Usurious Piety: The Cash Waqf Controversy in the Ottoman Empire
- 1 February 1979
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in International Journal of Middle East Studies
- Vol. 10 (3) , 289-308
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020743800000118
Abstract
Among the various institutions and practices singled out as distinctly Ottoman contributions to Islamic civilization, one has drawn surprisingly little comment and analysis. Neither so eye-catching as the devşirme system nor as fundamental as the kanun, it still emerges as an important factor in Ottoman, thence Islamic, history. This is the legitimized practice of usurious piety, the waqf al-nuqūd (pl. awqaf al-nuqud), the establishment of a trust with money the interest from which might pay the salary of a teacher, or preacher, or even unashamedly pass into the pocket of the founder of the trust.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Development and Role of the Ṣeyhülislam in Early Ottoman HistoryJournal of the American Oriental Society, 1976
- Capital Formation in the Ottoman EmpireThe Journal of Economic History, 1969
- Credit as a Means of Investment in Medieval Islamic TradeJournal of the American Oriental Society, 1967