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Amahallah, alsomahalla,mahallya,mahalle,mohalla,mehalla, ormehalle[a][b] is anArabic word variously translated asdistrict,quarter,ward, orneighborhood[1] in many parts of theArab world, theBalkans,Western Asia, theIndian subcontinent, and nearby nations.
Historically, mahallas were autonomous social institutions built around familial ties and Islamic rituals. Today it is popularly recognised also by non-Muslims as aneighbourhood in large cities and towns. Mahallas lie at the intersection of private family life and the public sphere. Important community-level management functions are performed through mahalle solidarity, such as religious ceremonies, life-cycle rituals, resource management and conflict resolution. It is an official administrative unit in manyMiddle Eastern countries.
The word was brought to theBalkans throughOttoman Turkishmahalle, but it originates inArabic محلة (mähallä), from the root meaning "to settle", "to occupy".
In September 2017, a Turkish-based association referred to the historical mahalle by organizing a festival with the title "Mahalla" in the frame of parallel events of the 15thIstanbul Biennial. The festival inIstanbul features cultural initiatives ofcivil society and artists from the Middle East, Europe, the Balkans and Turkey. Against the background of the ongoing migration crisis, all participants of the festival focus their work using themes of hospitality, identity formation, homelessness, migration, fluctuation, the changing of an existing order and the dissolution of borders. The secondMahalla Festival took place 2018 inValletta,Malta, in the frame of European Capital of Culture[2] under the title "Generating New Narratives". The third Mahalla Festival took place in 2020 under the title "Wandering Towers" with online and physical events due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 edition, "Murmuration", took place in the Istanbul district ofKadıköy at the Yeldeğirmeni Sanat Merkezi.
The word is used in many languages and countries to mean neighborhood or location and originated in Arabicمحلة (maḥalla), from the root meaning 'to settle', 'to occupy', derived from the verb halla (to untie), as in untying a pack horse or camel to make a camp. In ancient cultures, hospitality involved welcoming a stranger at the host location and offering him food, shelter and safety. That demonstration of hospitality centred on the belief that strangers should be assisted and protected while they travel.[2] A mahala was a relatively-independent quarter of a larger village or a town, usually with its ownschool, religious building or buildings, mayor's representative etc.[3] Mahalas are often named after the first settler or, when ethnically separate, according to the dominant ethnicity.
In the Ottoman Empire, the "mahalle" was the smallest administrative entity. The mahalle was generally perceived to play an important role inidentity formation, with the local mosque and the local coffee house as the main social gathering institutions.
Mahalle lay at the intersection of private family life and the public sphere. Important community-level management functions were performed by mahalle solidarity, such as religious ceremonies, lifecycle rituals, resource management and conflict resolution.[4]
Today, the mahalle is represented in the municipality and government by itsmuhtar. The muhtarlık, the office of the muhtar, has been designed as the smallest administrative office, with representative and enforcement powers at the local level. In some cases, however, the muhtar acts as not only the representative of the government towards the community but also the head of the community toward the government and subverts official government policies by intricate face-to-face mahalle-level relationships.[4]
Amahalla (pronouncedmo-hol-la), is an Islamic congregation or parish. Typically, a mahalla supports a single mosque. An imam is seen as the spiritual head of a mahalla. Mahallas are directly subordinate to acity ortown, especially an electoral district, for ritual and representative purposes. Unlike award, it is an optional and non-elective unit of acity corporation ormunicipal corporation.Mahalla also means an urban neighbourhood.
InBulgaria,mahalas were historically considered a separate type of settlement administration on some occasions. In rural mountainous areas, villages were often scattered and consisted of relatively separate mahalas with badly developedinfrastructure. Today, settlements are divided into towns or villages, and the official division of towns is into quarters. It today is used almost always to refer to theRoma neighbourhoods of towns such asArman Mahala.[5]
InGreece,mahalas (Greek:μαχαλάς) is considered a neighborhood. Sometimes it is considered a quarter of a small town or agypsy neighborhood.
The township ofSzentendre lost most of its population during theOttoman era, and was repopulated by various migrant groups from theBalkans -Serbs,Dalmatians,Bosniaks and the like. They built their own churches and created their own neighborhoods around them. They called themmahala ormehala, using the Ottoman nomenclature, and the word is still in use to describe these small quarters of the town today.
In India, the wordmohalla is used inHindi andUrdu to refer to a "neighbourhood".[6] In Malayalam speaking Kerala state of India, word Mahal is traditionally used by Mappila Muslims to denote their village units. A typical Mahal involves a central Masjid coordinating activities of the religious establishments and Mappila Muslim families living in its geographical jurisdiction.
The "mahalle" is the smallest urban administrative division inIran. Each city is divided into a fewMantaqes, (Persian:منطقه), which is then divided intoNahiyes (Persian:ناحیه), further subdivided toMahalle (Persian:محله), usually having aMahalle council (Persian:شورای محله), a quarter mosque, and a small parkette.
Amaalo (sometimesmaale), pluralmaala (Macedonian:маало / маале, маала) is a synonym forneighborhood in colloquial speech, but can also appear as part of a neighborhood name, such as Skopje's "Debar maalo", and Bitola's "Jeni maale", "Madzar maala".
In Romanian, the wordmahala has come to have the strictly negative or pejorative connotations of aslum orghetto[7] that are not present (or not as strongly implied) in other languages.
A mahalla is an Islamic congregation or parish in Russia and a number of countries, once part of theSoviet Union. Typically, mahallas support a single mosque. An imam is seen as the spiritual head of the mahalla. Mahallas are directly subordinate to amuhtasib and a territorialmuhtasibat.[8]
They were urban divisions in central Asian communities which today exist inUzbekistan,Kyrgyzstan, andTajikistan. Historically, mahallas were autonomous social institutions built around familial ties and Islamic rituals. Before the establishment of theSoviet rule in central Asia, mahallas fulfilled local self-government functions connecting the private sphere with the public sphere. Religious rituals, life-cycle crisis ceremonies, resource management, conflict resolution, and many other community activities were performed at the mahalla, in other words, on the neighbourhood level. An informal council of elders, calledoqsoqol (or "aksakal") provided leadership.[9]
After their inclusion in the Soviet Union, informal mahalla organizations were placed under the state control and served as local extensions of the Soviet government. Mahallas were thought to be "eyes" and "ears" of the Soviet government; mahalla became a control mechanism of the state. Mahalla leaders were then appointed by the government. Mahalla level state-society relationships were more complex, however, as their leaders could serve as henchmen as well as act as buffers between the local community and the state. Due to intimate, face-to face relationships dominant at the mahalla level, mahalla organizations could often shield the community from the incursions of the state.
Since 1993, the Uzbek government reorganized mahalla councils as bearers of "Uzbek nationhood" and "morality," effectively reproducing Soviet style state domination over the society. Thus, they are formal structures run by committees and once again regulated by the government.
Mahallas are a common unit not only in Uzbekistan, but in Tajikistani cities likeKhujand and Kyrgyzstani cities likeOsh.[10]
In Turkey,mahalle, which may be translated as 'neighborhood', was traditionally a kind of sub-village settlement, one that could be found in both rural settings and in towns.[11]