The Endowment of the Al-Zahiriyya In

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THE ENDOWMENT OF THE AL-ZAHIRIYYA IN DAMASCUS BY GARY LEISER (Ankara) Dedicated to the memory of Janet Stevens, a classmate and student of Arabic literature killed in the bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut, 1983. In his study of the multifaceted endowment (waql) document of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultan Barsbay (d. 841/1438), Ahmed Darrag states that very few of these documents have survived from Mamluk Egypt and none have come to light for the same period (658-922/ 1260-1516) in Syria. Darrag made this observation almost twenty years ago and, although a few such documents from Syria have been discovered since then, we still suffer from a lack of them and the insight they provide to economic and social history. Instead of the actual documents, we have inherited for the most part only fragmen- tary information on endowments preserved in various historical works and inscriptions 1 ). 34 In this article, we shall attempt to trace the steps leading to the establishment of one major Syrian waqf, that for the al-Zahiriyya in Damascus named after the famous Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Baibars. We shall also try to reconstruct, as far as possible, the essence of the original document from descriptions of it which have heretofore escaped notice in two chronicles. In addition, we shall make use of supplementary works and the building's inscriptions. This combined material appears to represent one of the most detailed accounts of any Syrian Mamluk endowment that we have to date. The al-Zahiriyya, moreover, was one of the most important and prestigious buildings founded by the Mamluks in that country. It was a complex structure comprising two colleges of law (madrasas), a school for teaching the tradition of the Prophet (dar al-hadath), and a tomb. Today, of course, the al-Zahiriyya houses the National Library of Syria2). Although it held within its walls three separate institutions plus a tomb, for the sake of simplicity we shall refer to it in our discussion in the singular. The story of our waqf began on 14 al-Muharram, 676/18 June, 1277, while Baibars spent a leisurely day drinking fermented mare's milk (qumiz) at his residence of al-Qa?r al-Ablaq outside Damascus. He thoroughly enjoyed himself and drank much more than usual. By the end of the day, he had become ill and the next morning com- plained of this to Shams al-Din Sunqur al-Alfi, his sword bearer 3). Nevertheless, he then rode out to the city square to review his troops and call on a number of people. When he returned, his condition had .

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