Dunam
A dunam (Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ), 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 in Ottoman Palestine to around 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 (1/10 × ), like the modern Greek royal stremma. History. The name dönüm, from the Ottoman Turkish "dönmek" (, "to turn"), 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 , but Costas Lapavitsas used the value of 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" (дулум) or "dunum" (дунум). In Bosnia and Herzegovina dunum (or dulum) equals . One dulum is equal to for the region of Leskovac, south Serbia. In Albania it is called dynym or dylym. It is equal to . Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, the decare (декар) 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 ['skales], rather than the mainland Greek word stremma (equivalent to a  decare). 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 Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi use the metric dunam (spelt as donum) for data relating to agricultural land use. One donum equals . 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 (a unit commonly used for measuring precipitation) equals exactly one cubic meter. Conversions. A metric dunam is equal to: Comparable measures. The Byzantine Greek stremma was the probable source  of the Turkish unit. The zeugarion (Turkish çift) 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.