American University in Cairo AUC Knowledge Fountain Theses and Dissertations Student Research Fall 1-13-2019 Land, Power and Interests: Reshaping the Law of Endowments of Agricultural Lands in Mamluk Egypt Dalia Hussein The American University in Cairo Follow this and additional works at: https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds Recommended Citation APA Citation Hussein, D. (2019).Land, Power and Interests: Reshaping the Law of Endowments of Agricultural Lands in Mamluk Egypt [Master's Thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1567 MLA Citation Hussein, Dalia. Land, Power and Interests: Reshaping the Law of Endowments of Agricultural Lands in Mamluk Egypt. 2019. American University in Cairo, Master's Thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1567 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at AUC Knowledge Fountain. 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The American University in Cairo School of Humanities and Social Sciences Land, Power and Interests: Reshaping the Law of Endowments of Agricultural Lands in Mamluk Egypt A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Arabic Studies by Dalia Abdel Moaty Hussein under the supervision of Dr. Nelly Hanna December 2018 1 Committee: Dr. Nelly Hanna Thesis Committee Chair / Advisor ________________________________________ Distinguished Professor of Middle East History, The American University in Cairo Dr. Leonor Fernandes Thesis Committee Reader / Examiner _________________________________________ Associate Professor of Middle East History, The American University in Cairo, Department Chair Dr. Amina Elbendary Thesis Committee Reader / Examiner ________________________________________ Associate Professor of Middle East History, The American University in Cairo _________________________ _______ ____________________ _______ 2 لن تنال العﲅ ٕاﻻ ستة......... سٔنك عن تفصيلها با ِن ذﰷء وحرص وافقار وغربة....... وتلقﲔ ٔستا ٍذ وطول زما ِن ٔبو اﳌعاﱄ اﳉويﲏ (٤١٩/١٠٢٨-٤٧٨/١٠٨٥) Abu al-Ma‘ali al-Juwaini (419/1028-478-1085) 3 Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank deeply Dr. Nelly Hanna, my supervisor and mentor. Without her enthusiasm, patience, understanding and constant support, this research would not have been possible. Her comments and advices made my research experience rewarding and unforgettable. I am also grateful to the members of my committee, Dr. Leonor Fernandes and Dr. Amina Elbendary for accepting to read this thesis and for the important comments and corrections they made to it. I was particularly lucky to be their student and to have benefited from their enriching insights on Mamluk history. Special thanks are also due to Ms. Marwa Sabry for her responsiveness, indulgence, efficiency and constant support during my long years as graduate student. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Sherine Seikaly. Her encouragement and enthusiasm for my research were the reason behind the shift I made to study history. I am indebted to her forever for encouraging me to make this decision. I was also lucky to benefit from the knowledge and support of many professors. Special thanks are due to Dr. Imad Abu Ghazi, Dr. Magdi Guirguis and Professor Nicolas Michel for their efforts and the interesting discussions I had with them during IFAO seminars. No words can express my gratitude towards my family, especially my sister, my mother and my father. Without their kindness and understanding, this thesis would have never been achieved. My friends, Heba El Sawah, Sally El Sawah, Donia El Mazghouni and Ahmed Hasanein also deserve special acknowledgments. They were all a great source of strength. 4 Table of Contents: Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………4 Chapter I: Introduction………………………………………………………………………...7 “Waqf”: The term and the Institution……………………………………………………………7 Main Issues Raised by the Study…………………………………………………………………9 Secondary Literature Dealing with Endowments of Agricultural Lands………………………...13 Sources…………...………………………………………………………………………………22 Chapter II: The Mamluk Elite and the Ulama in a Changing Economic and Social Context…………………………………………………………………………………………26 I- Mamluk Economy and Agriculture: From Prosperity to Crisis?...............................26 II- One crisis, Different responses: Sultans and Ulama………………………………..38 A- Pious Endowment: From Urban and Commercial Properties to Agricultural lands: A Response to Economic and Political Crises……………………………………………39 B- The Ulama, the Ruling Elite and Endowments ………………………………………45 Chapter III: The Law and the Land: Land Ownership and Establishment of Endowments of Agricultural Lands................................................................................................................57 Iqta‘ and milk…………………………………………………………………………………..58 Who owns the land?....................................................................................................................63 How to endow state’s lands? …………………………………………………………………..70 Practical Response: Sale of the lands of Bayt-al-mal…………………………………………..88 Reflection in Deeds……………………………………………………………………………..91 Chapter IV: Istibdal of Endowment of Agricultural Lands.................................................95 To Exchange or Not to Exchange? The Use of Madhab-s and the Influence of Power……….98 I- Contradiction as to the Respect or the Disregard of the Endower’s Will…………..….102 II- Between Perpetuity of the Waqf and the Interests of the Beneficiaries: The Case of the Absence of a Condition in the Deed Allowing Istibdal......................................106 What about the Endowment Deeds?...................................................................121 5 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................124 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………..128 6 Chapter I Introduction This thesis seeks to study the development of the law of endowment of agricultural lands in Mamluk Egypt, by contextualizing historically the fatwas related to these endowments. I argue that, in light of the prevailing economic and social circumstances, legal development during this era occurred as a response to the political, social and economic interests of the religious scholars and of the ruling elite, and as a result of the interaction between the interests of the former and power of the latter. To achieve this goal, I will study the fatwas issued about endowments of agricultural lands during the Mamluk era, as well as the social and economic circumstances surrounding their issuance. I will also consider earlier writings on the subject in an attempt to identify how views on the matter developed and the techniques used to achieve this development. This helps to have a better understanding of both the law and the Mamluk economic history, since agricultural lands were a major economic resource, both for the state and the Mamluk amirs. “Waqf”: The term and the Institution: In the Arabic language, the verb waqafa means “to stop or to block”.1 The legal definition in Islamic law reflects the literal meaning, since the waqf is defined as “a prohibition to dispose of the asset and benefit from its usufruct.”2 It is important to note that the institution of waqf was not 1 Muḥammad Zubair ’Abbasi, “The Classical Islamic Law of Waqf: A Concise Introduction,” Arab Law Quarterly 26 (2012), 124. 2 Muhammad Abu Zahra, Muhadarat fi-l-Waqf (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-‘Arabi, 1972), 6, ’Abbasi, “The Classical Islamic Law of Waqf,” 126. 7 mentioned in the Quran, and therefore its governing rules have no divine origins.1 This is possibly one of the factors that facilitated the changes in the Waqf law. The waqf is established through a deed, called “waqfiyya”, where the endower, called waqif, endows one or more property that he or she owns, in favour of one or more beneficiaries specified in the deed. By this operation, the waqif prohibits the sale, pledge, inheritance and any kind of disposal of the endowed property, which should remain to serve the purpose of the waqf and the beneficiaries perpetually. In the same deed, the endower nominates an administrator (called mutawalli or nazir) for the waqf during his own life to manage the waqf according to the conditions he set forth in the deed. The deed then provides for the means to appoint the administrator following the endower’s death.2 There is almost a consensus that pious endowments (awqaf, in singular waqf) were one of the most important institutions in pre-modern Islamic societies.3 Historians agree that awqaf increased significantly in Mamluk Egypt. During that time, the establishment of an endowment was, in the words of Adam Sabra, “the charitable act par excellence.”4 This study is limited to the endowments of kharaj lands established through endowments deeds (awqaf). It does not extend to similar institutions, namely, the rizaq (singular: rizqa). The Rizaq were agricultural lands distributed for charity purposes by Sultans and were exempted from taxes. These rizaq used to support mosques and religious institutions or some individuals and their progeny.5 This type was called rizaq ihbasiyya, and were administered by diwan al- 1 ’Abbasi, “The Classical Islamic Law of Waqf,” 124. 2 ’Abbasi, “The Classical Islamic Law