Endowments, Rulers and Community: Waqf Al-Haramayn in Ottoman Algiers (Studies in Islamic Law and Society, Vol 6)

By the time the French entered Algiers, the Haramayn was by far the largest public foundation in town. Administering not only the endowments for the benefits of the poor of the "haramayn" - the two Holy Cities of Islam - but also endowments for the four mosques and a group of endowments for the poor of Algiers, the Haramayn controlled close to 1750 properties. The development of this important institution, which was virtually non-existent some 200 years earlier, its expansion, its administration, the evolution of its patrimony, its policies concerning the management of its assets and its various functions, are all discussed in this study, against a background of the history of the town of Algiers. Highlighting legal, social, economic and political aspects of the waaf institution, this book should be of interest to historians of the Ottoman Empire, and Ottoman Algeria in particular, as well as social and economic historians of the pre-modern period.