A Waqf (Foundation) Document Dated 1025/1616 by the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I Related to Haramayn

Abstract

This article examines a waqf (foundation) document dated 1025/1616 by the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I (1603-1617), which establishes services towards Hajj roads and Haramayn (i.e., sacred mosques in Meccah and Medinah). It is noteworthy that there have been no previous publications about this document, the original of which is in the Archive of the Topkapı Palace Museum. Ahmed I allocated his income from Egypt, including from places such as Sharqiyyah, Mansure and Garbiyyah, to be spent for the comfort and safety of the people of Haramayn and pilgrims who wanted to perform Hajj (pilgrimage). For this purpose, a request was made to clean the waterways, water supplies and channels. The waqf document asks for the dry food (dasheeshah) transferred from Egypt to be cooked in the soup kitchens (imaratkhanas) established in Mecca. The prepared food was distributed to the people in Haremayn and pilgrims through these soup kitchens. The waqf established medical centers (Dar-u-Shifa) to provide health services to the pilgrims. It made arrangement to repair two walls of Kaaba, which were about to collapse, by installing silver-plated copper belts (called Nitak in the waqf document) built in Istanbul. To eliminate the danger posed by the Zamzam well after heavy rains and floods, a bracelet was built again in Istanbul and mounted in the mouth of the well. All these construction efforts were led by the Chief Architect Hasan Efendi, one of the personal architects of the Sultan (Hassa). The management of this waqf was entrusted to the Governor of Egypt Ahmet Pasha.