Ottoman slave Vakifs : legal doctrine and practice

Abstract EN

This paper aims to examine the definition of the term slave (more specifically kul) as vakıf founder and the relationship between the term kul in legal doctrine as established in the Hanafī juridical texts and the legal practice of the Ottoman Empire as exemplified by the foundation of a vakıf by the Chief Eunuch of the imperial harem, Osman Ağa.

According to Islamic legal doctrine, the conditions (shurūṭ) for the founder of a vakıf were three: that the individual be of sound mind (‘āqil), adult (bāligh) and free (ḥurr).

The latter condition was based on the legal restriction forbidding slaves from possessing property according to the legal norm that he who is owned cannot own.

Consequently, all that a slave possessed was also considered the property of their master.

Nevertheless, the juridical language of fiqh did not always conform to juridical reality as demonstrated in the Ottoman legal practice permitting the foundation of vakıfs by men and women who had the status of slaves of the sultan (kul) as documented in numerous instances in which kapıkulları (slaves of the Porte) and eunuchs (hadım ağaları) established vakıfs.

The term kul was used to refer to a member of the slave class who was of the sultan’s household.

While some were employed for domestic service in the imperial household, others who received their training and education in the palace could obtain positions of influence in the military and bureaucracy.

By means of their status as kuller, they obtained privileges that were denied to ordinary slaves according to Islamic doctrine by accumulating property, founding vakıfs and even owning slaves.

It was through the obtainment of imperial permission that the stipulation of freedom for a vakıf founder could be waived and is a demonstration of how sultanic authority took precedence over the authority established in legal texts.

An example of how the status of kul was not defined as a legal impediment to the foundation of vakıfs was the case of Ottoman vakıfs established by eunuchs of the imperial palace during the reign of Sultan Mehmed III (r.

1003/1596-1011/1603), son of Sultan Murad II and Safiye Sultan.

A particularly interesting example of the latter was the foundation of a vakıf in Cairo by Osman Ağa who was the Chief Eunuch of the imperial harem at Topkapı Palace (Dârüssaâde Ağası) in 1007/1598 in the form of a mosque with a graveyard which was completed in 1019/1610.

Regardless of Osman Ağa’s status as a slave of the sultan’s household (kul), the fact that he was commissioned to found the vakıf is supported by the vakıf deed dated 1010/1601 which stated that upon orders of the sultan, he was given full disposition of the estates and court protocol likewise attested that he had founded the vakıf by imperial permission.

It should however, be noted that following Osman Ağa’s death, his vakıf was invalidated by Safiye Sultan who transferred all his properties, including that of the vakıf, to her possession.

She justified her decision on the ground that she, as Osman Ağa’s owner, had not manumitted him nor had he received permission to found the vakıf.

Thus, the tension between the textual and historical definitions ofkul as vakıf founder is clearly exemplified