¹ I should like to thank Professor A. Layish, who devotedly instructed me through the several stages of the research for this paper, and Professor Z. Falk, Professor H. Lazarus-Yafeh and Dr. M. Hoexter for their help.

² Concerning the Jewish pious endowment see Elon, M., ‘Hekdesh’, Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 8 (Jerusalem, 1971), 279–87Google Scholar; concerning the Christian pious endowment see G. Baer, ‘The Muslim waqf and similar institutions in other civilizations’, a paper submitted to the International Seminar on Social and Economic Aspects of the Muslim Waqf, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 24–28 June 1979 (hereafter Baer, the Muslim waqf); Jones, W. R., ‘Pious endowments in medieval Christianity and Islam’, Diogenes, 109, 1980, 23–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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¹⁰ Stendel, O., Naẕeret be-‘avar uva-Hove (Jerusalem, 1966), 11Google Scholar; Manṣūr, 85, 177–80Google Scholar; Kark, , Jaffa, 26.Google Scholar

¹¹ Manṣūr (p. 198) notes that the Protestant community in Nazareth was economically active, and that its waqf the most prosperous in the town. Yet we must consider his remark with some scepticism, since he himself was a Protestant clergyman.

¹² Kark, , Jaffa, 70–2, 239 ff.Google Scholar

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¹⁸ Shilo, Sh., ‘Succession’ in Elon, M., The principles of Jewish law (Jerusalem, 1975), 445–53.Google Scholar ‘Amiel waqf seems to improve the status of females as compared to their status according to the Jewish inheritance law. The same motivation was traced in Istanbul. See Gerber, , Jews and the waqf, 127.Google Scholar

¹⁹ For further discussion of this point see below, pp. [16–17].

²⁰ Manṣūr, , 102, 198, 214, 260–1.Google Scholar

²¹ See above, pp. 463

²² Dār al-Yahūd was the name of the courtyard (including buildings) which had been endowed as a waqf in 1820 by Y. Ajiman, the banker of the head of the Yenicheries in Istanbul, in favour of the Sefaradi Kolel in Jerusalem, for hospitality to Jewish immigrants arriving in Palestine. See Kark, , Jaffa, 56, 181Google Scholar; Yizhaqi, A., ‘Atarim be-Yafo’, Qardom, 15, 1981, 82.Google Scholar It is difficult to affirm with certainty the exact legal status of Dār al-Yahūd. The author has not traced the waqfiyya itself, if it exists at all.

²³ See also Young, G., Corps de droit ottoman, Vol. 6 (Oxford, 1905), 18.Google Scholar

²⁴ Manṣūr, , 196–8.Google Scholar

²⁵ Baer, , The Muslim waqf.Google Scholar

²⁶ Gil, M., Documents of the Jewish pious foundations from the Cairo Geniza (Leiden, 1976), 37.Google Scholar

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²⁸ Sijill, Vol. 60, p. 97; Vol. 71, pp. 4, 96.

²⁹ Sijill, Vol. 29, pp. 46–8, 76–82; Vol. 33, pp. 6–11; Vol. 43, p. 232. Concerning the tamlīk sulṭānī it is worth noting that during the Ottoman period people used to endow miri lands without asking the competent authority's consent, and even without notifying it. If afterwards the question of the waqf's legality arose, the founders resorted to the religious court, which dealt with the matter without regard for the secular laws. See Layish, A., ‘The Muslim waqf in Israel’, Asian and African Studies, 2, 1966, 46Google Scholar (hereafter Layish, ‘The Muslim waqf’); idem, ‘The Druze testamentary waqf’, Studio Islamica, 71, 1990, 139.Google Scholar

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³³ Goadby, F. M., International and inter-Religious private law in Palestine (Tel Aviv, 1935), 128Google Scholar; Layish, , The Muslim waqf, 47Google Scholar; Gerber, , Jews of the Ottoman Empire, 32–3Google Scholar; Vitta, , 145, 176Google Scholar

³⁴ According to Professor Falk (interview, 28.8.1985) the British Mandatory legislation testifies to the legal situation prevailing during the Ottoman period. Art. 2 of the ‘Civil and Religious Courts (Jurisdiction) Ordinance, 1925’ enabled the transformation of awqāf, constituted by non-Muslims before the sharī‘a courts prior to the promulgation of the ‘Palestine Order in Council, 1922’ into charitable trusts (under the provisions of the ‘Charitable Trusts Ordinance, 1924’), that is to say, into civil charitable endowment institutions, constituted before a civil court. This ordinance was aimed to correct the injustice, which existed during the Ottoman period, when non-Muslims were forced to establish awqāf before the sharī‘a courts. Concerning this legislation see Drayton, R. H., The laws of Palestine, Vol. 1 (London, 1934), ch. 14, pp. 112–27 and ch. 18, pp. 141–2.Google Scholar Art. 3 of the above-mentioned ‘Civil and Religious…Ordinance’ left to the shaī‘a courts parallel jurisdiction (when the two parties agreed to submit the question at issue to these courts) in matters concerning the constitution or validity of awqāf, constituted by non-Muslims before those courts prior to the ‘Palestine Order in Council’, and not transformed into charitable trusts according to the above-mentioned ordinance of 1924. This amendment too testifies to the legal situation prevailing during the Ottoman period.

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⁴⁰ Sijill, Vol. no. not identified (1280 A.H./A.D. 1864), 32–3. All these acts are prohibited in Islam. Some of them, like adultery (zinā) and wine drinking (sharb khamr), are included among ḥudud allah. Others, like usury (ribā) taking illegal taxes (mukūs) and gambling (maysir), are considered as ethical prohibitions.

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⁴⁵ loc. cit.; Doukhan, , 180Google Scholar; Granovsky, A., Shiṭṭat ha-Missim be-Ereẕ Yisrael (Jerusalem, 1933), 126Google Scholar (hereafter Granovsky, Tax system).

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⁵⁵ loc. cit.; there is enough evidence even from the British Mandatory period to this effect. See Tiberias's, sijill, wathā'iq, Vol. 3 (1920–1922), case no. 56, p. 44 and case no. 17, p. 141.Google Scholar Even Jews applied to the sharī'a court, asking for inheritance decrees. See ibid., case 43, p. 80; case 61, p.93; case 80, p. 108.

⁵⁶ Jews did not have the option to avail themselves of the will in order to circumvent the inheritance law, because the Jewish law recognizes only a will of a person who is ‘ill and confined to bed’ (mattenat shekhiv me-ra‘). A will in the common use of the term is in Judaism a gift of the healthy (mattenat bari), and therefore it is practically a regular gift (during the giver's lifetime), and not a will (after his death). See Shilo, Sh., ‘Wills’, in M., Elon (ed.), The principles of Jewish law (Jerusalem, 1975), 453–64Google Scholar; as for the Christians, they availed themselves of the will to a certain extent, as in the case of the Maronite community in Lebanon. This community was obliged to apply the Muslim inheritance law for about ninety years. As a result those Maronites used to circumvent this restriction by applying the Christian religious will, which accords total freedom to will up to two-thirds of the estate. See Aouad, I., Le droil privé de Maronites au temps des Emirs Chihab (1697–1841) (Paris, 1933), 197, 200, 244.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Gerber, , Jews and the waqf, 112–15Google Scholar; Ashtor, , 232Google Scholar; Barnai, , Jews of Palestine, 273–4.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Baer, , The Muslim Waqf, 21, 29, 31.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ cf. Goitein, S. D., A Mediterranean society, Vol. 3 (Berkeley, 1978) 142.Google Scholar