Women in the Ottoman Balkans: Gender, Culture and History
Page 23
e.g. Jennings 1975; Tucker 1998; Peirce 2003.
10. Opširni popis, 499–500.
11. In
Ottoman: mahalle-i mescid-i zevce-i Gazi Hüsrev Beg. ( Opširni popis, I/2:
5, No. 16.)
12. Gazi
Husrev Beg was the governor of the Bosnian Sancak—with short
interruptions—from 1521 until his death in 1541. He founded a large
endowment within which he commissioned several buildings. For centuries,
those buildings served sacred, cultural-educational, social, and economic
functions. Still today the name of this great benefactor is mentioned on a daily
basis in the names of his endowment buildings. In Sarajevo, the Gazi Husrev
Beg Library still stands, with a rich collection of manuscript materials from
the Ottoman period. That library will often be referred to in this paper. It
was founded next to the Gazi Husrev Beg medrese, whose building has been
preserved to the present day. Next to it is the Gazi Husrev Beg mosque, and by
the mosque is an imaret (public charitable kitchen) and a bezistan (a shopping
centre); a short distance away is the Gazi Husrev Beg hamam (public bath).
Some of these buildings still serve their original functions, while others are
used for different purposes. The medrese building is used as an exhibition
hall, and today the hamam building constitutes part of the Bosnian Institute
complex. The vakuf founded by Gazi Husrev Beg is registered in the 1604
Defter. ( Opširni popis, 492–95.)
13. Gadžo-Kasumović
2003: 41–83. This paper gives a description of a total of 87
sicil s, which is the number in the possession of the Gazi Husrev Beg Library
in Sarajevo, with short descriptions of their contents. As the author notes, the
majority of these sicil s record cases referring to Sarajevo.
14. Spaho 1985: 47–60.
15. The
Arabic text is from Sicil No. 1 at the Gazi Husrev Beg Library in Sarajevo.
The page and line numbers are given in parantheses; here, page 38, line 17.
Other parts of the text of this vakufnama are similarly identified. Note that all
the pages in this sicil are numbered.
16. The
dating of the vakufnama copied in Sicil No. 1 is aided by the fact that
these court records refer to the years 1551–52, which corresponds to 959
in the Muslim calendar. (See Gadžo-Kasumović 2003: 46.) This provides a
terminus ante quem for the vakufnama.
17. Interestingly
, the key piece of information that helped Spaho establish the
identity of the benefactress of the nameless vakufnama was contained in the
1604 Defter. At the time Spaho was translating the vakufnama, a photocopy
of the Defter was present in the archives of the Institute for Oriental Studies
under number fo 203/8, copied from the original at the Tapu ve Kadastro,
Ankara, TD No. 477. (Spaho 1985: 75). The translation of the 1604 Defter
into Bosnian was based upon that photocopy.
Filan, Women Founders oF Pious endoWments
121
18. Mujezinović 1974: 291.
19. Čar
-Drnda 2004: 275.
20. One
of the sources is Ljetopis [Chronicle], written by Mula Mustafa Bašeskija
in the second half of the eighteenth century. Dudi Bula’s mosque is mentioned
there on page 96a, entry No. 7. (Our reading.) Another source is Court Record
No. 40. These records refer to the years 1800–1801, and a record of Dudi
Bula’s mosque is on page 143 therein. (Mujezinović 1974: 291.)
21. Ibid., 291.
22. The
mescid was torn down in 1879. (Ibid., 333.) Unfortunately, we have not
come across any data on the school built by Shahdidar.
23. In 1927, it was transformed into a housing unit. (Ibid., 291.)
24. Kemura 1910: 357.
25. W
e have reliable information that in 1814, a benefactor from the quarter
around this mescid endowed assets for the purpose of repairing it. (Ibid., 357–
58.) Kemura provides the information that the vakufnama testifying to this
endowment is recorded on page 170 in Sicil No. 55. This sicil is preserved in
the Gazi Husrev Beg Library archive material collection.
26. Mujezinović 1974: 291.
27. W
ith each endowment, the Defter records the name of its benefactor, the amount
of funds the founder endowed, the purpose of the funds, and an itemized list of
expenses as stipulated by the founder. If the benefactor founded a vakuf with
the intention of joining it to another—larger— vakuf, that was recorded in the
Defter as an addition to the larger vakuf. For smaller vakuf s too, the name of
the benefactor, the amount of the funds bequeathed, and their purpose were
recorded. According to the Defter, all the vakuf s to which smaller ones were
joined contained a mescid, and many of them a school as well.
28. Opširni popis, 500–501.
29. W
e do not know with certainty when Havadže Kemal’s mescid was built. It is
first mentioned in a source dating from 1515. This source describes it as one
of the most beautiful buildings of the kind in Sarajevo. (Mujezinović 1974:
183.)
30. Opširni popis, 501.
31. It
is worth noting that all three benefactors are mentioned in an even older
defter, this one referring to the year 1565. (Čar-Drnda 2004: 273.)
32. See
Opširni popis, 496.
33. A
mescid—and later a mosque—named after Havadže Kemal existed in
Sarajevo until the twentieth century. Some information about this benefactor’s
endowment is in Kemura 1910: 337–51. Kemura presents facsimiles and
a translation into Bosnian of several documents referring to it. One of the
documents is the sultan’s berat (decree), written in Istanbul in 1772, concerning
the reconstruction of Havadže Kemal’s mescid after a fire. Another document
is a financial report from 1794 on the management of the affairs of Havadže
Kemal’s endowment submitted by its administrator [ mütevelli/ mutawalli].
Finally, Kemura gives a number of vakufnama s from later centuries—the
122
Women in the ottoman Balkans
eighteenth and the nineteenth—about endowments that were joined to this
one. Kemura’s book also contains a newspaper article pointing to the need
“to restore Kemaludin’s mosque [i.e. Havadže Kemal’s mescid—K.F.] as one
of the oldest in Sarajevo.” The article, which was published on 21 September
1933 in Jugoslavenski list was cut out and pasted onto a white sheet following
page 351 in Kemura’s book. Havadže Kemal’s mosque was torn down in July
1940. (See Mujezinović 1974: 185.)
34. Opširni popis, 490.
35. Havadže
Durak founded a vakuf to build a mescid in Sarajevo. Sources testify
that the mescid was built prior to 1528. (Mujezinović 1974: 277.) Havadže
Durak’s mosque still stands in the centre of old Sarajevo.
36. Opširni popis, 490; also Mujezinović 1974: 277.
37. Opširni popis, 490. The literature provides various details as to when Keke
Sinan’s mescid was built. The more reliable information appears to be that “a
man known by
the nickname of Keke Sinan” founded an endowment and had
a mescid built in Sarajevo in 1515. (See Mujezinović 1974: 204.)
38. A
benefactress named Fatma is mentioned in a document—a promissory
note—as follows: “The debtor Halil, son of Mehmed from the Keke Sinan
quarter, borrowed from Fatma’s fund 3,600 akçe in 1565, for a period of one
year. The guarantor for the loan is Abdija, son of Mehmed from the Keke Sinan
quarter. This loan was arranged through Hodža Sinan, imam.” (Kemura 1910:
138.) As this document quotes the year 1565, the Keke Sinan quarter, and
the benefactress Fatma, it probably refers to the aforementioned endowment
recorded in the 1604 Defter.
39. Opširni popis, 487. Hajji Eynehan’s vakuf comprised a mescid that was built
prior to 1528 and was located in the Vratnik quarter of Sarajevo. (Čar-Drnda
2004: 267–94.)
40. Gazić 1985: 131–33.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid., 133.
43. Opširni popis, 496.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid., 487–88.
46. Ibid., 499.
47. Ibid., 484.
48. Kemura
1910: 118. Yakub Pasha excelled as an army leader, and is therefore
mentioned as an important personality in the Ottoman Empire. He was
Bosnian-born, and served for a time as grand vezir. (See Mujezinović 1974:
89.)
49. Opširni popis, 484. Despite the cruel fate that struck Yakub Pasha’s mescid
back in the sixteenth century, the building survived until the twentieth; it was
torn down in 1936. (Mujezinović 1974: 89.)
50. Opširni popis, 483.
51. Ibid.
Filan, Women Founders oF Pious endoWments
123
52. Ibid., 498.
53. Ibid.
54. Kemura 1910: 264–65; Mujezinović 1974: 331.
55. Ibid., 497.
56. Mujezinović 1974: 331.
57. Ibid., 332.
58. Gazić 1985: 130.
59. Ibid., 133.
60. Ibid.
61. The
vakufnama containing information on Šemse Kaduna’s endowment
mentions that she was the sister of Mehmed Pasha, grand vezir to three great
rulers—Sultans Süleyman I, Selim II, and Murad III. (Trako 1985: 211.)
62. This
long vakufnama was translated from Ottoman Turkish into Bosnian by
Salih Trako (Trako 1985: 193–215.)
63. Sanjakbeg
Sinan Beg was one of the greatest benefactors in Bosnia. He
established a large endowment comprising several mescid s, schools, and
charitable facilities throughout the land.
64. Sicil No.1, f. 40, line 20.
65. The
date of construction of this mescid has not been reliably established, but it
is assumed it was after 1540 and prior to 1556. (Mujezinović 1974: 333.)
66. Spaho 1985: 80.
67. Ibid., n. 23.
68. Ibid., 78.
69. Ibid., 50.
70. Fajić
1978: 245–302. The vakufnama s were preserved by being copied
between 1884 and 1945 in three separate books, kept today in the Gazi Husrev
Beg Library under the common name Sidžil Vakufnama.
71. As
might be expected, the largest number of vakufnama s copied here belong
to recent times, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Only 3 vakufnama s
from the fifteenth century have been preserved, 26 from each of the sixteenth
and seventeenth, and 87 from the eighteenth.
72. Nametak
1996: 363–66. This vakufnama was translated into Bosnian according
to the transcript found in the Sidžil Vakufnama, Book 1, page 233, as recorded
in Fajić 1978: 265.
73. The
vakufnama of Fatima Ašida, daughter of Vejsel Aga, was copied in
Book 1 of Sidžil Vakufnama, page 386. (Fajić 1978: 279.) Fajić notes that the
vakufnama’s original copy was also preserved, but he does not say where.
Through a combination of circumstances, I saw the original when a family
asked that the document be translated into Bosnian. In this paper, I therefore
quote the text from the original manuscript of the vakufnama, presenting it to
the scholarly public for the first time.
74. Gazić 1985: 131.
75. Opširni popis, 498.
76. Ibid., 484.
124
Women in the ottoman Balkans
77. Ibid., 496.
78. The
document on Seyda’s vakuf was copied in Sicil No. 2 in the Gazi Husrev
Beg Library, and published in facsimile and Bosnian translation in Kemura
1910: 220.
79. Opširni popis, 501.
80. Elsewhere
in the Defter it is written that Sheykh Yunus Efendi was the chief
official at the Havadže Kemal mescid ( Opširni popis, 500), to which Hanifa
joined her vakuf. Here we must mention that the benefactress did not stipulate
a salary for the position of imam, but rather for a particular man who did indeed
perform that duty. The fact that she put a condition that the salary and duties be
transferred to that man’s children, without mentioning their possible service,
shows that her stipulation was intended to benefit a particular person.
81. Vakufnama of Fatime Ašide, lines 29–31. (Our reading from the original
manuscript.)
82. Balagija 1933: 12.
83. Kemura 1910: 199.
84. Gazić 1985: 132, 133.
85. T
rako 1985: 208.
86. Ibid., 200.
87. Nametak 1996: 364.
88. Opširni popis, 490.
89. Mujić 1985: 141–43.
90. Opširni popis, 497.
91. Vakufnama of Fatime Ašide, line 38. (Our reading from the original
manuscript.)
92. Opširni popis, 498.
93. Sicil No. 1, f. 40, line 20.
94. Ibid., lines 18–21.
95. Kemura
1910: 263–64. As the author notes, this is the text of a document
entered into Sicil No. 2.
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