THE HISTORY OF WAQFS AND THEIR ADMINISTRATION

The waqf (vakıf) -an endowed foundation, often of a charitable character- was the single most crucial social institution during the foundation and rise of the Ottoman Empire. Waqfs in Ottoman lands came under the charge of the central administration in the nineteenth century with the establishment of the Ministry of Imperial Waqfs (Evkaf-ı Humayun Nezareti) in 1826. The new ministry was responsible for the supervision and management of the waqfs, and thus for the whole system of public services carried out through them.

Among the principal reasons for the creation of the ministry was the fact that over the years the income of the waqfs as a whole had declined in the Ottoman Empire. This decline was partly attributed to disorganization, corruption, and lack of transparency within the waqfs themselves. At the same time, it was also a result of the evolution of new conceptions of the state in the West, as well as a desire on the part of the state to utilize the economic potential of the waqfs for its own purposes.

Although the waqfs each individually constituted separate legal entities with independent budgets, over time their monies were increasingly diverted to various departments within the state. Eventually, the Ministry of Imperial Waqfs found itself incapable of maintaining the upkeep of the benevolent waqf properties, known as hayrat, under its care. The transfer of money from the waqfs to the coffers of the state accelerated steadily under the ministry, especially during the reform period known as the Tanzimat, and continued into the early years of the Republic of Turkey.

The administration of the waqfs was addressed by the First Grand National Assembly of Turkey soon after the body was founded. On May 2, 1920 it passed the Law on the Election of Ministers in the Grand National Assembly (Büyük Millet Meclisi İcra Vekillerinin Suret-i İntihabına Dair Kanun), which created a Ministry of Waqfs and Islamic Law (Şeriye ve Evkaf Vekâleti) in place of the old Ministry of Imperial Waqfs. Despite the fact that the name of the ministry included the word “waqf,” responsibility for the administration of the waqfs themselves was assigned specifically to one department within the ministry: the Directorate General of Waqfs (Evkaf Müdüriyeti Umumiyesi). In accordance with Article 11 of the constitution enacted by the National Assembly in 1921, the administration of the waqfs, along with a number of the functions of other various ministries, was assigned to local provincial assemblies.

The Ministry of Waqfs and Islamic Law functioned between 2 May 1920 and 3 March 1924. In the early part of this period, the older Ottoman Ministry of Imperial Waqfs was still actively operational, especially in the region of Istanbul. With the dissolution of the older Ottoman ministry, the National Assembly informed the General Secretariat of the Province of Istanbul that waqf affairs would thenceforth fall under the purview of the Directorate of Istanbul Waqfs (İstanbul Vakıflar Müdürlüğü). A Waqf Council (Şura-yı Evkaf)—corresponding to the modern Council of Waqfs (Vakıflar Meclisi), the governing body of the present-day General Directorate of Waqfs—was also created under the Ministry of Waqfs and Islamic Law.

On 3 March 1924, the Ministry of Waqfs and Islamic Law was dissolved by Law 429 on the Abolition of the Ministries of Waqfs and Islamic Law and Military Affairs (Şeriye ve Evkaf ve Erkan-ı Harbiye-i Umumiye Vekâletlerinin İlgasına Dair Kanun). In its place, a new General Directorate of Waqfs (Evkaf Umum Müdürlüğü) was created under the Prime Ministry.

Though formally established in 1924, it took time for the administrative and organizational aspects of the new directorate to take their final shape. During the years following its creation, serious issues emerged concerning how the waqfs themselves and their revenues and expenses were to be administered. In an effort to solve these problems, Law 1246 on the Creation and Responsibilities of the Administrative Commissions for the Central Office of the General Directorate of Waqfs and for the Istanbul Directorate of Waqfs (Evkaf Müdüriyeti Umumiyesi Merkezi ile İstanbul Evkaf Müdüriyeti’nde İdare Encümenleri Teşkiline ve Vezaifine Dair Kanun) was enacted on 24 May 1928. Under the new law, a central administrative commission was formed within the General Directorate of Waqfs, headed by the directorate’s legal advisor or his assistant but also including the directors of the accounting, records, and personnel offices. The administrative commission of the Istanbul directorate, in turn, was to be presided over by the head of the Directorate of Forests and Endowed Lands and also include the director of revenue-bearing waqf properties (akaret), the director of escheated properties (mahlulat), the director of ancillary properties (mülhaka), and the director of endowed monies (nukut-ı mevkufe). According to budgetary laws and other legal documents, as of 1925 the General Directorate of Waqfs was composed of fifteen main administrative units, eight of which operated entirely and three of which operated partially in Istanbul.

LEGAL REGULATIONS ON WAQFS

Until the republican period, waqfs were administered according to Islamic law. The administration of the waqfs in the republican period was conducted on an annual basis through articles added to the budget codes. This remained the case until 1935, when the new Waqf Code (Vakıflar Kanunu), based on the principles accepted in the previous budget codes, was enacted.

With the 1924 budget code the administration of waqf waterworks was transferred to local authorities, and with the 1925 budget code the administration of waqf madrasas was assigned to the Ministry of Education. Those madrasas that had fallen into disrepair, some of which were no more than empty plots of land, were transferred either to the Ministry of Education or to private corporations. The 1926 budget code banned certain types of rental agreements (icareteyn and mukataa) from being entered into for revenue-bearing waqf properties, and the 1927 budget code declared that fifty percent of the revenues from cemeteries would be allocated to their local municipalities. The cemeteries themselves were later transferred entirely to the local municipalities with the Municipalities Code (Belediyeler Kanunu) of 1930.

In this period (1924–1935), regulations concerning waqf lands led to the liquidation of a number waqfs, and Waqf Code 2762 of 1935 even contained a separate section on the subject. As a result of these and similar regulations, the role that waqfs had once played in the area of public service was considerably diminished, as their Ottoman-era functions were progressively transferred to different state institutions and organizations. In the republican period the waqfs, formerly institutions of great religious, economic, political, and social significance, would function only in a narrowly religious capacity.

The transfer of waqf properties and services to state institutions in the early republican period took place through a number of different legal regulations. The more prominent of these included the Law on the Unification of Education (Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanunu), Law on Waters (Sular Kanunu), Law on the Abolition of Dervish Lodges and Mausoleums (Tekke, Zaviye ve Türbelerin Seddine Dair Kanun), the Municipalities Code, Code of Villages (Köy Kanunu), and Civil Code (Medeni Kanun).

Of these various regulations, the most important was the Civil Code, enacted in October 1926. In this code, the nature of any future waqfs was defined largely as had previously been the case. One prominent difference was that the new code preferred the term “foundation,” as defined in Article 73 of that code, over the term “waqf” for these institutions, and from 1926 onward the former term was used in place of the latter. Following the foundation of the republic, the waqfs as institutions continued to function only for religious services, and the term “foundation” can thus be regarded as the secularized version of “waqf” adopted in the Civil Code.

Drawn as they were from the Civil Code rather than the classical Islamic sources of the Qur’an and Sunna, these foundations were not considered to be places of worship. In any case, over the following forty years only a very few new foundations were established. The most likely reasons for this are the range of measures that foundations in the early republic were subjected to and the psychological impact those measures had. Waqf schools and madrasas were seized and handed to the Ministry of Education, waqf water sources were given to the municipalities or local authorities, waqf cemeteries were assigned to the municipalities, waqf forests were taken over by the Ministry of Forests, dervish lodges were closed, and other waqfs were liquidated entirely. In such an environment, the idea of endowing any new foundations met with reluctance. In this period, only fifty-six new foundations were established in Istanbul. The most active year in this period was 1963, when nine foundations were established, but many years passed without the establishment of a single new foundation.

Some scholars alternatively claim that the considerable decrease in the establishment of new foundations after the Civil Code was likely a result of Turkey’s economic difficulties, especially during the early years of this period. At this stage in its history, Hüseyin Hatemi notes, Turkey had just emerged from its War of Independence and thus lacked the financial wherewithal to establish many new foundations.

On 13 July 1967, Law 903 altered the relevant section of the Civil Code and the old term “waqf” once again came to be used in place of term “foundation” in the legal literature. In addition, new tax exemption regulations led to the start of a new period of waqf creation in Turkey. The number of new waqfs rose significantly, with a total of 1,646 established in Istanbul between 1968 and 2012. In 1995, 150 new waqfs were established, the highest annual total during that period.

While waqfs founded under the Ottomans were mostly concerned with education, religion, or social service (with the precise ratio between these fields varying somewhat over the centuries), waqfs established after the declaration of the republic were predominantly focused on education, culture, health, and social welfare. Today, there are 4,682 waqfs dealing with a variety of issues in Istanbul.

In the early republican period, inspecting, modernizing, and administering the waqfs inherited from the Ottoman Empire was viewed as an important goal. Toward this end, Swiss professor of law Hans Leemann was invited to prepare a regulation on waqfs in 1929.

The draft prepared by Leemann was composed of thirty-seven articles and was dated 31 August 1929. The second draft prepared by Leeman included thirty articles, and was dated 28 September 1929. This draft was examined by a commission assigned by the Council of Ministers and, following its approval by parliament, was passed into law as Waqf Code 2762 on 5 June 1935.

EFFORTS TO LIQUIDATE THE WAQFS AND THEIR IMPACT ON ISTANBUL

Laws and Liquidation Efforts

The General Directorate of Waqfs was established by Law 429 on the Abolition of the Ministries of Waqfs and Islamic Law and Military Affairs on 3 March 1924, provisionally under the umbrella of the Prime Ministry. After a relatively short time, in 1926 the Council of Ministers decided to form a commission tasked with liquidating the waqfs, to be composed of representatives from various ministries and the General Directorate of Waqfs. The commission, however, never materialized.

A commission was finally established in 1937, but this time entirely under the General Directorate of Waqfs. This commission was created as part of the effort to liquidate the waqfs and reduce the number of waqf properties under the administration of the directorate. The commission thus worked to transfer the bulk of waqf properties and their areas of service to other institutions and organizations by means of various legal instruments, institutional ordinances, and governmental decisions.

That same year—by order of the Prime Ministry, which desired the liquidation process to be completed as swiftly as possible—the commission began to operate at the national level. Thus the process of liquidating the waqfs, which up to that point had been carried out in piecemeal fashion, took on a more concerted and organized form at the behest of the Prime Ministry.¹

The first instances of this liquidation process were carried out in the field of education. Following a series of changes to the educational sphere that took place under the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish parliament passed Law 430 on the Unification of Education on 3 March 1924 immediately after it abolished the Ministry of Waqfs and Islamic Law. According to Article 1 of that law, “All educational and instructional institutions in Turkey are [hereby] attached to the Ministry of Education.” Thus the division between school and madrassa, which had become so stark during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, was brought to an end.

Articles 2 and 3 of the code declared that all schools and madrassas previously operating under the former Ministry of Imperial Waqfs and Islamic Law were to be transferred to the Ministry of Education, together with all their revenues. The primary schools (sıbyan mektebi) of the Ottoman period and waqf revenues of unknown ownership were also transferred to the ministry. Article 3 assigned that portion of the former ministry’s budget that had been allocated for schools and madrassas to the Ministry of Education, which subsequently also took control of the museums and libraries that had once belonged to the former ministry.

The Ministry of Education was the greatest beneficiary of this process, with schools like the Zihni Pasha Primary School transferred to its control, but it was not the only one. A number of institutions were transferred to other organizations. The Atik Valide Madrasa, for example, was assigned to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to be used as a mental health center. Istanbul University obtained the Cevher Sultan, Davut Pasha, and Atik İbrahim Pasha madrasas to satisfy its need for space for its faculties. The Nuruosmaniye and Köprülü libraries were transferred to the Prime Ministry Under-Secretariat of Culture, and Gazanfer Agha Madrasa was assigned to the Istanbul Municipality for use as a city museum.

The school properties of a number of waqfs, including the Necmettin Waqf, Esma Hatun Waqf, and Ahmet Agha Waqf, were sold off and the resulting money allocated to other waqfs dedicated to the same purpose.

Another area of waqf operations was brought to a close on 30 November 1925 by Law 677 on the Abolition of Dervish Lodges and Mausoleums. This law stipulated that the dervish lodges and mausoleums—the properties and incomes of which were almost entirely based on waqf endowments—were either to be sold off or transferred to the control of state institutions. According to Article 1 of the code, “All dervish lodges within the borders of the Republic of Turkey, whether founded as a waqf or established on the basis of private property in the possession of a sheikh or charitable revenue, shall be closed in their entirety, but their owners shall otherwise retain their rights of ownership and disposal. Those which are legally recognized as presently serving as masjids or mosques shall be preserved.” Thus, all dervish lodges founded as waqfs were closed.

Prior to this law, the dervish lodges had already been closed by the Council of Ministers in its Decree 2413 on the Closure of the Dervish Lodges and on the Dress Code of Religious and Governmental Personnel, issued on 2 September 1925. A public notice had also been circulated based on this earlier decree, even before the passage of Law 667, described above.

Within the framework of these regulations a number of benevolent waqf properties changed hands or were simply sold off, including various dervish lodges (tekke), mausoleums (türbe), and dervish monasteries (dergâh). Of the properties that changed hands, the İskender Pasha (Galata) Mevlevîhanesi (Mevlevi Dervish Lodge) was allocated to the Ministry of Education to be used as a museum, the Sokullu Tekkesi was allocated to Governorate of Istanbul to be used as a student dormitory, and the annexes of the Sultan Mahmut Türbesi and the Sofular Tekkesi were allocated to Istanbul University to be used, respectively, as an institute building and hospital. Those that were sold off included the estate of the Tophane Gülşenî Tekkesi, the Yedikule Uşşakî Tekkesi and its estates, the Büyükçekmece Gülşenî Tekkesi, the Kadikoy Kadiriye Dergâhı and its annexes, the Ayvansaray Toklu İbrahim Dede Türbe and its estate, the Aksaray Seracettin Tekkesi, and the Ayaspaşa Ali Baba Tekkesi.

With Law 4785 on the Addition of Clauses to the Forest Code and Adjustments to Article 1 of that Code, date 9 July 1945, forests, which had been crucial sources of revenue for the waqfs, were expropriated by the state. The relationship between waqfs and their forest properties was annulled in the amended first article of the Forest Code, which read, “All the forests belonging to real and legal persons, waqfs, village legal entities, municipalities, private corporations, and public corporate entities shall be nationalized on the date of the enactment of this code.”

Article 60 of the code stated that “Forests which are themselves waqf property as well as those whose usufruct rights belong to a waqf are subject to the regulations concerning private forests, and their administration, preservation, and management are the responsibility of their trustees or the General Directorate of Waqfs.²

The General Directorate of Waqfs struggled to prevent the expropriation of the forests. Law 3461 on the Organization of the General Directorate of Waqfs (Vakıf Umum Müdürlüğü Teşkilatı Hakkında Kanun), accepted in 1938, established a Directorate of Agricultural, Mining, and Forestry Affairs. On the basis of this law, two administrative bodies, together employing forty-seven people, were created for the Istanbul Alemdağ Forest and the Avcıkoru Waqf Forest. Despite these efforts, the waqf forests were seized by the state and nationalized by Law 4875 on 13 July 1945.

The 28 April 1926 Law 831 on Waters also affected the waqfs. The second article of the law read as follows: “The administration of all waters diverted or otherwise made available for public use in cities, towns, and villages, whether belonging to a waqf or established by other means, is assigned together with all related institutions and sources of income to the local municipalities and village councils.”

Based on this article of the law, the management of all water was assigned to the local authorities in cities or villages. Actually, some movement toward this same end was afoot even before the passage of the Law on Waters. According to Article 10 of the 1924 budget code, the administration of the waterways of the waqfs in Istanbul was transferred to the municipality. This code was enacted in 1925, a year before the Law on Waters was passed.

Table 1- Distribution of Waqf forests in Istanbul

Article 110 of Municipalities Code 1580 of 3 April 1930 assigned all avarız waqfs (cash waqfs founded by philanthropists to help poor local families pay extraordinary taxes) located within municipal borders, together with their revenues, to local municipalities. Article 160 of the same code also transferred all waqf cemeteries—excluding those located in the gardens or burial plots (hazire) of mosques, masjids, and other benevolent institutions—to the municipalities. As an example, one particular waqf cemetery was broken up into three parts, with one section sold in 1926 to the Turkish Aviation Society for the construction of its headquarters, another to the Red Crescent that same year, and the last sold to the Ministry of Education in 1929 for forty-five thousand liras for the construction of a teacher-training school. These transfers deprived the waqfs of a crucial source of income and served as an important step toward their liquidation.³

On the matter of liquidation, the role played by state institutions in distributing out the waqf properties is worthy of particular note. Waqf buildings and lands were distributed via a number of different legal regulations. Immigrants were settled on waqf forests and farms. In the countryside, waqf benevolent institutions and the revenue-bearing properties that supported them were transferred to the control of local villages by the Code of Villages of 1931. Waqf lands were expropriated and distributed in accordance with Code on Land Provision for Farmers (Çiftçiyi Topraklandırma Kanunu), dated 1945. In cities especially, waqf lands were given to developers to provide funds for state investments.⁴

Table 2-Distribution of land expropriated between 1947 and 1964

The most significant development relevant to these transfers was Code 4753 on Land Provision for Farmers in 1945. Sub-clause (a) of Article 14 of this code defined the scope of the premises to be transferred as “all lands belonging to private waqfs under the control of their trustees or those belonging to state-administered waqfs under the control of the General Directorate of Waqfs.” These lands, together with all agricultural infrastructure on them, were expropriated by the Ministry of Agriculture to be distributed to farmers with no or insufficient land.

Under this law, a total of 153,588 dönüm (roughly equal to 920 m²) of land was expropriated between the years 1947 and 1964. Of this, 80,861 dönüm—corresponding to the 52.65 percent of the total—was taken from the waqfs. The year in which the greatest amount of land was expropriated was 1954, with 24,489 dönüm of land seized by the state. In this period, while no land was expropriated from residents, private corporations, or municipalities in Istanbul, 8,919 dönüm of land, or 11.03 percent of the total, was expropriated from the waqfs. This corresponds to 5.81 percent of the total amount of land expropriated by the state during the period. The amount of land expropriated from real persons, waqfs, and private corporations and municipalities represented, respectively, 0.22 percent, 0.32 percent, and 0.08 percent of the total lands registered in the treasury during the period.⁵

Apart from these forms of expropriation, hundreds of waqf properties in Istanbul were sold off in a variety of ways. A 1946 decision of the Administrative Council of the General Directorate of Waqfs is a case in point. In that year, the council approved an agreement between Emlak Bank, representing the Ministry of Finance, and the General Directorate of Waqfs for the sale of eleven parcels of land belonging to the Beyazıt Waqf in the Istanbul district of Beyoğlu, near the former US Consulate. The land in question, valued at 577,250 lira, was sold to the United States as stipulated in a $10 million loan agreement signed between the two countries in Cairo. This shows that state institutions could carry out agreements at will for the sale, rent, or other use of waqf property to meet their needs.

The Sale of Benevolent and Revenue-Bearing Waqf Properties

The sale of waqf properties was not unique to the republican period. Waqf buildings and lands have been sold in greater or lesser numbers in every period of history, albeit with some variation depending on the legal regulations obtaining at any given time. Nevertheless, the periods 1920–1949 and 1960–1970 mark the first time such sales were carried out for the purpose of actually liquidating the waqfs themselves. In the first period, prior to the enactment of the Waqf Code of 1935, these sales were carried out in an ad hoc fashion by the directorates through various special laws. From 1935 onward, in contrast, waqf properties of both a benevolent and revenue-bearing character were subjected to a concerted program of liquidation.

As part of this program, the Administrative Council of the General Directorate of Waqfs made a number of decisions regarding the sale of waqf properties, which it then instructed the various regional directorates to apply. The council ordered that particularly large waqf properties were to be divided into smaller parcels where possible (VGM 1961; 100/135). It also determined the basis upon which different properties would be prioritized for sale (VİM 1957; 396/391), and decided which lands, namely those too close to historical buildings or those located in protected areas, were to be excluded from the sales lists (VİM 1963; 423).

Examining the sales carried out in this period, it is seen that in 1963 the council evaluated a total of forty-one properties in Istanbul. Of these, it decided that nineteen were to be sold and sixteen were to be inspected to re-determine their value. Five were excluded from sale, whether because of their historical status or for some other reason, and an additional property was determined to have already been sold under a previous decision and was therefore removed from the list.

In this period, it was decided that 17,045 m² of land in the Istanbul district of Üsküdar would be sold to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. This land was to be used for the buildings of the Erkek Sanat Enstitüsü (Boys’ Art Institute), the Erkek Teknik Yüksek Öğretmen Okulu (Teacher-Training Technical School for Boys), and the Sağlık Koleji (Medical College) in the neighborhood of Selimiye, and for the Yüksek İslam Enstitüsü (High Islamic Institute) in the neighborhood of Bağlarbaşı.

The aim of the sales carried out in the two periods 1920–1949 and 1960–1970 was to liquidate the waqfs and provide financial support for state investments. As a result of the process that began in 1924 of transferring waqf properties and their areas of service to other public institutions and organizations, a large number of waqf buildings changed hands. In a number of cases, their new owners re-sold the waqf properties to others. As a result, by 1927 the only waqf properties that remained wholly untouched by this process were the mosques and masjids.

The sale of mosques and masjids in turn commenced with Law 2845 in 1935, at least officially. It actually began several years earlier with the budget code of 1927, as a result of which they first began to be classified for sale. Article 14 of the 1927 budget code stated that all mosques and masjids for which there was not a “genuine demand” were to be decommissioned. The Presidency of Religious Affairs subsequently issued a circular on 8 January 1928 detailing how mosques were to be classified and explaining what the expression “genuine demand” meant. According to this circular, to be defined as meeting a genuine demand, there had to be a distance of at least five hundred meters between any two mosques. In cases where two or more mosques were in closer proximity to one another than this minimum distance, one was to remain operational and the others were to be decommissioned. These decommissioned mosques were first closed and then sold.

The first mosques were sold by the decision of the Administrative Council of the General Directorate of Waqfs in 1927. They included Hatice Sultan Mosque, which was sold to the local municipality because of its location on the major Fevzi Pasha thoroughfare, and Yaşmakçı Şücaettin Mosque and its annexes, which were expropriated by the municipality in the district of Rumelihisarı.⁶

Advertisements for the sale of waqf properties were instructed to use the expression “ruined waqf buildings” rather than the words “mosque” or “masjid” when describing the properties put up for sale. Fearing that the sale of such buildings would trigger a public outcry that would likely scare away potential buyers, mosques and masjids in perfectly good condition were generally presented either as buildings with no historical or architectural value or as otherwise unworthy of preservation, or else as empty plots of land.

The greatest number of mosques sold was in Istanbul.

As a result of the codes, laws, and regulations enacted from the early years of the republic onward, waqf properties and the various services they provided were assigned to various public institutions. In later periods, as had occurred with the mosques and masjids, the remaining benevolent properties of the waqfs were also sold off. Waqfs were thus deprived of their principal means of serving the public and lost their ability to carry out their primary goal. No longer serving any charitable purpose, they were then closed down.

In addition to being put up for sale, mosques and the masjids were on occasion also put to other uses in the republican period. A number were turned into museums or museum repositories. The Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) Mosque is one prominent case in point. Originally constructed as a church, the Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque following the conquest of Constantinople and registered to the ownership of the waqf of Sultan Mehmed II. After being used as a mosque for 480 years, it was turned into a museum by the decision of the Council of Ministers in 1934. Considering the fact that the waqf was a private entity whose properties belonged not to the state but to the waqf itself, the decision to convert the Hagia Sophia to a museum was not appropriate according to waqf law. Apart from Hagia Sophia, the Fethiye, Kariye, and Perizat Hatun (Hatuniye) mosques were also converted to museums by the decision of the Council of Ministers.

Despite the many policies carried out under the republic that resulted in the expropriation of so much waqf property and the broader effort to liquidate the waqfs of which these policies were a part, a regulation of a rather different sort was enacted in 1957 with the passage of Law 7044. This law, the first under the republic that operated in harmony with the actual spirit of the waqfs, sought to protect the former waqf properties that had been transferred in whatever fashion to the treasury, municipalities, or private corporations. According to the law, all such properties of particular historical or architecture value, and thus worthy of protection, were to be transferred back to the control of the General Directorate of Waqfs.⁷ In this way, these historical properties were taken under the care of the state and protected from further damage and neglect.

The Redevelopment of Istanbul and the Destruction of Its Waqf Heritage

At the beginning of the twentieth century, empires and their imperial capitals disappeared from the stage of history. After Istanbul was freed from enemy occupation, it entered into a quiet and lonely period. The imperial age had come to an end, and a new republic had been established. The city, which had been the capital of three great empires and the center of the caliphate of the Islamic world, would thenceforth be only the largest city of a nation-state, the young Republic of Turkey.

The population of Istanbul, which had stood at over 1,200,000 when the republic was declared, dropped roughly by half to slightly over 600,000 by the end of the 1920s. Istanbul truly seemed as if it had been abandoned. A blind eye was turned to the city, into which centuries of imperial wealth had once poured, and it fell into poverty.

The young Republic of Turkey, endeavoring on the one hand to Westernize and on the other to eliminate any symbol or institution belonging to the imperial past, devoted all its energies to building up the city of Ankara as the cultural, political, economic, and ideological capital of the new nation-state. In order to fund the development of the new capital, the historical and architectural texture of Istanbul was neglected. During the first years of the republic, Istanbul was in a miserable state. For the first time in centuries it began to be administered from outside. A number of structures that were crucial elements of the historical topography of the city were demolished. The historical texture that had made the city so unique, bequeathed to it by its centuries-long status as capital to some of the most culturally rich civilizations in human history, thus fell victim to misguided and modernist development projects.

In the Ottoman State, institutions catering to the needs of the public—including mosques, schools, bathhouses, hospitals, libraries, and soup-kitchens—were generally located in the center of populated areas, often within larger complexes known as külliyes centered around a mosque. As these structures were built by waqfs, there were naturally a great number of waqf properties in the center of any populated area. Whole neighborhoods were constructed around a central külliye. These waqf complexes were places where almost all the social needs of the surrounding residents could be met and, thanks to their location, they played an important role in promoting social harmony among the individuals and groups in society. In a sense, cities were founded and developed around these waqf structures, and it was from them that they drew their particular characters and identities. During the process of urban redevelopment, there were two ways possible to deal with the waqf monuments: they could be demolished to make way for roads, or, alternatively, the roads could be constructed around them. The first option was generally preferred, and hundreds of waqf structures were demolished.

The redevelopment activities led by Cemil Topuzlu, the mayor of Istanbul from 1912 to 1914, mark the first major steps in this regard. A number of main roads were opened or expanded during this period, including Kemeraltı and Divanyolu, the latter of which stretches between Beyazıt Square and Alemdar in the district of Fatih. During this process, a number of masjids, khans, and beautiful examples of civic architecture were demolished. Among them were the Çukur Çeşme Hammam, the cemetery in front of Zeynep Sultan Mosque, the mausoleum and fountain next to Firuz Ağa Mosque, the Atik Ali Pasha Mosque Complex, and the Elçi Khan. In his memoirs, Cemil Topuzlu described with pride his destruction of these monuments. In a fine example of the approach to history and cultural heritage that prevailed during the period, he wrote with regret of the Ayasofya Hammam that “I could not pull down that worn-out hammam, as everybody reacted against the idea.”⁸

New redevelopment plans for Istanbul began to be prepared after 1936; nevertheless, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 delayed the execution of these projects. Even prior to the war, however, a number of new projects were executed that would significantly alter the face of the city. The world-famous city-planner Henri Prost was invited from France in 1933 to create a redevelopment plan for Istanbul and the Bosphorus. For Prost, Istanbul did not even deserve to be called a city, but he was intent on transforming it into one. His aim was to carry out a series of projects aimed at recapturing the city’s former charm and attracting back the residents who had departed over the course of years of neglect. Prost had high hopes for Istanbul, and with his arrival this important city of modern Turkey was to undergo a serious renovation.

Following Prost, Lütfi Kırdar, the governor and mayor of Istanbul from 1938 to 1949, chose to focus his redevelopment efforts on the old city, which had largely preserved its historical texture, rather than attempting to redevelop the newer areas around it. The Topçu Kışlası (Military Barracks) in Taksim was demolished and Gezi Park was constructed in its place. The Avaz Pasha Cemetery, which had been sold in 1927, became the site of the first apartment buildings in republican Istanbul.⁹

In the process of constructing a boulevard linking Taksim to Yenikapı, hundreds of historical structures were demolished in the area between Yenikapı and Unkapanı. Among the structures destroyed were: the İbrahim Pasha Hammam; a school, the Mahmudiye Mektebi; several fountains, including the Kırk Çeşme and Gürcü Mehmet Paşa Çeşmesi; a number of masjids, including the Revanî Çelebi Masjid, Firuz Agha Masjid, Sekbanbaşı İbrahim Agha Masjid, Hoca Teberrük Masjid, and Papasoğlu Masjid; and several mosques, including Bostan Mosque and Süleyman Subaşı Mosque. Additionally, during the expansion of Eminönü Square, İzzet Pasha Masjid was demolished, and during the landscaping of the space around Hagia Sophia Mosque, the Ayasofya Madrasa was also destroyed.

The Süleyman Subaşı (Unkapanı) Mosque, which was built by the famous architect Mimar Sinan on the order of Süleyman Bey during the reign of Sultan Süleyman I, remained in operation as a place of worship until 1936. That year, it was sold to the Istanbul Municipality at the behest of the Council of Waqfs. It was unnecessarily torn down during the construction of the Atatürk Bridge connecting Azapkapı and Unkapanı over the Golden Horn.

The result of Prost’s efforts was that historical buildings that had survived for hundreds of years began to be torn down one by one. The cultural heritage of the city was denied, and the first steps were taken toward the construction of an entirely new city. Istanbul, which the Ottomans had referred to as the “Gate of Felicity” (Dersaadet), began to move further and further away from its historical identity as the redevelopment process progressed.

The famous Turkish author Yahya Kemal Beyatlı criticized the fact that a foreign expert had come to redevelop Istanbul, a city which had been shaped by the Turks for hundreds of years, and complained that the redevelopment of Turkish cities was not being carried out in a manner in keeping with the Turkish national style. The German city-planner Herman Elgötz, one of the other contributors to the redevelopment plan of Istanbul, also criticized the wrongheadedness of the project. In his words, “The development of a city should not be left only to foreign experts. In the case of Istanbul, this could be better accomplished by Turkish experts of urban architecture.”¹⁰

In the 1950s, Law 6785 on Redevelopment and Law 6830 on Expropriation were enacted. These laws remained in effect for four years, during which time the city of Istanbul was effectively turned into one colossal construction site. Under the government of the Democrat Party, the mayor and the governor of Istanbul was Fahrettin Kerim Gökay. In this period, during which the texture of Istanbul was changed and wide new avenues opened, the buildings demolished were defined as “having gone to wrack and ruin.” In these years the historical identity of the city was severely damaged and several historical structures, including works of Mimar Sinan, were destroyed.

In 1956, Prime Minister Menderes started to redevelop Istanbul in an effort to modernize the city. This constituted the second and even more radical phase of Prost’s city planning in the republican period. According to Turkish architect and professor Doğan Kuban, this period was a turning point in Turkish city planning and urban redevelopment.

In an effort to alleviate Istanbul’s increasingly congested traffic, a number of streets were widened, including Millet Caddesi and Ordu Caddesi, and new ones, like Vatan Caddesi, were opened. In order to make room for the new or newly expanded thoroughfares, hundreds of historical structures were torn down, some of which did not even constitute obstacles to the construction process. Among the buildings that were destroyed during this period were several works of Mimar Sinan. A partial list includes: Tevekkül Hammam, Kürkçübaşı Fountain, Ereğli Mosque, Mehmet Ağa Mosque, Şehremini Police Station, Deniz Abdal Mosque, Çorlulu Ali Pasha Fountain, Ebussuud Effendi Fountain, Kazasker Kızıl Abdurrrahman Çelebi Mosque, Selçuk Hatun Mosque, Oruç Gazi Masjid, Ebülfazl Mahmud Efendi Madrasa, Şirmerd Çavuş Mosque, Zıbın-ı Şerif Tekke, Fındıkzade Tekke, Hekimbaşı Ömer Effendi Madrasa, Saliha Sultan Primary School, Sarı Musa Mosque, the Laleli Baba Mausoleum and Fountain, Hasanpaşa Khan, Simkeşhane (the bazaar of goldsmiths and silversmiths), some parts of the Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha Mausoleum and Mosque Complex, Aydınoğlu Tekke, the Mimar Ayaz Mosque and Cemetery, Molla Gürani Mosque and some parts of its cemetery, Camcılar Masjid, Çakırağa Masjid, the Pertevniyal Valide Sultan Mausoleum and Fountain, Murad Pasha Hammam, and the Atar Halil Ağa Masjid and Fountain. Apart from these, Emir Masjid was demolished during the expansion of the streets linking the Sirkeci train station to the car ferries. The destruction of each of these historical buildings was a serious loss for Turkish art history.

The Aksaray Camcılar Masjid (also known as the Gureba Hüseyin Ağa Masjid), built by the janissary commander Hüseyin Agha in the fifteenth century, was destroyed as part of road-building and expansion works in 1956. The site of this mosque, the empty area just next to the Aksaray Underground Bazaar by the tramline, is used as a park today. As part of a project to rebuild certain historical works demolished in this period, the Istanbul Municipality is currently preparing a project to reconstruct the masjid.

Table 4- Reconstruction activities of the waqfs in the first fifty years of the republic in Istanbul

A number of structures were pulled down between the districts of Karaköy and Beşiktaş to reduce traffic congestion in the area. Among the buildings demolished on this route were Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha Mosque, Fındıklı Hammam, the Bektaş Efendi Mosque and Hammam, Ermeni Surp Lusavoriç Church, the Tophane Barracks, Tophane Ocağı Masjid, Çivilimanı Masjid, Süheyl Bey Mosque, the Keşfi Cafer Effendi Mosque Complex, the Yusuf Pasha Fountain, the Yahya Efendi Fountain, and the Mehmet Emin Fountain and Cemetery.

Another important historical structure that was destroyed during the redevelopment process in Istanbul was Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa Mosque. The building had originally been used as a dervish lodge during the period of Sultan Mehmed I, and a mosque was later built there at the behest of its eponymous founder. During the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II, the famous architect Raimondo D’Aronco rebuilt the structure in the art nouveau style with the addition of an upper story made of wood. In 1957, it was dismantled during the road expansion works. The pieces of the original structure were catalogued so that it could be rebuilt on the island of Kınalıada, but they were later lost. Thus yet another important historical work was lost to the city, despite the fact that it did not pose any obstacle to the road expansion works.

The most important structure pulled down during the road expansion works on the Beşiktaş–Bebek coastal road was the Beşiktaş Hammam.

In an article highlighting the need to preserve Istanbul’s cultural heritage, Yahya Kemal described the thoughtless destruction of historically and culturally important structures as the work of “blind pickaxes.” The prominent journalist Falih Rıfkı used the expression “poor Istanbul” to refer to the damage Istanbul was subject to in the same period. In addition, several other intellectuals wrote articles on the wrongheadedness of the period’s urban redevelopment policies, stating that historical monuments did not pose any obstacle to the reconstruction of Istanbul.

Today, projects have been developed not only to repair the surviving historical structures, but also to reconstruct several buildings that were destroyed as a result of the redevelopment policies of earlier periods. Debbağ Hacı Pîrî Mehmet Effendi Masjid, Kazasker Abdurrahman Effendi Mosque, Altı Poğaça Masjid, and Tarsusî Masjid have all been reconstructed and have opened to worship once again.

Certain progress has been made in the reconstruction of a number of other mosques and masjids, including: İmrahor İlyas Bey Mosque, Şücaettin Masjid, Süheyl Bey Masjid, Bakkalzade Masjid, Hacı İlyas Masjid, Simkeş Masjid, Kaptan Sinan Masjid, Seydi Ali Bey Masjid, Cankurtaran Masjid, Helvacıbaşı Masjid, Muhasebeci Ahmet Efendi Masjid, Güngörmez Masjid, Fatma Sultan Masjid, Hacı Mahmut Ağa Masjid, İsa Kapı Masjid, Arpaemini Masjid, Şeyhülislam Masjid, Kasap Halil Mosque, Uzun Yusuf Masjid, Fındıkzade Masjid, İbrahim Çavuş (Yayla) Masjid, Kâtip Muslihuddin Masjid, Hacı Timur Masjid, Mihrinaz Hatun Mosque, Yavuz Mehmet Ağa Mosque, Çerağı Hamza Mosque, Ayvansaray Mosque, Kürkçübaşı Masjid, Avcıbey Masjid, Pîrî Mehmet Pasha Mosque, and Nişanca Masjid.

WAQF SERVICES IN ISTANBUL

As an institution, the waqf is deeply rooted in Islamic history and has always held an important place in Muslim societies. The golden age of the waqf, however, was experienced under the Ottoman Empire. It was for this reason that the empire was described as “waqf heaven.” The number of waqfs rose considerably after the conquest of Istanbul, and they played an active role in its development as an Islamic city.

In fact, the institution of the waqf and the city of Istanbul became so inextricably intertwined as to become virtually synonymous with each other. Just as it is impossible to think about waqfs without conjuring up an image of Istanbul, so too is it impossible to imagine Istanbul without its waqfs. To approach the city without an appreciation for its waqfs is to ignore the skyline that makes Istanbul “the sultan of cities,” and to close one’s eyes to the deeper idea and meaning behind it. The city and its waqfs are inseparable.

The monuments and socio-cultural values of Istanbul were shaped within the spiritual atmosphere of the Ottoman period and its waqfs. After the end of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul carried these forward into the republican period, and there succeeded in fusing modernity with tradition.

Construction and Repair Services

With the declaration of the republic, the General Directorate of Waqfs contributed considerably to the dynamic and innovative plans put forth by the new government and to the construction of the new structures necessary for the welfare of the country. In this process, the waqfs marshaled their funds to enable the young Republic of Turkey, whose coffers had been depleted through long years of war, to launch a new campaign of national development.

The redevelopment activities undertaken from 1923 till the outbreak of World War II constitute a significant chapter in waqf history, for it was during this period that a new style of Turkish architecture was created. While few waqf buildings were constructed during World War II and the transitional period that followed, from 1950 onward the renovation of old waqf structures and the construction of new buildings commenced in earnest.

The khans of Gökçek, Aşir Efendi, Aksaray, Hamidiye, Yeni Valide, Çiçek Pazarı and Kozluca were built in Istanbul, which provided income to the waqfs and contributed to the construction of the new Istanbul.

In recent years, a number of new project-financing models have emerged to facilitate the construction of new buildings. In flat-for-land agreements, developers offer the owner(s) of a particular property a set portion of the new building(s) they construct in place of the original property. In build-operate-transfer agreements, a company is offered a long-term concession in exchange for developing a property. With these models, new buildings have been erected, idle lands have been put to use, and new structures like apartment buildings, shops, gas stations, commercial centers, and social, sports, and entertainment facilities have been made available. A considerable amount of this investment has been carried out in Istanbul, with the Istanbul Park international speedway a prominent example.

The General Directorate of Waqfs carefully maintains, repairs, and, when necessary, restores the monuments and historical structures built by waqfs. Istanbul, the “waqf heaven” of Ottoman times, is once again being built up by its waqfs. In recent years, several waqf structures have been restored, especially mosques that were originally constructed at the behest of Ottoman sultans. These include the mosques of Süleymaniye, Pertevniyal, Dolmabahçe, Edirnekapı Mihrimah Sultan, Yavuz Sultan Selim, Nuruosmaniye, Üsküdar Mihrimah Sultan, and Ortaköy.

Apart from the restorations carried out directly by the General Directorate of Waqfs, several others have been realized by means of restore-operate-transfer agreements, similar to the build-operate-transfer model discussed above. The Fourth Vakıf Khan and Valide Khan in Akaretler, Istanbul, were restored in this manner, and are now being operated as hotels and offices, providing considerable income to the General Directorate of Waqfs

Table 5- Foundation (waqf) Supported Universities in Istanbul

The city of Istanbul, lonely and abandoned during the early years of the republican period, was from the 1950s onward the scene of an explosion of new construction, road building, and urban redevelopment. Alongside this construction boom, the city also became home to ever larger waves of new immigrants. Largely unable to take advantage of the new construction projects in the city itself, these new migrants generally settled in the steadily growing shantytowns on its outskirts. A considerable portion of these shantytowns and squatter settlements were built on what had originally been waqf property. Law 4916 was enacted to address this situation, dictating that all such occupied waqf properties were to be handed over to the Treasury. As a result, a total of 4,557 occupied waqf properties in Istanbul were transferred to the possession of the Treasury. These included: 3,403 properties in Okmeydanı (in the districts of Beyoğlu and Şişli), where there were high numbers of waqf structures; 2 in Beşiktaş; 88 in Beykoz; and 1,064 in Eyüp. In exchange, the Treasury offered a total of 124 of its own properties, including 62 in Eyüp, 8 in Şişli, 6 in the Princes’ Islands, 20 in Kücükçekmece, 23 in Gaziosmanpaşa, and 1 each in Sarıyer, Beykoz, Büyükçekmece, Zeytinburnu, and Beşiktaş.

As a result of this exchange, the housing problems of approximately thirty thousand families were solved. Subsequent investment on the part of the new homeowners in their new neighborhoods further served to secure the healthy development of a new social structure and the well organized urbanization of the city.

Charity and Social Services

The waqf is a legal and social institution founded out of a sense of philanthropy to meet the needs of society. Based on this philanthropic spirit, waqfs have always provided a range of social services that function to ensure social solidarity, and continue to do so today.

According to the conditions of waqf deeds, opening public soup-kitchens known as imarets and ensuring their services reached those in need were the most important responsibilities of the waqfs. In the early years of the republic, imarets in Üsküdar, Laleli, Eyüp, and Bayrampaşa (Sağmalcılar) served free, hot meals to people in need twice daily.

In the Eyüp imaret, hot meals are still served today to 2,000 people, and 2,878 families (14,927 people) are provided packages consisting of fifteen different types of dry goods.

The poor and needy are also served by Gureba Hospital, where they receive free treatment. This practice, which began in the Ottoman period, continues in the present day at the Gureba Hospital of Bezmiâlem Vakıf University.

Waqfs also provide scholarships to poor students at the secondary-school level and financial support to people with no social security.

Education and Health Services

Education has always been one of the cornerstones of Turkish society, and likewise has served as one of the key focuses of the waqfs. With the Law on the Unification of Education, the madrassas were closed and all education and instruction placed under the administration of the Ministry of Education. Educational institutions such as the primary school), madrasas, and libraries were all assigned to the ministry. Nevertheless, the waqfs did not totally withdraw from the field of education. They continued their educational activities in accordance with the extent of their incomes. Waqfs have opened dormitories for students at the secondary and university level, as required in the conditions of the waqf deeds stipulating that they offer help for the education and instruction of poor children. From the 1950s onward a number of dormitories were opened in Istanbul by various waqfs. Among these were the Dormitory for Boys in Higher Education, which opened in 1956, and the Dormitory for Girls in Higher Education, which opened 1961. In 1973, these two dormitories housed 707 and 106 students, respectively. Others were built too, including a dormitory in Topkapı with the capacity for 200 students. In 2000, all dormitories were transferred to the Ministry of Education by the decision of the Council of Ministers.

In the early years of the republic, waqfs also worked to meet the people’s need for school facilities. In Istanbul, for example, the construction of the Bostancı School and Pertevniyal High School were funded through the Pertevniyal Waqf.

The Bezmiâlem Vakıf Gureba Training and Research Hospital—founded through the endowment of Bezmiâlem Valide Sultan, the mother of Sultan Abdulhamid I—has provided free medical services for the poor and needy since it was founded in 1843.

In addition to dormitories, schools, and hospitals, waqfs have also been active in the field of higher education. Bezmiâlem University, founded in 2010 with the aim of becoming a shining beacon of educational and research excellence, was established in order to carry out the educational commitments expressed in the waqf conditions of the Bezmiâlem Valide Sultan, Silahtar Abdullah Agha, and Abdülhamid-i Sani waqfs, represented and administered by the General Directorate of Waqfs. Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University, aiming to raise cultural historians and a skilled workforce with both the necessary expertise in their fields and contemporary global values, was founded in 2010 in order to fulfill the charitable purposes stipulated in the charters of the waqfs of Fatih Sultan Mehmed Han, Sinan Agha bin Abdurrahman, Nurbanu Valide Sultan, Hatice Sultan, and Abdullah oğlu Hacı Abdülaziz Agha.

Table 6- Distribution of religious-community waqfs in Istanbul

In this way, these waqfs, with their history of service in the fields of health and education, have continued to bring their resources to bear on the problems of the present day. These universities, in keeping with the educational focus of the waqfs that support them, offer scholarships to some twenty percent of their students and provide free tuition to orphans, the children of those who have died in defense of their country, and poor families, in addition to such other benefits as free accommodation and food for those in need.

Today, new waqfs founded in accordance with the Turkish Civil Code are also active in the field of education. New waqfs operating in Istanbul have founded thirty-three private universities and six vocational schools.

Services in the Field of Culture

A longstanding tradition of philanthropy is one of the crucial elements of Turkish and Islamic culture, and one perhaps best represented by the institution of the waqf. Thanks to its waqfs, Turkey today is home to historical structures and other valuable works numbering in the millions. In line with their responsibility for preserving these works of historical value, waqfs have been involved in museum operations and the collection of historical artifacts for more than a century. These operations also constitute the beginning of museology in Turkey, and the first steps toward waqf museums took place in Istanbul. Waqf organizations began to gather historical artifacts and create collections in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Table 7- Distribution of properties returned to religious-community waqfs

* Although there were no applications within the scope of the law, the problematic status of sixty-one real estate properties belonging to fifteen religious-community waqfs was solved via title amendments to the deed registrations.

** It was decided that seven religious-community waqfs would be receive monetary compensation for the value of twenty-one real estate properties. The evaluation of applications under transitory Article 11 were ongoing as of 4 April 2014.

The following is a brief list of waqf museums and the years they were founded:

• The Museum of Islamic Waqfs (Evkaf-ı İslamiye Müzesi) in 1914

• The Museum of Turkish Construction and Art Works (Türk İnşaat ve Sanat Eserleri Müzesi) in 1967 in the Amcazade Hüseyin Paşa Madrasa in Istanbul

• The Museum of Calligraphic Works (Yazı Sanatları Müzesi) in 1967 in Sultan Selim Madrasa in Istanbul, moved to the Beyazıd Madrasa in 1984 and renamed the Museum of Turkish Calligraphic Art (Türk Vakıf Hat Sanatları Müzesi)

• The Museum of Carpets (Halı Müzesi) in 1979 in the Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul

• The Museum of Kilims and Flat-Weave Carpets (Kilim ve Düz Dokuma Yaygılar Müzesi) in 1982 in the elephant stables under the Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul

The Museum of Islamic Waqfs (Evkaf-ı İslamiye Müzesi) was assigned to the Ministry of Education in 1925, and today it operates as the Istanbul Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (İstanbul Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi) under the administration of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Numerous examples of manuscript artwork from the Ottoman period, most of which were donated, are housed within the Directorate of Manuscript Works (Türkiye Yazma Eserler Başkanlığı) in the Süleymaniye Mosque Complex, which is also a waqf construction.

WAQFS FOUNDED BY RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES (CEMAAT) IN ISTANBUL

The acceptance of the concept of “legal entity” (hükmi şahsiyet) by the Ottoman Empire took place much later than it did in the West. In the empire, all religious communities and benevolent institutions were brought into being through the edicts of the sultans. They acquired the status of “legal entity” with the right to own real estate by means of the Provisional Law on Legal Entities’ Possession of Real Estate (Eşhâs-ı Hükmiyenin Emval-i Gayrimenkuleye Tasarruflarına Dair Kanun-ı Muvakkat), dated March 1, 1913. As a result of this law, they gained the ability to legally register any properties of a benevolent nature and obtain deeds in their name to those properties. With this regulation, all real estate property that had previously been donated to a benevolent institution, but which had been registered under different a name since these institutions had lacked the status of legal entities, would be recognized as the legal property of the institution so long as it was properly declared.

The issue of minorities was one of the mostly contentious subjects of the negotiations of the Lausanne Peace Treaty. In these negotiations, the issue of minorities was solved by means of a program of population exchanges between Turkey and its neighbors. Nevertheless, the Greek-Orthodox (Rum) community in Istanbul and the Muslim community in western Thrace did not participate in the population exchanges, and thus remained as minorities in their respective countries. The status of minorities in Turkey was determined under Articles 37 and 45 of the Lausanne treaty. According to the definition stated in these articles, the term “minority” was defined on the basis of religion, and minorities remaining in Turkey were listed as non-Muslims. In accordance with these articles, Turkey committed to providing every opportunity to minority institutions, which became the religious-community waqfs of the present day.

Pursuant to the transitory (and later rescinded) Article 1 of Waqf Code 2762, enacted in 1935 but coming into effect six months later, minority groups gained the ability to apply for the status of separate legal entities for their own benevolent institutions. To do so, the trustees had to submit a declaration—known as a “1936 declaration”—within six months. Following the review period, those whose applications were approved acquired the legal status of waqfs. Turkish minorities continue to benefit from the benevolent operations of these religious-community waqfs, with a total of 166 presently operating under the administration of the “person or committees chosen by their members.”

In its final years, the Ottoman Empire engaged in a series of population exchanges that significantly altered the demographic climate of the empire. In this context, Istanbul stands out as one of the rare places where so many people of different religious beliefs continued to live together. The reason behind this was that during the population exchanges, the minorities living in Istanbul were not subject to the otherwise mandatory migration policies. Istanbul, which also received minority immigrants from different parts of Anatolia over the following years, remained a multi-faith center of civilization until the 1950s. Though minority numbers have declined, the institutions where most non-Muslim groups continue to worship, study, and come together with their communities still operate under the status of religious-community waqfs today. As a result of the city’s unique history, out of the total of 166 religious-community waqfs in Turkey today, 127 are in Istanbul.

With Law 4771, enacted in 2002 and dubbed the European Union integration law, as well as the revisions made to this law in 2003, these religious-community waqfs gained the right to own property, to dispose of that property as they chose, and to acquire the rights to any premises under their use. In addition, certain properties that had formerly belonged to them were returned to their possession.

With the transitory Article 7 of Waqf Law 5737 of 2008, properties that were in the possession of religious communities but whose deeds were registered under different names were returned to them. With the transitory Article 11, a later addition, the scope of the law was widened further and certain additional properties were returned in 2012.

CONCLUSION

Over the course of their history, the social, cultural, and economic roles of the waqfs have made themselves felt in every aspect of life. The waqfs themselves have formed the kernel around which much of Turkish culture and civilization is based, and the services they offer have shaped the very understanding of what institutionalized aid is. Since 1048, waqfs and a culture of “waqf-mindedness” in Anatolia have served as a bridge between people who want to help others and those who need others’ help.

In the Ottoman Empire, the primary function of the waqfs was providing for public needs. Though much has since changed, the role of waqfs remains largely the same, and waqfs continue to play an important role in promoting social integration in society today.

In the republican period, the waqfs inherited from the Ottoman Empire were subject to deliberate liquidation and weakened by the transfer of their resources to various fields of state service. A number of legal regulations were enacted to this effect, and several functions of the waqfs or operations they conducted were assigned to state authorities.

It was not an easy thing for a country that had just emerged from a war to find the resources to build new modern structures to meet its various needs. As waqf properties were often located in the city center, and as waqfs were generally well endowed with the financial resources to carry out their benevolent operations, the waqfs were a conspicuous target for the early republic, and one which it took full advantage of. As a result, the waqfs themselves were considerably diminished.

The waqf as a social institution has had a great impact on the emergence and development of the Turkish city. The Ottoman sense of civilization shaped Istanbul, which had served as the capital of the empire for 470 years. The Ottomans imparted to the city their own civilizational approach, spirit, and shape in the form of the numerous monumental waqf structures they built there. That is why, after the transition to the republic, the number of demolition and liquidation operations conducted was highest in Istanbul.

It is cities that make abstract social concepts tangible and give them life. Cities constitute the most important reflections of the religious, cultural, and social developments in their societies. Istanbul is thus the concrete expression both of Turkish and Islamic civilization and of the waqf culture that gave that civilization shape. It is this, along with its historical, cultural, and natural splendor, that makes Istanbul one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

FOOTNOTES

1 Nazif Öztürk, Türk Yenileşme Tarihi Çerçevesinde Vakıf Müessesesi (Ankara: 1995), pp. 379–381.

2 Niyazi Acun, Ormanlarımız ve Cumhuriyet Hükümeti’nin Orman Davası, Ankara: Recep Ulusoğlu Basımevi, 1945, pp. 35-38.

3 Öztürk, Vakıf Müessesesi, p. 421.

4 Öztürk, Vakıf Müessesesi, p. 432.

5 Duran Taraklı, Çiftçiyi Topraklandırma Kanunu ve Uygulama Sonuçları, Ankara ODTÜ Mimarlık Fakültesi, 1976, pp. 107-109.

6 Öztürk, Türk Yenileşme Tarihi Çerçevesinde Vakıf Müessesesi, Ankara: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, 1995, p. 485.

7 Ahmet Mumcu, “Eski Eserler Hukuku ve Türkiye”, Ankara Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi, 1971, vol. 28, no. 1-4, p. 60.

8 Burak Çetintaş, “İstanbul: Şehri Yıkarak Tarihe Geçenler”, NTV Tarih, 2012, no. 47, p. 63.

9 Çetintaş, “İstanbul: Şehri Yıkarak Tarihe Geçenler”, p. 64.

10 Gürhan Tümer, “Yahya Kemal – Mimarlık İlişkileri Üzerine Notlar”, 15.03.2013, http://www.yapidergisi.com/makaleicerik.aspx?MakaleNum=28