Religious Endowments Research Articles

Constructing an Archival Cityscape: Local Views of Colonial Urbanism in the French Protectorate of Morocco

Existing studies of colonial architecture and urbanism in Morocco—much as in the case of France's other African holdings—usually highlight the political intentions of foreign administrators, not the local residents who lived and worked there. After three years of research in Moroccan archives, I came upon many primary sources that will allow historians to show Moroccans as energetic actors who shaped urban life in the French Protectorate (1912-56). The documents that I found hold significant potential for unraveling the social history of trades, neighborhoods, and institutions in the medina. The term “medina” designates the narrow streets and walled quarters of the premodern city, which colonial administrators kept distinct from the modern Ville Nouvelle built for European use. These sources make it clear that French administrators implementing urban policies in the medina faced the day-to-day responses of ordinary Moroccans of various social and economic classes. More importantly, they suggest that the colonial encounter played a secondary role in the quotidian choices of these residents, who worried more about relations with other locals, such as trouble-some neighbors or avaricious shopkeepers, than with French officers and civilians located in the Ville Nouvelle.My own research focuses on the experiences of millers and butchers in Fez, but my insights into the archival treasures of this North African kingdom will help historians interested in other cities and socio-economic groupings. In this paper I will discuss five distinct types of documentation: archives of the municipality, archives of the Department of Fine Arts, documentation on religious endowments, land titles, and transcripts of judicial proceedings. By exploiting these sources, historians can begin to reconsider how and why Moroccans shaped the physical and socio-economic development of their cities.

後期マムルーク朝スルターンの私財とワクフ

Qaytbay (r. 1468-96) and Qansuh al-Ghawri (r. 1501-16), the two most prominent Sultans of the late Circassian Mamluk period, donated substantial properties such as agricultural lands, houses, caravansaries, public baths, etc. as Waqfs (religious endowments). C. F. Petry regards their activities as a “financial policy” intended to secure a private source of revenue independent of the traditional state financial system against the political and economic crises of the times. However, it must be noted that the preceding Sultans had also striven to hold private and Waqf properties. It is necessary to comprehend the meaning of their “financial policy” from the point of view of the historical development of the Sultan's private financial affairs. It seems that the Sultans developed their own resources because of practical necessity due to fundamental problems of the state and the political structure in this period.From this aspect, this paper examines the process by which Barquq, the first Sultan of the Circassian Mamluks (r. 1382-89, 90-99), accumulated property and its background, using narrative and archival sources. Consequently, the following facts have become clear: firstly, Barquq held various kinds of private and Waqf properties, and thus the Diwan al-Amldk wal-Awqaf wal-Dhakhira, the special office having charge of them, headed by an Ustadar, was established; secondly, holding those properties was helpful for him in operating a government in the midst of political instability and the malfunction of the traditional state machinery; thirdly, he accumulated the properties by both fair means and foul, such as the diversion of state propery, confiscation, the Istibdal (exchange of Waqf properties) etc. Subsequently, the role of the Sultan's property in the political and financial spheres grew in importance throughout the Circassian Mamluk period.

Western law vs. Asian customs: Legal disputes on business practices in India, British Malaya and Hong Kong, 1850s?1930s

In traditional Asian societies, economic activities were always embedded with political and religious forces under the protective disguise of such institutions as communal temples and lineage groups. In India and China, for instance, it was very common that wealth was retained and accumulated in the form of religious endowments, and in the names of deceased ancestors or patron deities. Business activities, therefore, was a segment of the complicated web of kinship, ethnicity, and personal relations. Nevertheless, with the rise of British colonialism starting from the 19th century, the presence of British legal system in Asia threatened the material interests of many of these endowments. Starting from the 1850s, the British courts have passed down as legal precedents that these “perpetual trusts” violated the British Rule against perpetuities. Nevertheless, the Hindu religious endowment was granted exemption to the Rule whereas the Chinese Tong was not – as the British courts ruled that endowments held in the name of Tong did not meet the test of being “religious” or “charitable.” This verdict was detrimental to traditional Chinese business practices, as Tong, being a common unit of share-holding in business investments, was not entitled to accumulate, transfer and inherit business shares. The gap between these decisions highlights the differences in the social and historical circumstances in which the respective British policies were formulated.

Knowledge in Trust: Sufi Women in Istanbul

The author focuses on an informal Sufi group of women in Istanbul, with only peripheral connections to the traditional established orders. The women in the group studied instead have organized their activities in the form of a religious endowment offering regular prayer meetings and basic religious education and charity work to other women in their neighbourhood. The group is an example of the many independent religious non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have emerged in Turkey since the early 1980s. By offering social space for networking, a ritually proper place for joint worship and access to theological knowledge, the group has given individual women access to religious authority otherwise restricted to men in this local environment.

Sinful Professions: Illegal Occupations of Women in Ottoman Aleppo, Syria

What was the economic role of women in the Islamic world? Archival sources such as court records reveal that women were employed in a number of legal occupations as moneylenders, buyers and sellers of property, midwives, administrators of religious endowments ( waqf s) and textile workers. On the other hand, women were just as active in illegal occupations as prostitutes, procurers of prostitution and distillers of alcohol. This study will show that punishment for crimes such as prostitution was light due to the fact that customers were often linked to the Ottoman military and government. Furthermore, all three occupations involved tax evasion; alcohol in particular was legal to distill for non-Muslims as long as it was properly taxed and produced within the all-powerful guild system. These crimes reveal the diversity of occupations within which women were employed and the standards of morality within the city of Aleppo.

Sinful Professions

What was the economic role of women in the Islamic world? Archival sources such as court records reveal that women were employed in a number of legal occupations as moneylenders, buyers and sellers of property, midwives, administrators of religious endowments (waqfs) and textile workers. On the other hand, women were just as active in illegal occupations as prostitutes, procurers of prostitution and distillers of alcohol. This study will show that punishment for crimes such as prostitution was light due to the fact that customers were often linked to the Ottoman military and government. Furthermore, all three occupations involved tax evasion; alcohol in particular was legal to distill for non-Muslims as long as it was properly taxed and produced within the all-powerful guild system. These crimes reveal the diversity of occupations within which women were employed and the standards of morality within the city of Aleppo.

Precolonial India in practice: society, region, and identity in medieval Andhra

The society of traditional India is frequently characterized as static and dominated by caste. This study challenges older interpretations, arguing that medieval India was actually a time of dynamic change and fluid social identities. Using records of religious endowments from Andhra Pradesh, author Cynthia Talbot reconstructs a regional society of the precolonial past as it existed in practice.

The politics of sacred space: the old city of Jerusalem in the Middle East conflict

Introduction: Studying the Old City of Jerusalem. * The Background to the Struggle. * The Jewish Community: The Role of Israeli Settler Groups. * The Muslim Community: Religious Endowments and the Awqaf Administration. * The Christian Community: Unity and Disunity. * The Old City and the Peace Process.

‘Māmul’ and Modernity in a South Indian Temple

In the first week of January 1951, the Raja of Ettaiyapuram was combating the forces of modernity on three fronts. In Madras High Court, he was filing a writ petition questioning the legality of the Madras Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act of 1948, which came into force on 3 January and authorized the government to take over his zamindari estate. Zamindar of Ettayapuram v. The State of Madras , Civil Miscellaneous Petition no. 13388 of 1950. Simultaneously, Tirunelveli District Court was hearing a case brought in his capacity as hereditary Trustee of Kalugumalai Devastanam, seeking to prevent the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments (HRE) Board from assuming administrative control of the temple and appointing one of its employees as Executive Officer. Zamindar of Ettayaparum vs. Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Board , Original Suit 22 of 1949, later Appeal Suit No. 462 of 1951 in Madras High Court. The ‘Devastanam’ is the administrative organization of the temple. Meanwhile, he had two further law-suits pending in Kovilpatti Munsif's Court, questioning the authority of the newly-formed Kalugumalai Panchayat Board on the grounds that the entire town was temple property. O.S. No. 252 and O.S. 253 of 1950.

Political and Social Aspects of Islamic Religious Endowments (awqāf): Saladin in Cairo (1169–73) and Jerusalem (1187–93)

The Ayyubid Sultan Salāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin) used the pious endowment (waqf, pl.awqāf; alternativelyḥubs, hubūs, pi.aḥbās) as a major instrument in his efforts to gain political and military control over Egypt and Syria. In pursuit of this aim, he systematically converted properties belonging to his enemies intoawqāf. The present study investigates some of the legal and social aspects of Saladin'swaqfpolicy in the territories conquered by his armies. Here, I examine Saladin's endowment policy and his political aims from the viewpoint of the Sultan and his court. I will not reflect on the motives of the beneficiaries, those people of religion (al-mu῾ammamūn; literally ‘ the turbaned’) who co-operated with him, even though ‘ mingling with the monarch’ (malikorsultān) apparently clashed with some of the principles stipulated in guides for Suḟi novices.

BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS Get access Islam and Israel: Muslim Religious Endowments and the Jewish State. By MICHAEL DUMPER . Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1994. Pp. 192. Price HB £18.95. 0-88728-254-7. Abdelwahab Hechiche Abdelwahab Hechiche University of South Florida Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Islamic Studies, Volume 8, Issue 1, January 1997, Pages 130–132, https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/8.1.130 Published: 01 January 1997

Islam and Israel

This book consists of six chapters, endnotes, a glossary, a bibliography,and an index. Although fairly short vis-a-vis the long period that itcovers (from the Ottoman era to 1988), this book is in fact a very valuablereference work on the subject. The author made considerable efforts tocollect, compare, and analyze the data. However, it seems that the maintitle, Islam and Israel, is rather ambiguous and misleading. The subtitle,Muslim Religious Endowments and the Jewish State, reveals the book'scontents adequately. This title may have been coined by the publisher formarketing purposes.The book explores Israeli policy toward Palestinian Muslim religiousendowments (awqtif, sing. waqf) and studies the methods employed toconfiscate and transfer most of them so that they eventually becameexclusively Jewish property. The waqf system played a very significantsocioeconomic, religious, and educational role in the history of Muslimsociety. About 15 percent of the agricultural land in Palestine is waqf (1.2million dunums), as are many buildings, shops, and other structures inurban areas. The revenue derived from these sources finances importantnetworks of welfare and charitable services in Palestine, such as schools,orphanages, and soup kitchens.The first chapter tackles the Palestinian Muslim waqf system duringthe late Ottoman empire and the British Mandate. It indicates the importanceof waqf for the notable families in Palestine and their administrationof it in ways designed to enhance their power and influence. It also studiesthe arrangements made by the Ottomans during the nineteenth centuryto set up a waqf administrative structure and to develop it under their closesupervision. During the British Mandate (1918-48), however, a new structure,known as The Supreme Muslim Council, was created in 1922. It wasdominated by the Palestinian religious elite and notables and took a"national character" under the leadership of Hajj Am1n al ijusayn1. In1937, the British mandatory government suspended the council's centralcommittee and replaced it with a government-appointed commission.These measures undermined the waqf institution and its role in politics andthe national struggle.The second chapter discusses the Muslim waqf system in Israel from1948 to 1965 and explains how the Zionist state managed to control andconfiscate waqf properties and resources. In the parts of Palestine that ...

Michael Dumper: Islam and Israel: Muslim religious endowments and the Jewish state, xi, 192 pp. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1994. £18.95.

Michael Dumper: Islam and Israel: Muslim religious endowments and the Jewish state, xi, 192 pp. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1994. £18.95.

Land and Power: Islam and Israel: Muslim Religious Endowments and the Jewish State. . Michael Dumper.

Land and Power: Islam and Israel: Muslim Religious Endowments and the Jewish State. . Michael Dumper.

Islam and Israel: Muslim religious endowments and the Jewish state

Islam and Israel: Muslim religious endowments and the Jewish state

The Khāliṣah of Varamin

The history and development of land tenure in Iran have been affected by many factors, including climatic conditions, scarcity of water, lack of security, widespread tribalism, and legal and administrative confusion. In addition to limitations in resources, political instability in the premodern period molded systems of land tenure in Iran. Changes of dynasty were frequent and usually followed by the confiscation and redistribution of land. The Qajar dynasty (1788–1925), which came to power after a long period of anarchy and civil war, continued that general pattern. There were three classes of land ownership in Iran in this period: waqfs (religious endowments), arbābī (land owned by large landlords), and khāliṣah (state-owned lands). This last category was composed of lands confiscated by the government as punishment for rebellion or failure to pay taxes. As land was often the only form of wealth landlords had, the threat of government confiscation was an instrument of control as well as a source of revenue for the state. The khāliṣah were usually rented out on long-term leases or were granted as ṭuyul, that is in lieu of services rendered or salaries deferred. The khāliṣah were also in some instances farmed directly by the government. These lands were cultivated by peasants under conditions similar to those of the arbābī lands. They were scattered throughout the country and were also subject to various local and regional variations in agricultural taxes.

Divine Law or Man-Made Law? Egypt and the Application of the Shari'a

The application of the Shan'a has been a central issue in Egyptian politics since the beginning of the seventies. Originally advocated only by Islamic opposition groups, it gained such popularity as a political slogan that the Government could not remain passive. As of 1976 there was feverish and largely government-promoted legislative activity with the aim of codifying and, subsequently, applying the Shan'a. During the first years of the eighties this activity came to a sudden stand-still, again at the instigation of the Government. This article will focus on the various legislative proposals to codify parts of the Shan'a and on the public debate surrounding its attempted introduction. Special attention will be given to the Government's policy in this domain in order to shed some light on the importance of Islam for the legitimacy of the state. In an Appendix a survey will be given of the draft codes of Islamic penal law. By the end of the last century the Egyptian legal system was largely secularized by the introduction of codes based on French law. Only in the fields of personal status, inheritance, and religious endowments did the Shan'a remain in force. Before the introduction of French law codes there were some suggestions to base at least the civil code on the Shan'a as Turkey had done in 1876, when it enacted the Mecelle, a codification of Islamic civil law. However, once the choice of French law had been made,

Commentary on Hindu Religious Endowments. By Nihar Ranjan Chakraborty. [Calcutta: S. C. Sarker. 1986. xvi + 319 pp. Indian Rupees 110

Commentary on Hindu Religious Endowments. By Nihar Ranjan Chakraborty. [Calcutta: S. C. Sarker. 1986. xvi + 319 pp. Indian Rupees 110

Commentary on Hindu religious endowments. By N. R. Chakraborty. pp. 321. Calcutta, S. C. Sarkar & Sons (P) Ltd., 1986. Rs. 110.

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Italy and the Sanusiya Order in Cyrenaica

This article describes the manner in which the Italians dealt with the problem of an Islamic society which was bot a religious association and a political organization, the Sanusiya order of Sufis in Cyrenaica; or, rather, it describes their treatment of one of the many facets of this complex problem, the religious endowments of the order. It was a problem which very European power has had to face when it has conquered Muslim lands; the same problem which, in many different forms, the French and British have had to solve in their North African and Near Eastern possessions.