Changes brought about by the Tanzimat reforms and European economic penetration in Palestine during the nineteenth century effected a change in the relationship between elites (notables and rural shaykhs) and non-elites (primarily the peasantry). What as of the beginning of the nineteenth century had been a relationship based to some extent on mutual dependency—in the sense that the status of elites was partly dependent on the support of non-elites—had, by the end of the nineteenth century evolved into a much more exploitative one; elite status came to depend less on the support of non-elites, and more on one’s position in newly created Ottoman institutions, the most important of which were the majalis al-idara. These institutions, together with other changes reflective of the growing centralization of authority, allowed elites to more effectively exploit Palestine’s peasantry, in connection with newly generated economic opportunities related to the growing importance of the global market. These changes also had the effect of tying the peasantry more directly to formal Islamic institutions, a development further undermining their leverage vis-à-vis elites. Earlier in the century, the authority of elites had depended in large part on their ability to mediate between the peasantry and the more formal Islamic institutions of the urban milieu, something that depended in part on the perception that elites were acting on behalf of the peasantry and were good “Muslims” in the sense of being generous, just and fair. This would now change, as elite-dominated Islamic institutions increasingly were able to directly intrude upon the lives of the peasantry.