Dunam


A dunam, also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount of land that could be ploughed by a team of oxen in a day. The legal definition was "forty standard paces in length and breadth", but its actual area varied considerably from place to place, from a little more than 900 m2 in Ottoman Palestine to around 2500 m2 in Iraq.
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 one decare, which is 1/10 hectare, like the modern Greek royal stremma.

History

The name dönüm, from the Ottoman Turkish dönmek appears to be a calque of the Byzantine Greek stremma and had the same size. It was likely adopted by the Ottomans from the Byzantines in Mysia-Bithynia.
The Dictionary of Modern Greek defines the old Ottoman stremma as approximately 1,270 m2, but Costas Lapavitsas used the value of 1,600 m2 for the region of Naoussa in the early 20th century.

Definition

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro

In Bosnia and Herzegovina and also Serbia, the unit is called dulum or dunum. In Bosnia and Herzegovina dunum equals 1,000m2. One dulum is equal to 1,600m2 for the region of Leskovac, south Serbia.
In Albania it is called dynym or dylym. It is equal to 1,000 square meters.

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, the decare is used.

Cyprus

In Cyprus, a donum is. In the Republic of Cyprus older Greek-Cypriots also still refer to the donum, although this is gradually being replaced by another local Greek Cypriot dialect word, σκάλες , rather than the mainland Greek word stremma. However, officially Cyprus uses the square metre and the hectare.
A donum consists of 4 evleks, each of which consists of.

Greece

In Greece, the old dönüm is called a "Turkish stremma", while today, a stremma or "royal stremma" is exactly one decare, like the metric dönüm.

Iraq

In Iraq, the dunam is.

Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey

In Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey the dunam is, which is 1 decare. Before the end of the Ottoman Empire and during the early years of the British Mandate for Palestine, the size of a dunam was, but in 1928, the metric dunam of was adopted, and this is still used.

United Arab Emirates

The Dubai Statistics Center and use the metric dunam for data relating to agricultural land use. One donum equals 1000m2.

Variations

Other countries using a dunam of some size include Libya and Syria.
The metric dunam is particularly useful in hydrological calculations as 1 dönüm times 1 mm equals exactly one cubic meter.

Conversions

A metric dönüm is equal to:
The Byzantine Greek stremma was the probable source of the Turkish unit. The zeugarion was a similar unit derived from the area plowed by a team of oxen in a day. The English acre was originally similar to both units in principle, although it developed separately.