A dunam (Ottoman Turkish, Arabic language: دونم; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma,[V.L. Ménage, Review of Speros Vryonis, Jr. The decline of medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the process of islamization from the eleventh through the fifteenth century, Berkeley, 1971; in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) 36:3 (1973), pp. 659–661. at JSTOR (subscription required)] but its actual area varied considerably from place to place, from a little more than in Ottoman Palestine to around in Ottoman Iraq.[ Cowan, J. Milton; Arabic-English Dictionary, The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (4th Edition, Spoken Languages Services, Inc.; 1994; p. 351)][Λεξικό της κοινής Νεοελληνικής (Dictionary of Modern Greek), Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών, Θεσσαλονίκη, 1998. ]
The unit is still in use in many areas previously ruled by the Ottomans, although the new or metric dunam has been redefined(as of when, by who?) as exactly one decare (), which is 1/10 hectare (1/10 × ), like the modern Greek royal stremma.
History
The name
dönüm, from the Ottoman Turkish
dönmek (دونمك, "to turn"), appears to be a
calque of the
Byzantine Greek stremma and had the same size. It was likely adopted by the Ottomans from the Byzantines in
Mysia-
Bithynia.
[Ménage, op.cit.]
The Dictionary of Modern Greek defines the old Ottoman stremma as approximately ,[Λεξικό, 1998] but Costas Lapavitsas used the value of for the region of Naoussa in the early 20th century.
Definition
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro
In Bosnia and Herzegovina and in
Serbia the unit is called the
dulum (дулум) or
dunum (дунум). In Bosnia and Herzegovina a dunum (or dulum) equals . In the region of
Leskovac, south Serbia, one dulum is equal to . In
Albania it is called a dynym or dylym and is equal to .
Bulgaria
In
Bulgaria, the
decare (декар) is used, which is an SI unit, literally meaning 10 ares.
Cyprus
In
Cyprus, a donum is or 14400 square feet.
[Department of Lands and Surveys web site http://www.moi.gov.cy/moi/dls (retrieved April 2014)] In the Republic of Cyprus older Greek-Cypriots also still refer to the donum using the local
Cypriot Greek dialect word σκάλες skales, rather than the mainland Greek word
stremma (equivalent to a decare). However, since 1986 officially Cyprus uses the square metre and the hectare.
A donum consists of 4 evleks, each of which consists of or 3.600 square feet.
Greece
In Greece, the old dönüm is called a "Turkish stremma", while today, a
stremma or "royal stremma" is exactly one
decare, like the metric dönüm.
Iraq
In
Iraq, the dunam is .
Israel, Palestine and Turkey
In Israel,
Palestine and
Turkey, the dunam is , which is 1
decare. From the Ottoman period and through the early years of the British Mandate for Palestine, the size of a dunam was , but in 1928, the metric dunam of was adopted, and this is still used today in Israel.
United Arab Emirates
The Dubai Statistics Center and
Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi use the metric dunam (spelt as donum) for data relating to agricultural land use.
One donum equals .
Variations
Other countries using a dunam of some size include
Libya and
Syria.
Conversions
A metric dunam is equal to:
-
1,000 square metres (exactly)
-
10 ares (exactly)
-
1 decare (exactly)
-
0.1 (exactly)
-
0.001 square kilometres (exactly)
-
0.247105381 (approx)
-
1,195.99005 (approx)
-
10,763.9104 square foot (approx)
Comparable measures
The
Byzantine units Greek units stremma was the probable source of the Turkish unit. The
zeugarion (Turkish çift) was a similar unit derived from the area plowed by a team of oxen in a day. The
English units acre was originally similar to both units in principle, although it developed separately.
See also
-
Orders of magnitude (area) for further comparisons
-
Conversion of units
-
Feddan, a similar non-SI unit of area used in Egypt, Sudan, and Syria
-
Resm-i donum, a land tax based on the area of a farm
External links
