Ottoman foreign policy towards Jerusalem Waqfs during the nineteenth century

Abstract EN

This study investigates the importance of Jerusalem waqfs (endowments) in the Ottoman State's international relations and how endowments became the basis of competition between superpowers.

It also examines the efforts that these superpowers invested in controlling those endowments while taking advantage of their relations with the Ottoman Empire.

The analysis of various archives of different resources and languages was essential to this process.

Furthermore, this study attempts to answer the following questions: What is the relationship between the Ottoman foreign policy and Jerusalem “waqfs? What was the rule of those waqfs in the Ottoman foreign policy with the European states in the nineteenth century? How did this policy affect the Jerusalem waqfs, their historical symbols and sanctity? The study suggested that Ottoman foreign policy had an impact on the Jerusalem waqfs and contributed to the transfer of ownership of important waqfs to foreign ownership, which was parallel to Western interests in Jerusalem.

The policy did not only change Jerusalem's historical features but also its religious identity as well.