THE INSTITUTION OF ENDOWMENTS (WAQFS)
IN ISLAMIC LEGISLATION AND IN OTTOMAN PRACTICE
(By Prof. Dr. Ahmed AKGÜNDÜZ)
It is a fact that endowments, which are considered as the most pious of manmade institutions, do not perish and become a thing of the past seeing that they have maintained their significance and livelihood till present. Nevertheless, it is again a bitter truth the origin, historic progression and legal structure of such an institution, which bears such great significance for not only past also for future, are not thoroughly known in today’s Turkey. Moving from this fact and taking into consideration that almost 90 % of the existing endowments in Turkey are the continuation of the former ones, the institution of endowments has been studied both theoretically in light of the divers schools of the Islamic Legislation and from the aspects of the forms it took in the Ottoman practice. In this work you will find the endowments as a legal institution in full details from its origin to the Republican Age.
Yet another one of the most significant traits of this work is that it not only relates the Shariah decrees narrated in former books of Islamic Jurisprudence as regards to endowments but also reflects the Ottoman practices thereof.
If you are curious enough to learn the endowment regulations which form the basis of the civilization, the history and the types of endowments, the legal statuses of mosques, bridges, madrasas, and such institutions as Ayasofya (St. Sophia), the principal and exceptional decrees of the endowment legislation, whether a plot of land, house or inn has been in the possession of any endowment, thus being freed from spiritual liability you should not deprive your library of this book.
(608 pages, 1st quality)
