Long-term Lease on Waqf Lands in Khorezm: A New Form of Privileges of Sacred Lineages

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the mechanism of long-term lease on religious endowment (waq f) lands in Khorezm. In particular, the primary focus of the present study is twofold. Firstly, it investigates the practice of long-term lease on waq f lands on the basis of rental contracts, as well as other concomitant records from 19th-century Khorezm. Secondly, this study examines the social background of and reciprocal relations between participants, who were involved in long-term lease operations. As becomes evident from the documents under study, the family members of Muḥammad Šarīf Īšān, a prominent figure of the Naqshbandiyyah-Mujaddidiyyah in Khorezm, acted in the capacity of trustee (mutawallī) of waq f properties of the Sayyid Muḥammad Raḥīm Ḫān’s madrasa in Khiva, regularly commissioned and financially supported by the ruler himself, as well as other representatives of the Qonghrat dynasty (1770-1920). Moreover, members of Muḥammad Šarīf Īšān’s family also participated as tenants of occasionally large waq f assets in long-term lease contracts. To this end, this study posits that the employment of long-term lease practice on waq f land was a principal means of providing financial support by the Khivan ruling circles to various Sufi lineages in Khorezm. Thus, the long-term lease operation clearly illustrates yet another pattern of patronage between the ruling dynasty and descendants of a particular Sufi lineage, as well as an additional source of income and financial privilege of the latter.