Fellah

Fellah (Arabic: فلاح‎, fallāḥ; plural Fellaheen or Fellahin, Arabic: فلاحين‎, fallāḥīn) is a peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic word for "ploughman" or "tiller".

A fellahin could be seen wearing a simple cotton robe called galabieh. The word Galabieh originated around 1715–25 and derived from the Egyptian Arabic word gallabīyah (جلابية).

Origins and usage

Fellahin was the term used throughout the Middle East in the Ottoman period and later to refer to villagers and farmers.Nur-eldeen Masalha translates it as "peasants," although Palestinian anthropologist Nasser Abufarha says that translation misrepresents Palestinian fellahin society, because traditional European usage refers to someone who does not own the land they farm, whereas the fellahin of Palestine own the land, and the means of production, together.

Fellahin were distinguished from the effendi, or, land-owning class, although the fellahin in this region might be tenant farmers, smallholders, or live in a village that owned the land communally. Others applied the term fellahin only to landless workers. The term fallahin applied to Christian, Druze, Jewish and Muslim villagers. The term fallah was applied to people from several regions in the Middle East, including those of Egypt and Cyprus.