronicler al-Tabbaʿ (1882-1950) in a manuscript on the history of the Gaza region written shortly before the First World War. Like Dabbagh later on, he emphasized the strategic location of the town along the Cairo-Damascus Road (al-Tabbaʿ 1999, 409-412; on the author, see Ben-Bassat and Buessow 2024, 23-24).

As shown on the map of the Tübingen Atlas of the Near East (TAVO), Isdud was only connected to other villages by unpaved roads before the Mandate period (TAVO, Sheet BX12). It was not until the First World War that a railroad line was laid along the Cairo-Damascus Road.

Fig.1: Isdud and its surroundings. Section of the map “TAVO BX12 – Palestine around 1920 (southern part)” scale 1:500,000.

So far, we know very little about the society and the spatial organization of the village. Roy Marom and Alexander Fantalkin recently published an article on agriculture in the sand dunes near Isdud. They explain that based on Arabic “village histories” written by local authors during the period we are researching, Isdud was divided into four neighborhoods (Ar. ḥārāt or arbāʿ). Each of these were represented by a headman (mukhtār) from one of the village’s extended families: the Da‘ālisa, Zaqqūt (also Zaqāqita), Manā‘ima, and Jūda (Marom and Fantalkin 2025, 7). However, these family names mentioned by Marom and Fantalkin are not congruent with the names most frequently found in the 250 Isdud register. The only family name mentioned by Marom and Fantalkin that frequently turns up in the census register is Jūda (Jawda). 1

Life expectancy of men and women

Figures 2 and 3 show the distribution of the age at death for women and men in Isdud according of our analysis of the census register. The data indicate a high infant and child mortality rate, which was similarly found in British census data analyzed by Justin McCarthy for the years 1922-1946 (see McCarthy 2019, pp. 119-138). A high infant mortality rate is particularly noticeable among males in Isdud (around 25% of boys died before the age of 9). This factor significantly influenced the average life expectancy at the time. The median age of death was 29 years, and around 75% of men died before the age of 52. The average life expectancy was only 32.7 years for men and 42.4 years for women (5% adjusted arithmetic mean). For women, the distribution also suggests that the birth of a child increased the risk of death. Another striking feature demanding explanation is the increased mortality rate among men in young adulthood (Fig. 2). Possible explanations include a higher incidence of accidents at work or violence among younger men (see Krause and Büssow 2024). The histograms in Figures 2 and 3 show the distribution of the age at death for men and women. The x-axis shows the age at death divided into age groups; the y-axis shows the frequency. The density curve (line) shows the smoothed distribution of deaths.

Figure 2: Distribution of age at death for men (n = 162).
Figure 3: Distribution of age at death for women (n = 68).

Overall, it should be noted that the age at death could only be determined for people for whom a date of death was entered in the comment field of register 250. We do not know whether all deaths between 1905 and 1916 were actually recorded in full; the date of death was recorded less frequently for women in particular. The sample thus comprises 162 entries with death date for men, but only 68 for women. The two groups are therefore probably not complete and the results can only be generalized with restrictions.

Women in Isdud

A total of 1149 women lived in Isdud between 1905 and 1916. The vast majority of them were born in Isdud (approx. 92%); only a few women moved here from other places, and even then, mostly from the surrounding area. The census documents show that, in the vast majority of cases, marriage was the reason for moving to Isdud. 2 The women who moved to Isdud came primarily from neighboring areas such as Bayt Daras, Batani al-Gharbi, and al-Majdal. A few women also came from more distant places of origin such as Egypt, Nablus, and Jaffa. The men, on the other hand, came almost exclusively – with only two exceptions – from Isdud.

How old were women when they were registered in their husband’s household?

From the census register, I was able to determine the ages of 184 women at the time they were registered in the husband’s household. The date on which a woman moved into or out of her parental home is meticulously noted in Isdud’s register for women who moved after 1905. The date on which they were formally registered in the new household is usually entered a few years later. The histogram in Figure 4 shows the distribution of the age of registration in the husband’s household of these 184 women. The x-axis shows the age divided into age groups; the y-axis shows the frequency.

Figure 4: Distribution of age at registration in the husband’s household for women who moved after 1905 (n = 184).

On average, women in Isdud therefore were registered in their husband’s household at around 19 years of age. The quartile values (i.e., the values dividing a dataset into four equal parts) provide additional insight into the distribution of the data: 25% of the women were registered in the husband’s household before the age of 14, 50% before the age of 18.5, and 75% before the age of 24. In order to minimize the distortion caused by extreme outliers, I calculated a 5%-adjusted arithmetic mean, which is 19.27 years. In Isdud, young women often moved in and out of their husbands’ households in a planned manner. It regularly happened that one or more daughters from one family moved into the household of another family at the same or nearly the same time, and vice versa. In these cases, we can observe marriage alliances between two households and families.

The documents record the woman’s new registration in the new household and the date she moved out of the original household. The Ottoman-Turkish phrases tebdil giden (roughly: “moved from”) and gelen nakl (“moved to”) were used for this purpose. Marriage alliances outside of Isdud were rare.

Age heaping in census records for older women

Interestingly, the year of birth was often rounded to the nearest 5‑year increment for women who were older than about 40 years at the time of registration. For example, the birth years 1854 (1270 in the Rumi calendar) and 1859 (1275 in the Rumi calendar) occur repeatedly, and far more often than for the years in between. One explanation for this phenomenon could be that the women themselves, or the people who passed on the information to the officials, did not know the exact year of birth and estimated it.  Another reason for the rounded date of birth could be that either the women themselves, the census officials, or a responsible household member attached less importance to the recording of an exact year of birth for women compared to the men in this age group in Isdud. This could also be linked to the fact that the exact age was considered more important for men, e.g., due to possible military service. 3 The histogram in Figure 5 shows the distribution of the year of birth of women recorded in the census records dating from 1905-1916 (Rumi calendar 1321-1332). The x-axis shows the Rumi year of birth divided into groups; the y-axis shows the frequency.

Figure 5: Distribution of birth years for women.

Men in Isdud

1063 men lived in the village of Isdud between 1905 and 1916. Men were documented in far greater detail than women were in the register, using several categories.

For example, their state of health was noted. The vast majority of men were classified as tam (healthy). The number of men with pockmarks (Turkish: çiçek bozuǧu) and blindness due to eye diseases was relatively high. Smallpox scars were recorded for 18 men; eye diseases, expressed in various terms (e.g., his eyes are sick (gözleri hasta), spotted eye (gözü lekeli), left eye white (sol gözü beyaz), blind (kör), occurred about 30 times. The diversity of terms used to describe eye diseases indicates that Ottoman officials were not familiar with standardized technical terms for these diseases.

The occupational groups of Isdud’s male population were very homogeneous. The largest group of almost 400 people were farmers (Turk. çiftçi). Only one khaṭīb (preacher) and one ʿālim (scholar) are recorded in the register. The large number of farmers indicates a population that was characterized by agricultural tradition and in which the free choice of a profession or the need to take up other professions was apparently not available.

We can also learn from the data at what stage of life men became fathers. The data in the register shows that men became fathers late, on average at the age of 32. The high infant and child mortality rate must also be taken into account here. Only living children were recorded, which influences the age of first paternity if there were already children who had died. Men therefore often only became fathers (i.e., fathers of surviving children) at an age when, statistically speaking, they did not have many years of life ahead of them. For women, the age of the first birth is not easy to determine on the basis of the census registers; for men, however, it is, as the Ottoman census registers always assigned household members to the father.

Conclusion

The first statistical exploration of the Ottoman census data for Isdud has thus produced some surprises. These include the fact that entire life course patterns can indeed be reconstructed from the data.

On average, men died earlier than women, had children later, and worked in agriculture. Women in Isdud were registered in their husband’s household at the average age of 19. Older women usually were registered with a rounded year of birth. Pregnancy presumably increased their risk of death, but on average they lived longer than men. Once we have conducted such statistics for all rural communities in our sample, it should hopefully enable us to draw broader conclusions about life course patterns in rural Palestine in the 1900s.

This data has also spurred new research questions, such as how the increased mortality rate among young men can be explained. And last but not least, the nature of our data leads us to the topic of fatherhood, which has so far received little attention in historical research.

We plan to apply the analyses described in this article to datasets on other rural and urban communities in Ottoman Palestine, and it will be interesting to see what this might tell us about living conditions in different parts of the region.


References

Sources

Israel State Archives (ISA), Jerusalem, Nüfus, Nüfus book 250 (Esas defteri), Register of the Muslim community of Isdud, 1905-1916.

Schmitt, Götz, with contributions by Bieberstein, Klaus, Al-Jubah, Nazmi and Sindlinger, Peter 1992. TAVO BX12 – Palestine c. 1920 (Southern Part) [Map]. Scale 1:500,000. Tübingen: Tübingen Atlas of the Near East (TAVO).

Secondary Literature

A’Hearn, Brian, Jörg Baten, and Dorothee Crayen. 2009 Quantifying quantitative literacy: Age heaping and the history of human capital, The Journal of Economic History, 69(3), pp.783-808.

Büssow, Sarah. 2023. Losing count of one’s age? Surprising age statements in Ottoman census registers. LOOP – Late Ottoman Palestinians. Accessed April 16, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/vxa7

al-Dabbāgh, Muṣṭafā Murād. 1991 [1936]. Bilādunā Filastị̄n [Our Country Palestine], 10 vols. Kafr Qarʿ, Burlington, WI; Dār al-Hudā [in Arabic].

Krause, Katharina and Sarah Büssow. 2024. The Death Register of Ottoman Hebron (1905-1915): Formal Aspects, Surprising Finds, and Research Questions. LOOP – Late Ottoman Palestinians. Accessed April 16, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/124ul

Marom, Roy and Alexander Fantalkin. 2025. Vines Among the dunes: sand/dune agriculture in Rimāl Isdūd/Ashdod-Yam during the Late Ottoman and British Mandate periods, Contemporary Levant, pp. 1-24. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/20581831.2025.2475263.

McCarthy, Justin. 1990. The Population of Palestine: Population History and Statistics of the Late Ottoman Period and the Mandate. Columbia University Press.

al-Qasāṭlī, Nuʿmān. 2011. al-Rawda al-Nuʿmaniyya fī siyāḥat Filasṭīn wa baʿad al-buldān al-Shāmiyya [al-Nuʿman Travels in Palestine and some of the Syrian Lands]. Irbid: Muʾassasat Ḥamāda li-Dirāsāt al-Jamʿiyya wa-l-Nashr [in Arabic].

al-Ṭabbāʿ, ʿUthmān. 1999. Itḥāf al-aʿizza fī tārīkh Ghazza [Presenting the Notables in the History of Gaza]. 4 vols. Edited by ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Abū Hāshim. Gaza: Maktabat al-Yāzijī [in Arabic].

Talmon-Heller, Daniella. 2019. Job (Ayyūb), Ḥusayn and Saladin in Late Ottoman Palestine: The Memoirs of Nuʿmān al-Qasaṭlī, the Arab Scribe of the Survey of Western Palestine. In: Gurevich, D. and Kidron, A. (eds.) Exploring the Holy Land: 150 Years of the Palestine Exploration Fund. London: Equinox Publishing.


  1. The fact that the names of large kinship or tribal groups (Arabic singular ḥamūla, ʿashīra) were not recorded by the census officials can, however, also be observed in other places in Palestine for which we have census data and supplementary sources for comparison.[]
  2. The entries in the “Marriage” (münakehat) column of the census register show that most of the women moved to Isdud because of marriage. However, there are also women listed who moved from other places without such a marriage entry, especially older women.[]
  3. The economic historian Jörg Baten has conducted extensive studies on the topic of “age heaping” in different societies, although in his work, the age itself was rounded or estimated rather than the year of birth. See A’Hearn, Brian, Jörg Baten, and Dorothee Crayen 2009, pp. 783-808. For some initial observations on age heaping in the late Ottoman census of Palestine, see Büssow 2023.[]
Franzis Heßling
Franzis Heßling

The text only may be used under licence Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Franzis Heßling (May 14, 2025). Life Courses of Women and Men in the Village of Isdud (1905-1916). LOOP – Late Ottoman Palestinians. Retrieved June 3, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13x4z


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