Authority for the efficient and effective governance of the Ottoman dominions was vested in the military and judicial officials appointed from Istanbul to the provinces and districts of the empire. The beylerbeyi (provincial governor) of the province of Damascus controlled ten sancaks (districts), including Jerusalem. At the district level, the officials included the sancakbeyi (district governor), sipahis (cavalry officers), subaşis (soldiers with police functions), a local garrison of janissaries, and the kadi(s). In turn, senior officials were assisted by subordinates and support staffs drawn either from their accompanying households or from the local population.

Rural administration focused on the collection of taxes and ensuring peasant production. Among the peasants, immediate authority over the community and responsibility to the government lay with the village leader(s), the ra'īs al-fallāḥīn. He was the principal channel of official communication to the village population, and the mouthpiece of the villagers before Ottoman authorities. Moreover, the village leaders assumed a legal obligation for the payment of local taxes, making them liable for the sum due from their entire community.

This chapter examines the structure of authority at the district level. It tries to define the functions of the various officials and the village leaders in the routines of annual taxpaying and collecting.