Capitalism in Khiva: Cash Waqf or Cash Loan?

Abstract

This article examines the sharp increase of cash waqf endowments in the Khivan Khanate and the circumstances of their usage during the final decades of the nineteenth century. This research supports the conclusion that the rise of monetization in the economy prompted the rapid emergence of cash waqf endowments and led the administrators of such pious institutions to become personally involved in moneylending activities. Through an investigation of Khivan qāżī records, this article shows how cash waqf capital was utilized through bay‘-i jāʾiz, a type of moneylending agreement that became popular across much of the 19th-century Islamic world. It argues that the emergence of cash waqf and bayʿ-i jāʾiz agreements during this period is indicative of the influences of global industrial capitalism on the Khivan economy.