Endowments, Rulers and Community: Waqf Al-Ḥaramayn in Ottoman Algiers (Studies in Islamic Law and Society) - Hardcover

Hoexter, Miriam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004109641 ISBN 13: 9789004109643

Publisher: Brill, 1998

Synopsis

This study depicts the history of the waqf endowments in Algiers dedicated to the poor of Mecca and Medina over the last 170 years of Ottoman rule. It is one of the first studies of a major public foundation based on its own registers.
Its main themes are: the foundation's growth, its benefactors, the evolution of its patrimony, its administration, managerial policies and functions in the town.
The author discusses the history of the foundation within two contexts - that of the Islamic endowment institution and that of the history of Algiers - and offers new insights into the interaction between the law and socio-economic circumstances, the dialogue between the local community and its rulers and the role of the foundation as a major factor in the shaping of the Algerian public sphere.

About this title

About the Author

Miriam Hoexter, Ph.D. (1979), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of articles on the social history of Ottoman and colonial Algeria, Ottoman Palestine, and the Islamic endowment institution.

Review

'Endowments, Rulers, and Community is an important and essential contribution to understanding religious endowments' political, economic, and social impact on Islamic societies. It serves as a model for scholars seeking to document to role of waqfs as well as the function of law and legal codes Hoexter beautifully elucidates the intersection of ideals and practice of Islamic law and the interplay of legal texts and the social contexts in which they applied and, at times, modified.'
Mine Ener, Mesa Bulletin, 1999.
'...briljant analysis of the Waqf al-ḥaramayn in Ottoman Algiers...A number of tenacious historical misconceptions about the nature of late Ottoman Algeria are laid to rest by Hoexter's work.'
Julia Clancy-Smith, Journal of the American Oriental Society, (2000).
'The present work is a remarkable achievement not only for its thorough and reflective study of the Algiers institution but for the issues it defines and the questions it addresses, questions that are applicable to the study of large-scale public waqf instittutions wherever they are found.'
R.D. McChesney, Islamic Law and Society, 2001.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brill
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 9004109641
• ISBN 13: 9789004109643
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208