The place of waqfs in the early modern agrarian and urban history of Ottoman Cyprus

Abstract

This thesis intends to analyze the social and economic activities of waqf institutions in early modern Ottoman Cyprus. This study does not consider waqfs to have been purely pious foundations. In addition, waqfs were a sign of social status and a dynamic agent in the rural and urban economy of the island. Mapping waqf deeds, this thesis initially examines the cash waqfs of Cyprus. I claim that cash waqfs were remarkable actors in the credit relations that become prevalent with the Ottoman administration on the island. By focusing on the relationships between founders, administrators and borrowers, the thesis argues that waqfs redefined conventional social roles and brought various people from different communities together within the context of these relations. Secondly, I argue that waqfs, as a landholder and real estate owner, were also significant actors in agrarian relations and urban trade. Each property is taken into consideration in itself and within early modern Cyprus socioeconomic dynamics. Therefore, the waqf institution is treated as a mechanism that redistributed the urban and rural wealth of Cyprus. This redistribution both reshaped the landscape of cities and conducted a relation between governors and religious personnel in an Ottoman province. Thus, by evaluating the spatial distribution of waqfs’ properties and endowments, I deduce that waqfs reproduced a space in which all these relations and redistributions happened. Finally, by examining the account books of certain waqfs, their financial conditions through the years and the primary concerns of the thesis are evaluated on a micro-scale.