Amy Singer teaches in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University. She is the author of Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials: Rural Administration Around Sixteenth-Century Jerusalem.

List of Maps and Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Note on Ottoman Turkish and Arabic Transliterations

Introduction

1. "Devote the fruits to pious purposes"

What is a waqf?
The roots of waqf
Why found a waqf?
The Ottomans

2. A Bowl of Soup and a Loaf of Bread

The written record
Institutions of the endowment
Endowed properties
Personnel
Soup
Why Jerusalem?

3. Ladies Bountiful

The conflated traditions: Hurrem-Helena
Beneficence and women in Islamic history

Early examples
The Byzantine factor
Turco-Mongol heritage
The Ottomans

The Gender of Beneficence

4. Serving Soup in Jerusalem

A report from the 'imaret
On management
Getting started
Tax arrears and firewood
Food for all
Building a bath
Dealing in grain
Adding to the endowment

5. Feeding Power

Provisioning

Istanbul and Topkapi Palace
Provincial towns
The army on campaign
Janissaries
Hajj caravans

On the word 'imaret
Pre-Ottoman precedents
An Ottoman institution

Conclusion: Practicing Beneficence

Notes
Bibliography
Index