Petitioning the Waqf Cases: Conflict over the Abū Madyan Waqf, Old City of Jerusalem, at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

This article analyzes twenty-two petitions, held at the Ottoman Imperial Archives (boa) in Istanbul, submitted to the Council of State Registers (Şūrā-yi Devlet) at the beginning of the twentieth century by the mutawallīs (supervisors) of the Abū Madyan waqf, as well as by residents and representatives of the Maghāriba neighborhood in Jerusalem. These petitions concern the alleged mismanagement of the waqf by the mutawallīs, including the embezzlement of funds and violation of the conditions stipulated in the waqf’s endowment deed (waqfiyya). Through this analysis, the study aims to show how the waqf’s supervisors and the representatives of local political and religious authorities contributed to the confiscation of property, allocated to a waqf, for personal gain or to serve common interests, and, thus to the gradual disintegration of the waqf system in early twentieth-century Jerusalem. It also sheds light on the networks between local citizens (Maghribīs), waqf mutawallīs, local qāḍīs, and the central Ottoman administration and the sultan.