The word vakıf (pl. evkaf) is a Turkish rendering of the Arabic mastar wakf. Taken in its literal sense, the Arabic infinitive means to stop, to prevent or restrain. According to Ottoman definition, the word means to prevent the giving and taking possession of a thing so that the substance belongs to God, while its benefits pertain to mankind. Stated more simply, revenue-bearing property is withdrawn from commercial transaction and is made inalienable for some beneficent end; taken out of the condition of private ownership, the property is said to belong to God, and its revenue is assigned for some religious or charitable purpose. In the course of time, the term vakıf has come to signify property that is dedicated rather than the action of dedication.

It is important to note that actual wealth was not derived from possessing lands or buildings, whose value would increase over time, or in their purchase and sale, the manner in which real estate is commonly understood to have value; rather, the principal source of evkaf income came from rents. Buildings or lands that were purchased and set aside as a religious endowment by some wealthy benefactors were rented for fixed periods of time for their use and cultivation, and the yield in revenue was given to the object of the endowment. This is to say that vakıf property is revenue-bearing property, which belongs to the religious or charitable institution for which it was created. And it belonged to that institution in perpetuity. As such, it could never be alienated, for any transfer of ownership would mean a loss of income for the institution. The quality of untouchability or inalienability is the basic characteristic of al evkaf property; and this is why such property is called, quite aptly, mortmain. The term literally means the Dead Hand, an English equivalent that is employed less often than the expression in French.

With a definition of mortmain — the transfer of property to a pious or charitable organization in perpetuity - the description of evkaf has come full circle; for to make a property inalienable is to take it out of the sphere of commercial transaction, that of purchase and sale, and to cause it to stop and stand still — the very definition that was first given.

A continual source of income from the rents of immovables, whether from house property or land, was precisely the kind of long-term economic security that was needed for any religious or charitable institution, whether that institution was a mosque or a dervish convent, a hospice or khan, a soup kitchen or a caravanserai. For not only did the construction and maintenance of the buildings themselves require a continual source of revenue over the centuries, but so did the staffs of these institutions, and frequently that sector of the Muslim community they were intended to serve.

Vakıf has always held a position of central importance in Islam; together with the laws on inheritance and the statut personnel, the subject forms the main corpus of the sharia, the Muslim sacred law. Because of its continually evolving legal doctrine, and the tangible material benefits it has provided the Islamic community, unlike other matters of the sharia vakıf has been of practical significance to the lives of most Muslims. This is apparent from the fact that the revenue from vakıf landed endowments was accountable for the support of every form of religious, educational, and charitable institution in Islam; in fine, vakıf was responsible for making the Islamic world much the way it was. The decline of this institution in the nineteenth century led to the general material impoverishment of Islam that is witnessed today. In order to have an understanding of Islam and an awareness of the kind of oikumene this religion has shaped and created, it is essential to have a knowledge of religious foundations and the effect they had on Islamic society.

With the kind permission of John R. Barnes, excerpts from: An Introduction to Religious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986, citing Ömer Hilmi, İthaf ül-ahlâf fi ahkâm ül-eukaf (Istanbul, 1307/1889).

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