2026/06/05 by Sadullah Yıldırım · 1 voice
paper · doi:10.1093/9780197851739.003.0888
openalex publication_date 2026/06/05 · openalex created_date 2026/06/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/12
Summary The waqf is a perpetual Islamic charitable endowment that historically served as the primary institutional mechanism through which private individuals provided religious, educational, and social services, effectively shaping urban infrastructure across the Ottoman Empire and the broader Islamic world. Under waqf law, founders could designate their descendants as beneficiaries, creating a flexible instrument that served both philanthropic and familial purposes. Women actively participated in this system as founders, administrators, and beneficiaries, drawing on Islamic legal principles that recognized their independent rights to own and manage property. Through the waqf, women were able to allocate property, provide for their kin, and contribute significantly to public welfare. Across the empire, women established a significant share of waqfs, though their participation varied by region and period. In some urban centers, women constituted a sizable proportion of endowment founders, while in other areas their presence was less frequent. These variations likely reflect differences in local economic conditions, social norms, institutional structures, and the availability of cash waqfs, which lowered entry barriers and facilitated participation by individuals with modest resources. Women established waqfs with a diverse range of assets, including residential and commercial property, land, and cash. Their endowment portfolios were broadly comparable to those of male founders, with differences in scale and in the relative weight of particular asset types. Women also appear prominently as beneficiaries of both charitable and family-oriented waqfs. Endowment deeds frequently allocated revenues to daughters, widows, and other female kin alongside provisions for religious and charitable services. In some contexts, waqf shaped intergenerational property transmission in ways that could reinforce or mitigate gendered exclusions within inheritance practice. Women also served as waqf administrators, especially in family endowments, exercising managerial authority through supervision of revenues, legal representation, and litigation when necessary. Research on women and waqfs draws on a wide range of sources, including endowment deeds, court records, and accounting registers. Together, these materials reveal women’s sustained involvement in the waqf system throughout the Ottoman Empire.