Transformation of waqf property in the nineteenth century Ottoman Empire

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1276350 (Table of Contents)

This thesis examines the changing relations of waqf property in the overall transformation of property relations in the nineteenth century Ottoman Empire. It takes the icâreteyn system, a form of long-term leasing of waqf assets, as a point of departure. Three fatwa compilations of the late seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth century şeyhülislâms, namely Feyzullah Efendi, Abdürrahim and Meşrepzâde Arif Efendi respectively, and the nineteenth century laws and regulations pertaining to waqfs and mîrî (state) lands are used as primary sources. In the first place, it will be pointed out that the icâreteyn system is central to understanding the transformation of waqf property. Second, it will be claimed that waqf property as a legal category was ever-increasingly assimilated into mîrî category in the nineteenth century. Third, it will be demonstrated that legal debates of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century Ottoman jurists had a great contribution to the nineteenth century land codes. In this sense, it will be challenged to the representation of land with limited divisibility and inalienability before the Land Code of 1858 in earlier literature. Finally, the relationship between inheritance laws and property relations will be presented, and it will be claimed that the changes in inheritance laws functioned as a mechanism to create wealth and investment in landed property.