India was one of the first regions of the Muslim world conquered by a European power. Muslims living in the subcontinent had to adjust not only to a new order of economic and social dominance, but also to the sometimes troubling judgments their colonial masters made about them, their faith and its institutions. This is a study of how that process worked with regard to one old and fundamental Muslim institution known as a “waqf”

Waqf and its plural form, awqāf, are derived from the Arabic root verb, waqafa, which has the basic meaning of “to stop” or “to hold”. When the word is employed in a legal sense with regard to a piece of land or a building, it signifies that henceforth that “property” is “stopped”.In theory, it can never again change hands by inheritance, sale or seizure. An individual creating a waqf, known in Arabic as the “waqif”, divests him or her self of the formal rights of possession, but retains the power to appoint a custodian: “mutawallī” (literally “one who is trusted”), who manages the property dedicated. Founders of awqaf also have the power to distribute the income which that property generates for any purpose they wish, provided that the purpose is meritorious by “Islamic” standards.

Awqaf are “endowments” in the general sense that they are gifts made to individuals as well as institutions. Throughout the history of the Islamic world, such settlements provided for many of the spiritual and temporal wants of Muslims.