WAQF
By PROF. MEHMET MAKSUDOGLU
As an Islamic institution, the waqf is a property, an amount of wealth etc. dedicated to the benefit of the created to please the Creator. The dedicated assets are put in possession, ownership of Allah eternally, i.e. the establisher of a waqf no longer has any right of ownership regarding the said wealth or property. The motive for establishing a waqf is solely to obtain the pleasure and consent of the Creator, hoping only for His reward.
The one who establishes a waqf is called waqif. The waqif must have the following qualities:
1. He must be an adult, sane and free.
2. There must not be any compulsion: the waqif must dedicate his/her possession willingly.
3. The motive and intention must be to please the Creator. As for the dedicated wealth, it must satisfy these conditions:
- The wealth dedicated must exclusively belong to the waqif at the time it is dedicated.
- The wealth must not be obtained by loan.
- The dedicated possession must be of a kind that brings revenue such as house, shop, field, orchard, etc.
4. The possessed trees, buildings etc. that the waqif intends to dedicate must not be under a demolition order.
5. Those who will benefit from the waqf must be clearly stated.
The deed of trust of the waqf is called a waqfiyye. The waqif stipulates his conditions in the waqfiyye. The waqfiyye becomes valid upon entry in the Sijill (Register) of the Qadi (judge).
The waqfiyye contains praise to Allah, prayers and blessings on
Rasulullah, ayats of Qur�an and noble Hadiths encouraging good deeds and as Sadaqatul Jariyah. Sometimes poems concerning good deeds are also included in the waqfiyye.
Then the waqfiyye states:
1. The wealth dedicated, with enumerated lists of the items.
2. How it is going to be administered.
3. How the revenue is going to be spent and who the beneficiaries are.
4. Who is going to administer the waqf (the trustees), How many people are going to work to run the waqf, How much is going to be paid to these people, Items allocated to pay these fees, Kinds of materials that will be used, and so on.
5. Ratification by the Qadi, his stamp and his signature.
We know that Rasulullah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, made his date orchard in Madinah al-Munawwara into a waqf for Hawadlithud Dahr, i.e. for the protection of Islam and other cases of urgency. He also made a date orchard in Fedek into a waqf for travellers.
�Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, made a waqf for the mujahidun as well as for slaves to buy their freedom and for guests.
As for the Osmanlis, they made many properties into Awqaf beginning with the second ruler Orhan Gazi (1326-1362). We know for certain that he dedicated the Makaja sub-district with all its revenue for the hanikah, or zawiyya, in 724 H / 1324 CE.
Sufis, the poor, and poor travellers would benefit from that waqf, receiving meals and staying there without any payment.
The waqfiyye reads: �Shujauddin Orhan son of Fakhruddin Osman, made all Makaja sub-district1 into a waqf khalisan mukhlisan li wajhillah, to please Allah, its boundaries being ... I have appointed my freed slave Tawashi Sharafuddin Muqbil as mutawalli to feed and lodge travelling Sufis, masakin, strangers, the poor and men of learning. Whatever the revenue of the waqf it is to be spent on these, and those who are not entitled will not get shelter in the zawiyya (hanikah). Let those who read this waqfiyye know that in the future, the one who is the best among the sons of the servants (slaves) will be the mutawalli. I have appointed Sharafuddin Muqbil as mutawalli beginning from today to take care of those who come and go.
May he do his best in this service. He will receive one tenth of the revenue for his service. No-one among my children and heirs has any right over this revenue. The best one among the sons of the servants of this zawiyya will be appointed the mutawalli of this waqf in the future, generation after generation. If anyone disputes these conditions, his objection is not acceptable according to the rules laid down by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. As I stated, I have given this document to the best one of the sons of the servants of this zawiyya so that he shows it when necessary, to prevent any creature from intervening or changing it. Whoever interferes, the curse of Allah, jalla jalaluhu and the curse of Rasulullah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, will be upon him.
On the way between Istanbul and Eskishehir in Anatolia. Those who read this document should know for certain that it is genuine and has been written in the presence of the witnesses. The witnesses: Choban, son of Osman Malik, son of Osman Hamid, son of Osman Pazarlu, son of Osman Fatima, daughter of Osman Mal Khatun daughter of Omar Bey Malik, daughter of Malik Efendi, daughter of Akbashlu Sultan, son of Orhan Suleyman, son of Orhan Ibrahim, son of Orhan ...
Those who read this document, let them know that my property of Makaja is a waqf and Allah willing, let them trust. Mid Rabiul Awwal 724 ( March 1324)� Orhan Gazi converted a big church into a mosque in Iznik (Nicae) when he opened it to Islam in 1331, and he converted a monastery there into a madrasah. He built an Imaret near the gate of Yenishehir, appointing Al-Hajj Hasan its shaykh. This Al-Hajj Hasan was one of the disciples of Edebali, father-in-law.
It seems that the Osmanlis were not content to feed only the stomachs of the people when they built an imaret; they took care of the people�s well-being spiritually as well. Their appointment of a spiritual master as head of the newly built imaret is enough to prove this. Needless to say there was property dedicated to maintain the imaret. On the other hand, the Osmanli society during Orhan Gazi�s era was so affluent that there was virtually no-one to accept the Zakat.
Orhan Bey�s son, the third Osmanli ruler, Murad Hudavendigar (1362-1389) built an imaret in Yenishehir as well as a zawiyya for a Sufi called Pustin-Push. He built a jami� mosque in Bilejik, and another mosque in the castle of Bursa, in the palace, near the gate. He built an imaret in Bursa and a madrasah on top of it. All of this was as a token of gratitude to Allah who bestowed on the Muslims the victory over the Serbs.
In Osmanli practice, not only the rulers but sadrazams (grand wazirs), wazirs, beylerbeys, sanjakbeys and many well-off Muslims competed with one another in dedicating waqfs. This is because they knew and believed that as long as people benefited from their waqfs � it was suggested that every waqf would continue without cessation until the Day of Rising; the waqfiyye contained the threat of the curse of Allah and His Messenger upon those who tried to change or distort the stipulations of the waqf � that their records would continue, thus the recording of their good deeds would endure. Another reason for dedicating property was that the waqif thereby protected his dedicated belongings from being confiscated, since no-one could interfere with the dedicated property. Besides, the waqif guaranteed a good income for his descendants, because he appointed them mutawallis of his waqf, and among the stipulations of the waqfiyye is the fee or salary of the mutawalli. The revenue emanating from dedicated property, shops, houses, orchards, fields, and so on would be spent on maintaining the waqf, on purchasing goods and material, as well as paying the mutawalli and his assistants, helpers and other functionaries, all having been stated and ratified. For example, one tenth of the crops from the Makaja sub-district which was made into a waqf by Orhan Gazi belonged to the mutawalli, and this was not a small amount. During the Osmanli era, people established waqfs and dedicated properties for every need and case that could be imagined or thought of. The waqfs comprised such a huge range and reached to such an extent that according to some, two thirds of the city of Istanbul was waqf property.
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The varieties of Awqaf during the Osmanli era could be categorised as follows:
1. Jami� mosques (in which the jumu�a prayer is performed), other mosques (where only the five prayers are performed), and musallas in the country to perform the �Eid and jumu�a prayers.
2. Madrasahs, schools, libraries, zawiyyas, dergahs.
3. Fountains, sebils, cisterns, ponds, wells, lakes, smoothing of the roads.
4. Caravanserais, hospitals, cemeteries in the vicinity of mosques and outside towns, meadows for weak cattle and sheep to graze.
5. Waqfs for the Haramayn ash-Sharifayn, dedicated to support the poor of the two sacred cities as well as to support stranded pilgrims and to serve water and sherbet (a non alcoholic sweet drink) to the hajjis.
6. Waqfs dedicated for learned men to preach in the mosques, to teach tafsir, hadith, and fiqh in the mosques, to recite Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and the Delailul Khayrat in mosques and at the graves of some important people and awliya, for buying suras of Nebe� and Mulk for poor children, and as cash prizes to children who completed the reading of the Qur�an (khatm).
7. Waqfs dedicated for reciting the Mawlid in mosques and zawiyyas, for spending to organize visits from some mosques to the Lihya-i Sa�adet (the beard of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace), for spending on making and maintaining candles in mosques, for plucking the grass that grows on the walls of mosques and zawiyyas.
8. Waqfs dedicated for serving dates, olives, water to the muminun in the mosques on the evenings of Ramadan and other holy days (for iftar, i.e. to break the fast).
9. Waqfs (amounts of money or foodstuffs) dedicated for distribution among the poor at certain times, especially during Ramadan and the nights of Ragaib and Berat, waqfs for providing house utensils and brides� trousseau to poor girls, for arranging the funerals of the poor, for purchasing clothes for poor children and for widows on the Bayrams, waqfs (amounts of money) dedicated for purchasing house utensils such as glasses and earthen pitchers to replace those broken by children and servants, to protect them from reproach.
10.Waqfs to help the wayfarers, to set slaves free and to pay the kitibet required to set slaves free.
11. Waqfs for having the Qur�an and other religious books written, for purchasing them, for repairing and binding them, as well as for maintaining charitable institutions. For all of these, huge amounts of money, large areas of real estate, farms, and servants were allocated and dedicated.
Let us explain some of the items which may need clarification:
1. Waqfs for jami� mosques and other mosques: their waqfiyyes state how many people, including imams, muezzins, qayyums and so on, would be appointed there, how much would be paid to each of them, how much money would be allocated to maintain and repair the buildings, how much the mutawalli would be paid, etc.
Musalla and Namazgah were built outside cities and towns to enable the muminun to gather in great numbers to perform �Eid prayers. The place would be enclosed and kept clean, a minaret and a minbar would be built, and some servants would be assigned.
One such place deserves special mention. The musalla outside the town of Jizrah, near Judi in south-eastern Anatolia bordering Iraq, used to attract huge crowds during the Osmanli era to perform salat at the time of Hidrellez (the time when Khidr and Ilyas� came together). This place is the mooring and landing place of the Ark of the Prophet Nuh, peace be upon him. The Armenians are searching for it in vain at Agri (Ararat), reminiscent of a joke by Nasreddin Khoja: when this great man lost his keys in a dark room he set out to search for them in another, illuminated room. It was easier but in vain, an illustration of human weakness and psychology.
2. Waqfs for madrasahs: The waqif states in his waqfiyye the amount which should be paid to the Muderris, how much pocket-money each student should receive, what sort of vegetables and meat should be cooked at each meal, how many people should work to keep the madrasah clean and for other services, how much each of them should be paid, and the sources of revenue for all these items of expenditure. Madrasahs used to be called according to the amount paid to the muderris: if a muderris was paid 30 akchas per day that madrasah was called otuz akchali, or otuzlu (having thirty). Thus they were called kirkh (having forty), effill (having fifty) and so on.
The government did not pay a penny for education until the time of the Tanzimat (1839) which marked the beginning of Europeanization. The well-off Muslims built madrasahs and assigned waqfs (shops, buildings, fields, orchards) for these institutions.
In planning the building of a madrasah it was extremely important to guarantee isolation of the place from the outside world and to prepare conditions in which students could concentrate on their studies without any distraction.
Generally, the rooms were built around a closed courtyard, occasionally having in the middle a pond. Each room had a fireplace. The doors of the rooms opened to the courtyard. High and narrow windows faced the street, serving only to allow the light in.
Madrasahs were at different academic levels. The ones at primary level were common even in villages. On the other hand, the madrasahs of Fatih Sultan Mehemmed (1451-1481) and those of Kaanuni Sultan Suleyman (1520-1566) were at university level and even higher, having departments of specialization.
Fatih built four madrasahs at the east of his mosque and four more at the west side of the mosque. These eight madrasahs were called sahn-i seman or semaniye madrasahs. They were at university level, each having nine rooms. Behind them there were eight other lower level madrasahs, being called tetimme.
The latter prepared the pupils for the higher education at semamiye. There was a muderris (professor) at each sahn-i seman madrasah, each of whom was paid 50 akchas per day. Each madrasah had one mu�iyd (associate professor); every mu�iyd was paid 5 akchas a day. In each room one student lived, receiving 2 akchas a day. Meals came from the imaret. There were servants responsible for cleanliness and other services.
The madrasahs called tetimme had more than one pupil in each room. They received their meals also from the imaret. Suleymaniyye medresesi had mathematics, medicine and darul hadis sections for specialization. There was a chemist and a clinic also.
Apart from those, there were madrasahs for specialisation elsewhere such as:
The Darul Qurra where students memorized the whole Qur�an and specialized in �ilmil qiraet.
The Darul hadis which gave specialisation in hadith methodology and al Ahadithin Nabawiyya.
The waqf for the library: It was stated in its waqfiyye how much payment the librarian would receive, how much other people who work there would be paid, and from which sources revenue would come for repairing and maintaining the building and the books.
Waqfs for zawiyyas and dergahs: Generally the rulers and high officials would build these institutions for well known Sufi orders. The waqfiyye stated clearly what sort of meals would be cooked and served, from which sources the revenue would be received, how much the Spiritual Master would be paid, and so on.
3. Fountains: Those who built and assigned fountains, bringing water sometimes from distant places, stated in their waqfiyyes how these fountains were to be maintained and if need arose repaired, as well as how much the working people would receive.
There were many waqfs for collecting water in cisterns, to build ponds for watering fruits and orchards and to maintain pools for watering facilities. There were waqfs for smoothing roads and repairing them. It is worth mentioning that the Devlet-i �Aliyye-i Osmaniyye exempted some of its non-Muslim ra�aya from taxes in return for their maintaining and repairing certain sections of road in their areas.
Let us mention an example, the Water Waqfiyye of Suleyman the Magnificent:
It is stated in the Water Waqfiyye of Suleyman the Magnificent, who brought drinking water from Kagithane district to Istanbul, dated December 23rd, 1565: �The Sultan who adorned Muslim countries with imarets brought water to Muslim townships, in particular to the blessed al-Quds and protected Istanbul, the Renewer of the tenth century (Mujaddidul Qarnil �Ashir al-Hiffi), confirmer of the Religion with divine help...�. He dedicated the town of Aydos and Five Villages with all revenues to maintain and repair this waterway in accordance with the following ayats and hadith: �If you tried to number Allah�s blessings you could never count them.� (Sura Ibrahim 34, An-Nahl 18)
�Establish Salat and pay Zakat. Any good you send ahead for yourselves, you will find with Allah. Certainly Allah sees what you do.� (Surat al-Baqara 110) and �Your share from your world is what you eat and consume, what you put on and wore out and what you donated and left untouched.�
Since the water supplied to Istanbul arrived across mountains, valleys and so on, the supply constantly needed maintenance. If revenue from this waqf was not enough for this purpose, it was stated that the necessary amount of money would be transferred from other waqfs of Kaanuni.
We know that ice would be consumed at sebils during hot days of summer, i.e. ice would be put in the water given at the sebil. Apart from that, some sebils have waqfs with dedicated bee hives to supply them with honey to mix with the water of that sebil. Caravanserais: the Osmanlis adopted the tradition of the Caravanserai from the Seljuks, their predecessors. Caravanserais were strong, castle-like buildings, easy to defend, giving shelter to caravans and travellers on horse and camel.
They were built on the most frequented highways at reasonable distances. So, a caravan could depart from one Caravanserai in the morning and reach another at mid-afternoon, or certainly before sunset. The distance between two Caravanserais was 22 to 25 miles. There were separate rooms for guests, each having a fireplace, and there were store-rooms for foodstuffs, a kitchen, a stable for the guests� horses and camels, fodder and straw for the animals, a warehouse for commercial goods, a mosque, a shadirvan (a tank attached to the mosque for wudu�), a hamam, a shoemaker who repaired shoes for the travellers and made new shoes for poor travellers without payment, and a farrier. Any traveller, whoever he may be, regardless of his nation, race or creed, would be a guest of the waqif for three days without any payment. Even if he were rich, a traveller would not pay anything. All expenses belonged to the waqf.
Hospitals: The Osmanlis followed the Seljuks in the hospital tradition as well. The first hospital in the Osmanli era was built by Yildirim Bayezid (1389-1402) in Bursa. It was a medical madrasah at the same time, in other words in today�s terms it was a medical faculty and its training hospital. A one metre high wall is all that remains of this darush shifa. Niebuhr of Denmark who visited Bursa in January 1767 states that mentally ill people were also treated in that hospital
At the hospital that was built in Istanbul by Fatih Sultan Mehemmed in 1471 as part of his k�lliyye there were 1 chief doctor, 1 chief operator and about 200 other doctors, functionaries, servants and so on. The patients were served with the meat of red-legged partridge and pheasant, and in case that was not available with the meat of nightingale and sparrow, according to his waqfiyye. The mentally ill were cured using music. It is known that various musical tunes were used as necessitated by the different mental illnesses.
The hospital was in use until the years preceding the First World War, and it was recently repaired. Yavuz Sultan Selim�s wife, Suleyman the Magnificent mother Hafsa Sultan dedicated a waqf in Manisa which began serving in 1539. In her k�lliyye there was an imaret, next to it a mosque and near to it a madrasah with ten rooms and one classroom. There was also one hospital, a zawiyya for the Sufis next to the imaret, and a school for children. There were rooms in which to rest called tabhane, a kitchen, a dining room, a cellar, a wood-shed, a stable and other buildings in the imaret. In the hospital there were 1 chief physician, 1 surgeon, 2 eye doctors, 1 specialist for the mentally ill, 2 chemists, 2 chemist�s assistants, 4 hospital attendants (2 for the day and 2 for the night), 1 administrator, 1 secretary, 2 cooks and 1 washerman.
All of them served only 20 patients! The paste or sugar called Manisa Mesiri or Mesir Macunu was prepared using 40 or so kinds of herbs and spices and distributed to patients and to the poor at the beginning of the Spring. Even today this tradition continues. They throw pieces of the paste, which is considered to have healing properties, from the dome of the mosque which is known among the people as Sultan Camii (Mosque of the Sultan).'
Thevenot relates (Reysen des Herrn v. Thevenots in Europa, Asia and Africa, Frankfurt 1693, 11, pp. 28-29) that there was a hospital in Damascus built by Suleyman the Magnificent. According to his description this institution was built for pilgrims from every religion by the opener of Rhodes to Islam, Sultan Suleyman.
He states that it is a very beautiful building with four domes. It was probably the zawiyya of Sultan Suleyman in Damascus, built by the famous architect Sinan.
117 personnel worked in the k�lliyye of Hafsa Sultan:
1. One mutawalli. He would receive 50 dirhams (silver coins) a day.
2. One nazir. He would receive 10 dirhams a day.
3. One secretary. He would receive 6 dirhams a day. This was the general secretary of the waqf.
4. Another secretary. He would record the revenues of the waqf and would receive 6 dirhams.
5. Another secretary. His duty was recording the revenues of the waqf at Urla. He would receive 2 dirhams a day.
6. Two revenue collectors. Each would be paid 2 dirhams daily.
7. Three revenue collectors from the dedicated villages. Each would be paid 2 dirhams a day.
8. One Imam. He would be paid 5 dirhams a day.
9. One khatib. He would be paid 5 dirhams daily.
10. One muezzin. He would be paid 2 dirhams daily.
11. One muvaqqit. He would be paid 3 dirhams daily.
12. Ten huffaz. They would recite the whole of the Noble Qur�an every week. The mutawalli would pay them 100 dirhams each week as food expenditure; apart from that each one of them would receive 2 dirhams every day. Their chief would receive 3 dirhams a day.
13. One meddah. He had to have a nice voice, his duty being to recite qasidas and na�ts in praise of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
14. One mu�arrif. His duty was praying for Hafsa Hatun and for all the muminun at the prayer times. He would receive 3 dirhams a day.
15. Thirty huffiz. Each one of them would recite one juz (20 pages) of the Noble Qur�an at the mosque after the dhuhr salat. Each one them would receive 2 dirhams (one khatm each day, therefore).
16. Ten musebbih. These would recite tesbihat every day after dhuhr at the mosque, and send its reward to the Ruh of the dedicator. Each of them would receive 1 dirham.
17. Two qayyums to keep the places clean and tidy. Each would receive 2 dirhams a day.
18. One qandilji. His duty was to light the lamps of the mosque and to put them to sleep. (In Osmanli tradition, especially in zawiyyas, lamps are not said to be �extinguished� but rather �put to sleep�. They are then �awakened� � uyarilir). He would receive 2 dirhams daily.
19. One muderris. He would teach in the madrasah every day except holidays. He would be a man of great knowledge, well versed in �Ulumul �Aqliyye and �Ulumun Naqliyye. He had to be able to answer religious questions and solve problems.
20. There would be 10 intelligent, good-tempered, hard-working students in the madrasah. Each one of them would receive 2 dirhams a day.
21. One porter for the madrasah. He would be paid 1 dirham a day.
22. There would be one shaykh with 10 murids in the zawiyya. The 10 murids would stay in the 10 rooms of the zawiyya. These people would be from Ahl as-Sunna w�al-Jama�at, not from those who followed hawa and bid�at. They would occupy themselves with prayer. The Shaykh would be paid 10 dirhams and each murid 2 dirhams a day.
23. One qayyum for the zawiyya. He would receive 1 dirham daily.
24. One teacher for the school of the children (sibyan mektebi). He would receive 5 dirhams a day.
25. One kalfa for the school. He would receive 3 dirhams a day. Poor and orphaned children would attend this school. Every day 2 dirhams would be put aside for each orphan to buy them clothes on the �Eid al-Fitr.
26. One noqtaji having 10 dirhams daily. He had to be a very trustworthy man. His duty was to check the attendance of the personnel every day. If anyone was absent his daily payment would be omitted. Attendance was not required on holidays.
27. One civil engineer. He would be paid 3 dirhams a day. He would repair places in disrepair and maintain waterways.
28. Two technicians to look after the waterways of the hamam (public bath) and the fountain of Kirkagac village. Each was paid 1 dirham per day.
29. There would be a shaykh for the imaret. He had to be a very nice, genteel, good mannered man. He would prepare the menu of the imaret every day, attend to the serving of meals at their proper times, receive guests cheerfully, treat them according their social position, and see to it that their meals were served without any delay. Barley would be given to the horses of 10 of the guests. After three days he would see them off with a smiling face. He would never be sourfaced to guests. He would check the meats and other ingredients before cooking. When cooked, he would check the taste and see to it that the flavour was good. He would report any shortcomings of the functionaries to the mutawalli, sometimes with an offer of replacing them. He would teach them good manners. Those who worked at the imaret would carry out his orders carefully. He would receive 10 dirhams a day.
30. One butler with 3 dirhams� payment a day.
31. Two qayyums for the imaret. These had to be good and very honest Muslims. Their duty was to divide and distribute meals to guests.
32. Two ferrashs for the imaret. Their duty was to spread out and fold up covers in the Imaret and to help with other activities.
33. One attendant for lavatory. He would keep the kettles used in the lavatory and the kettles used for wudu separate, clean and tidy. He would be paid 3 dirhams a day.
34. Two skilful cooks. Each would be paid 5 dirhams daily.
35. Two assistant cooks. Each would be paid 2 dirhams a day.
36. One steward, with 4 dirhams a day.
37. Two bread-makers. Each would be paid 4 dirhams daily.
38. One storehouse officer. He would be paid 2 dirhams a day.
39. One porter. He would be paid 3 dirhams daily.
40. One wheat pounder. His duty was to thoroughly pound the wheat that was mixed with the meals. He would be paid 2 dirhams a day.
41. One person to grind wheat at the mill. He would be paid 4 dirhams a day.
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In short, as Ibrahim Hakki states, �The Muslim Turks dedicated waqfs for all sorts of human needs; it would take a long time to mention all of them and would fill an enormous number of books.�
They dedicated waqfs for widows, for poor girls to purchase brides� trousseau, for travellers, for arranging the funerals of the poor and destitute without relations, for the slaves, for feeding birds in winter when they could not find anything under the snow, for providing nurses to look after the children of working women, for looking after poor and orphaned children, for their education as well, for providing replacements for pitchers broken by children and servants, and for covering mucus on roads with ashes. Men were paid by the k�l vakfi (waqf of ash) to patrol streets, roads, lanes in the cities and towns, according to their assignments. When they saw anyone spitting saliva or phlegm, without saying anything to him they would simply cover it with ash taken with a wooden spoon from a saddle-bag carried on the shoulder.
Waqifs would build nice looking places for birds on the walls of their mosques and other buildings. A certain M�rseli Aga dedicated a waqf in �demish, western Anatolia, to storks that remained behind the flock because of illness, etc. He dedicated the revenue of his waqf to feed the birds on liver and lung (in Turkish: jiger) and tripe. Another waqif dedicated the revenue of his waqf to the birds that came into the towns and cities in winter looking for something to eat. Many people had small basins made on their tombs to provide water for birds.
To complete this topic let us mention sadaka tashlari (stones/pillars for the poor). A sadaka tasi was a one and half metre high stone or pillar with a smooth or concave surface on top. For sadaqa, people would put some money on top of it along with other charitable people. Then, after �Isha when everyone went home, those who needed money would go and take it, saving their honour, without coming together, not knowing one another. Some of the sadaqa tasi had a lid or cover so that people could not see whether a person was putting money in or taking it out.
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"I am a slave. I eat as a slave eats and I sit as a slave sits.", Beloved, sallallahu alyhi wa-sallam.
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