# Dunam

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{{Short description|Ottoman unit of land area}}
{{refimprove|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
A '''dunam''' ([Ottoman Turkish](/source/Ottoman_Turkish_language), [Arabic](/source/Arabic_language): {{lang|ota|دونم}}; {{langx|tr|dönüm}}; {{langx|he|דונם}}; {{langx|yi|דונאם}}), also known as a '''donum''' or '''dunum''' and as the '''old''', '''Turkish''', or '''Ottoman [stremma](/source/stremma),'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dunam |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/dunam |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref> was the [Ottoman unit](/source/Ottoman_units_of_measurement) of [area](/source/area) analogous in role (but not equal) to the [Greek](/source/Byzantine_units) [stremma](/source/stremma) or [English](/source/English_units_of_measurement) [acre](/source/acre), representing the amount of land that could be ploughed by a team of [ox](/source/ox)en in a day. The legal definition was "forty standard [pace](/source/pace_(unit_of_length))s in length and breadth",<ref>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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/613605 at JSTOR (subscription required)]</ref> but its actual area varied considerably from place to place, from a little more than 900 m<sup>2</sup> in [Ottoman Palestine](/source/History_of_Palestine) to around 2 500 m<sup>2</sup> in [Iraq](/source/Ottoman_Iraq).<ref>''Cowan, J. Milton; Arabic-English Dictionary, The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th Edition, Spoken Languages Services, Inc.; 1994; p. 351)</ref><ref name="lkn">Λεξικό της κοινής Νεοελληνικής (Dictionary of Modern Greek), Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών, Θεσσαλονίκη, 1998. {{ISBN|960-231-085-5}}</ref>

The unit is still in use in many areas previously ruled by the Ottomans, although the '''new''' or '''metric dunam''' has been redefined as exactly 1 000 m<sup>2</sup>.<ref name="lkn"/>

==History==
The name '''dönüm''', from the [Ottoman Turkish](/source/Ottoman_Turkish_language) {{translit|ota|dönmek}} ({{lang|ota|دونمك}} {{gloss|to turn}}), appears to be a [calque](/source/calque) of the [Byzantine Greek](/source/Byzantine_Greek) ''[stremma](/source/stremma)'' and had the same size. It was likely adopted by the Ottomans from the Byzantines in [Mysia](/source/Mysia)-[Bithynia](/source/Bithynia).<ref>Ménage, ''op.cit.''</ref>

''The Dictionary of Modern Greek'' defines the old Ottoman stremma as approximately {{convert|1,270|m2}},<ref>Λεξικό, 1998</ref> but [Costas Lapavitsas](/source/Costas_Lapavitsas) used the value of {{convert|1,600|m2}} for the region of [Naoussa](/source/Naousa%2C_Imathia) in the early 20th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hdoisto.gr/Keimena/Lapavitsas4112005.pdf |title=Social and Economic Underpinning of Industrial Development: Evidence from Ottoman Macedonia |author-link1=Costas Lapavitsas |first1=Costas |last1=Lapavitsas |work=Ηλεκτρονικό Δελτίο Οικονομικής Ιστορίας |access-date=2012-08-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928095353/http://www.hdoisto.gr/Keimena/Lapavitsas4112005.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2007}}</ref>

==Definition==
===Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro ===
In [Bosnia and Herzegovina](/source/Bosnia_and_Herzegovina) and in [Serbia](/source/Serbia) the unit is called the {{lang|sh-Latn|dulum}} ({{lang|sh-Cyrl|дулум}}) or {{lang|sh-Latn|dunum}} ({{lang|sh-Cyrl|дунум}}). In Bosnia and Herzegovina a {{lang|bs|dunum}} (or {{lang|bs|dulum}}) equals {{convert|1,000|m2|0}}. In the region of [Leskovac](/source/Leskovac), south Serbia, one dulum is equal to {{convert|1,600|m2|0}}. In [Albania](/source/Albania) it is called a {{lang|sq|dynym}} or {{lang|sq|dylym}} and is equal to {{convert|1,000|m2|0}}.<ref name="RGA">{{cite web|url=http://www.rgz.gov.rs/template1.asp?PageName=merne_jedinice&MenuID=0000162&LanguageID=1 |script-title=sr:Мерне јединице у КЗ и КН |publisher=Republic Geodetic Authority of the Republic of Serbia |access-date=6 September 2010 |language=sr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304030340/http://www.rgz.gov.rs/template1.asp?PageName=merne_jedinice&MenuID=0000162&LanguageID=1 |archive-date=4 March 2012}}</ref>

===Bulgaria===
In [Bulgaria](/source/Bulgaria), the {{lang|bg-Latn|[decare](/source/decare)}} ({{lang|bg|декар}}) is used, which is an [SI](/source/International_System_of_Units) unit, literally meaning 10 ares.<!--is there also a traditional name?-->

===Cyprus===
In [Cyprus](/source/Cyprus), a donum is {{val|1337.803776|u=m2}} or 14400 square feet.<ref>Department of Lands and Surveys web site http://www.moi.gov.cy/moi/dls{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (retrieved April 2014)</ref> In the [Republic of Cyprus](/source/Republic_of_Cyprus) older Greek-Cypriots also still refer to the donum using the local [Greek Cypriot](/source/Cypriot_Greek) dialect word σκάλες [skales], rather than the mainland Greek word [stremma](/source/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 {{val|334.450944|u=m2}} or 3.600 square feet.

===Greece===
{{main|stremma}}

In Greece, the old {{lang|tr|dönüm}} is called a "Turkish stremma", while today, a {{lang|el-Latn|[stremma](/source/stremma)}} ({{lang|el|στρέμμα}}) or "royal stremma" is exactly one [decare](/source/decare), like the metric {{lang|tr|dönüm}}.<ref name="lkn"/>

===Iraq===
In [Iraq](/source/Iraq), the dunam is {{convert|2500|m2|ha}}.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHLR2kg60G0C&q=how+to+find+the+length+and+the+width+of+donum&pg=PA160 |title = A Glimpse of Iraq|isbn = 978-1-4116-9518-4|last1 = Al-Shawi|first1 = Ibrahim|year = 2006| publisher=Lulu.com }}</ref>

===Israel, Palestine and Turkey===
In [Israel](/source/Israel), [Palestine](/source/Palestine) and [Turkey](/source/Turkey), the dunam is {{convert|1000|m2|ft2|0}}, which is 1 [decare](/source/decare). From the Ottoman period and through the early years of the [British Mandate for Palestine](/source/Mandatory_Palestine), the size of a dunam was {{convert|919.3|m2|sqft|0}}, but in 1928, the metric dunam of {{convert|1000|m2|ha}} was adopted, and this is still used today in Israel and Palestine.<ref>{{cite book|last1= El-Eini |first1= Roza I.M. |title= Mandated landscape: British imperial rule in Palestine, 1929–1948 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ekQOAAAAQAAJ |access-date= 2009-05-05 |year= 2006 |publisher= [Routledge](/source/Routledge) |isbn= 978-0-7146-5426-3 |page= xxiii |chapter= Currency and Measures |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ekQOAAAAQAAJ&q=El-Eini+%22Mandated+Landscape%22 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | author = Israel Central Bureau of Statistics | url = http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton62/e_symbols.pdf | title = explanatory notes | access-date = 2 August 2013| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131217052043/https://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton62/e_symbols.pdf| archive-date=17 December 2013}}</ref>

=== United Arab Emirates ===
The Dubai Statistics Center and [https://www.scad.gov.abudhabi/en/pages/default.aspx Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi] use the metric dunam (spelt as donum) for data relating to agricultural land use.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.dsc.gov.ae/Publication/SYB%202009%20Chapter%208.pdf|title=Chapter 8: Agriculture Statistical Yearbook|date=2009|website=Dubai Statistics Center|page=184|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref> One donum equals {{convert|1,000|m2|0}}.

==Variations==
Other countries using a dunam of some size include [Libya](/source/Libya) and [Syria](/source/Syria).{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

==Similar units==
{{see also|Acre}}
The [Byzantine](/source/Byzantine_units) [Greek](/source/Greek_units) {{lang|grc-x-byzant|[stremma](/source/stremma)}} was the probable source of the Turkish unit. The {{lang|grc-Latn|[zeugarion](/source/zeugarion)}} ({{lang|grc|ζευγάριον}}; Turkish {{lang|ota-Latn|[çift](/source/%C3%A7ift)}}, {{lang|ota|چفت}}) was a similar unit derived from the area plowed by a team of oxen in a day. The [English](/source/English_units_of_measurement) [acre](/source/acre) was originally similar to both units in principle, although it developed separately.{{fact|date=February 2018}}

==See also==
* [Orders of magnitude (area)](/source/Orders_of_magnitude_(area)) for further comparisons
* [Conversion of units](/source/Conversion_of_units)
* {{lang|ar-Latn|[Feddan](/source/Feddan)}} ({{lang|ar|فدّان}}), a similar non-SI unit of area used in [Egypt](/source/Egypt), [Sudan](/source/Sudan), and [Syria](/source/Syria)
* {{lang|ota-Latn|[Resm-i dönüm](/source/Resm-i_donum)}}, a land tax based on the area of a farm

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.hagertygrain.com/weights_and_me.htm Foreign Weights and Measures Formerly in Common Use]
* [http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictD.html Dictionary of units]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050422231807/http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/Tvillage/Pages/Page_52.html Variable donums in Turkey]
* [http://www.sizes.com/units/doumlnuumlm.htm Summary based on UN handbook]

Category:Units of area
Category:Turkish words and phrases
Category:Metricated units

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Dunam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunam) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunam?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.