During the final decades of Ottoman rule, Palestine was administratively divided into two states, Jerusalem and Beirut. Both provinces exhibited a strikingly cohesive history of modernization, and as the Ottoman Empire began to recede, the education systems, taxation and bureaucracy which were left behind formed the foundation of administration in the Palestinian authority today. The reign of Sultan Abdulmecid I saw great changes in Palestine, in line with the Tanzimat reform program. These changes included the monetization of the economy, structural changes in land ownership, legal reform,...