Dunam
Ottoman unit of land area
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Through Unit of measurement, Area and Agricultural land
The unit is still in use in many areas previously ruled by the Ottomans. The modern definition is standardized, and the current dunam (or new dunam, metric dunam) is defined as exactly 1,000 square meters (0.10 ha; 0.25 acres).
Ottoman origins
The name dönüm is from the Ottoman Turkish dönmek (دونمك 'to turn'), and literally means "to turn". Victor Louis Ménage has suggested this was probably a calque (literal translation) of the Byzantine Greek stremma, which also literally means "a turning" and has a similar size. This word likely migrated during the early period of Ottoman rule of Mysia-Bithynia when there would have been many Byzantine Greek-speaking citizens and Turkish-speaking administrators.
The Dictionary of Modern Greek defines the old "Ottoman stremma" as approximately 1,270 square meters (13,700 sq ft).
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Definitions
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro
Various Balkan countries use the dunam, although they all use the metric dunam now of 1000 square meters. In Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia the unit is called the dulum (дулум) or dunum (дунум). In Bosnia and Herzegovina it is known as a dunum (or dulum). In Albania it is called a dynym or dylym.
An exception is the region of Leskovac in south Serbia, where one dulum is equal to 1,600 square metres (17,222 sq ft).
Cyprus
In Cyprus, a donum is 14,400 square foot (1,338 m2). In the Republic of Cyprus, Greek-Cypriots traditionally used the local Greek Cypriot dialect word σκάλες [skales], rather than the mainland Greek word stremma. Since 1986, Cyprus officially uses the square metre and the hectare.
A Cypriot donum consists of 4 evleks, each of which consists of 3,600 square foot (334 m2).
Greece
In Greece, the old dönüm is called a "Turkish stremma", while today, a stremma (στρέμμα) or "royal stremma" is exactly one decare, like the metric dönüm.
Costas Lapavitsas suggests a value of 1,600 square metres (17,000 sq ft) for the dunam in the region of Naoussa in the early 20th century.
Israel, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey
In Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, the dunam is now standardized on 1,000 square metres (10,764 ft2), which is 1 decare. From the Ottoman period and through the early years of the British Mandate for Palestine, the size of a dunam was 919.3 square metres (9,895 sq ft), but in 1928, the metric dunam of 1,000 square metres (0.10 ha) was adopted. The metric dunam is still used today in Israel and Palestine.
United Arab Emirates
The Dubai Statistics Center and Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi use the metric dunam (spelt as donum) for data relating to agricultural land use. One donum equals 1,000 square metres (10,764 sq ft).
Similar units
The Byzantine Greek stremma was the probable source of the Turkish unit. The zeugarion (ζευγάριον; Turkish çift, چفت) was a similar unit derived from the area plowed by a team of oxen in a day. The English unit acre is a measure of area for a similar size of land, although it developed separately. In Bulgaria, the decare (декар) is used, which is an SI unit, literally meaning 10 ares.