Mahallah

"Mahala" redirects here. For other uses, seeMahala (disambiguation).

View of Sarshahar Mahallah inOrdubad,Azerbaijan

Amahallah,alsomahalla,mahallya,mahalle,mohalla,mehalla,ormehalleis anArabicword variously translated asdistrict,quarter,ward,orneighborhoodin many parts of theArab world,theBalkans,Western Asia,theIndian subcontinent,and nearby nations.

History

Historically, mahallas were autonomous social institutions built around familial ties and Islamic rituals. Today it is popularly recognised also by non-Muslims as aneighbourhoodin 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 Easterncountries.

The word was brought to theBalkansthroughOttoman Turkishmahalle,but it originates inArabicمحلة (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 inIstanbulfeatures cultural initiatives ofcivil societyand 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 Festivaltook place 2018 inValletta,Malta,in the frame of European Capital of Cultureunder 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-19pandemic. The 2021 edition, "Murmuration",took place in the Istanbul district ofKadıköyat the Yeldeğirmeni Sanat Merkezi.

Origins

Dabova Mahala, a mahala-turned-village inMontana Province,Bulgaria

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.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.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.

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.

Use of the term

Bangladesh

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 acityortown,especially an electoral district, for ritual and representative purposes. Unlike award,it is an optional and non-elective unit of acity corporationormunicipal corporation.Mahallaalso means an urban neighbourhood.

Bulgaria

InBulgaria,mahalaswere 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 theRomaneighbourhoods of towns such asArman Mahala.

Greece

InGreece,mahalas(Greek:μαχαλάς) is considered a neighborhood. Sometimes it is considered a quarter of a small town or agypsyneighborhood.

Hungary

The township ofSzentendrelost most of its population during theOttomanera, and was repopulated by various migrant groups from theBalkans-Serbs,Dalmatians,Bosniaksand the like. They built their own churches and created their own neighborhoods around them. They called themmahalaormehala,using the Ottoman nomenclature, and the word is still in use to describe these small quarters of the town today.

India

In India, the wordmohallais used inHindiandUrduto refer to a "neighbourhood".

Iran

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.

North Macedonia

Amaalo(sometimesmaale), pluralmaala(Macedonian:маало / маале, маала) is a synonym forneighborhoodin 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".

Romania

In Romanian, the wordmahalahas come to have the strictly negative or pejorative connotations of aslumorghettothat are not present (or not as strongly implied) in other languages.

Russia and the former Soviet Union

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 amuhtasiband a territorialmuhtasibat.

Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan

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 theSovietrule 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.

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 likeKhujandand Kyrgyzstani cities likeOsh.

Turkey

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.

In popular culture

• Mahallada duv-duv gap,a 1960Uzbekcomedy movie
• "Viva Mahalla",a 2020 single by theSloveniansingerSenidah

See also

• Mellah
• Corjova, Dubăsari

Notable incorporated mahallahs

• Mohalla Sadiqabad,Pakistan
• Shahi Mohalla,Pakistan
• Mahala, Podgorica
• El Mahalla El Kubra

External links

• Abuses by Mahalla Committees, by Human Rights Watch
• Timur Dadabaev,"Changing Nature of the Mahalla",inRICASNewsletter,University of Tokyo,2006, no. 15,