a form of private landownership that existed during the feudal period in the Middle East, including Transcaucasia and Middle Asia (ownership of movable property was called mal). As feudalism developed in the Muslim countries, the term mulk took on different meanings: (1) a kingdom, principality, or fief; (2) feudal ownership of land, corresponding to the alodium or to the Russian votchina (unlike the iqta, the mulk did not entail state service and could be sold, bestowed, or inherited); (3) private ownership of water and irrigation facilities; consequently, the right of an owner to exact payments from peasants for the use of water; (4) small-scale peasant landownership; (5) communal mulk, or ownership of land or water by a village commune. In modern times, the term mulk simply means ownership of land.