List of Maps and Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Note on Ottoman Turkish and Arabic Transliterations Introduction 1. "Devote the fruits to pious purposes" What is a waqf? The roots of waqf Why found a waqf? The Ottomans 2. A Bowl of Soup and a Loaf of Bread The written record Institutions of the endowment Endowed properties Personnel Soup Why Jerusalem? 3. Ladies Bountiful The conflated traditions: Hurrem-Helena Beneficence and women in Islamic history Early examples The Byzantine factor Turco-Mongol heritage The Ottomans The Gender of Beneficence 4. Serving Soup in Jerusalem A report from the 'imaret On management Getting started Tax arrears and firewood Food for all Building a bath Dealing in grain Adding to the endowment 5. Feeding Power Provisioning Istanbul and Topkapi Palace Provincial towns The army on campaign Janissaries Hajj caravans On the word 'imaret Pre-Ottoman precedents An Ottoman institution Conclusion: Practicing Beneficence Notes Bibliography Index
Amy Singer teaches in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University. She is the author of Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials: Rural Administration Around Sixteenth-Century Jerusalem.
"...Singer's study ... will be a major landmark in this field, and in the social history of the Ottoman Empire at large. Its clear and concise style will help to make it a standard assignment for undergraduate and graduate courses ... In its attempt to bring together the historiography of social and political life in the Ottoman Empire ... [this book] breaks important new ground." - H-Net Reviews (H-Turk) "Constructing Ottoman Beneficence is an admirable example of what a monograph can be. Singer has read a rich body of archival sources deeply, producing an excellent analysis of the Hasseki Sultan waqf and imaret." - International Journal of Middle East Studies "...the book contributes to our understanding of Ottoman philanthropic policy ... and of the role of highly placed women in this policy ... it provides insight into life in Jerusalem in the mid-sixteenth century." - Journal of Palestine Studies "A tightly argued look at a remarkably rich set of records about a royal patronage institution in the grand imperial age of the Ottomans." - Virginia Aksan, McMaster University "This book will be useful because of its readability, clarity, and the way it unites the different strands of political, religious, social, and economic history." - Linda T. Darling, University of Arizona
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