ABSTRACT
This chapter examines and evaluates a single source of demographic information: the Syrian Provincial Yearbook of H 1288. The Syrian Yearbooks that were published after 1872 contain information on most of Palestine but not on the Jerusalem District. Jerusalem District, with a rural population of almost 100,000, was clearly the most populated zone while Acre was the least populated one. The chapter considers the issues of the Central National Yearbooks which provided information on the imperial level during the period 1894-95-1908-09, that is, the last phase of Sultan 'Abd al-Hamid II's rule, to obtain a better understanding of the 1871-72 data. It focuses on the demographic change of the rural Arab population. The chapter analyzes and explains the intra-zonal changes that occurred in the half century that preceded 1922. The comparison between the 1288 Yearbook and the 1922 census suggests that the 1288 data do provide valuable information despite their shortcomings.
