The Wealth and Influence of an Exiled Ottoman Eunuch in Egypt: The Waqf Inventory ofʿAbbās AghaAuthor(s): Jane HathawaySource: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 37, No. 4 (1994), pp.293-317Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632654 .

Accessed: 26/09/2014 15:56

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

BRILL is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Economic andSocial History of the Orient.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

JESHO, Vol. XXXVII, ? E.J. Brill, Leiden

THE WEALTH AND INFLUENCE OF AN EXILED OTTOMAN EUNUCH IN EGYPT: THE WAQF INVENTORY

OF CABBAS AGHA*

BY

JANE HATHAWAY (Department of History, Ohio State University)

The Chief Black Eunuch of the Ottoman imperial harem (Kizlar Agasi or Dariissaade A'asi) was by the late 17th century one of the most powerful figures in the Ottoman Empire. As sultans came to spend the years preceding their enthronements sequestered in the harem instead of being sent out to govern provinces, the authority of the harem women, in par- ticular the sultan's mother (Valide Sultan), increased markedly. Correspon- dingly, the Valide Sultan's harem coterie, in particular the black harem

eunuchs, attained unprecedented degrees of influence. By the mid-1600s, the Chief Black Eunuch rivalled the grand vezir for authority. Meanwhile, he controlled revenues and clients all over the Empire.

Egypt was without a doubt the province in which the Kizlar Agasi held the greatest sway. As supervisor (ndzir or mutawalli)1) of the complex of

imperial waqfs established to service the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina (Awqaf al-IHaramayn), the Kizlar Agasi was ultimately responsible for the revenues of the many Egyptian villages and enterprises endowed to the

Awqdf. On being removed from office, furthermore, he was typically exiled to Egypt, 2) where he typically lived out what remained of his life. Thus, his interest in the province was a curious mix of imperial and personal.

A document from the Topkapi Palace archives3) exemplifies the duality

* I wish to thank Professors Cemal Kafadar and Halil Inalcik for their help in deciphering some particularly thorny spots m the document on which this study is based. Responsibility for any errors, however, is entirely mine. I wish also to thank Professors Michael Cook and Carter Findley for their helpful comments.

1) Despite Stanford Shaw's rigorous terminological breakdown, the titles seem to have been fairly fluid. See Shaw, The Financial and Admmnistrative Organtzation and Development of Ottoman Egypt, 1517-1798 (Princeton, 1962), pp. 41-45.

2) This practice had begun in 1644, with the exile of Siinbiil Agha (1640-1644). 3) Topkapi D 7657 (undated). The document cannot be earlier than 1694 since CAbbas

Agha endowed his wakdla in Gamaliyya during that year; see Andr6 Raymond, Artisans et commerfants au Catre au XVIIIe sikcle (Damascus, 1973-1974), I: 332. He was dead by the end of 1697, however, when an imperial order was issued condemning the governor Ism~Cil Pasha's (1695-1697) attempts to sell off CAbbas' waqf properties: Istanbul, Prime Ministry Archives, Miihimme Defteri 11.0, No. 947 (Evill CemaziyiiPahir 1109/December 1697).

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

294 JANE HATHAWAY

of the Kizlar Agasl's relationship to Egypt. It is the inventory of waqf pro- perties endowed in Egypt by CAbbds Agha, who was Kizlar Agasi from 1667 until his deposition in 1671, when, naturally, he was exiled to Egypt. Many of these properties were clearly endowed with the aim of producing revenues for the Holy Cities; most, in fact, were undoubtedly endowed while CAbbis still held the office of Kizlar Agasi. Others, however, seem far more per- sonal in character and, indeed, of little use to the Holy Cities: for instance, cAbbis Agha's 40-akge stipend and allotment of grain, 4) his books, and his house. A Kizlar Agasi's purpose in endowing his personal assets in this manner was no doubt to avoid having them confiscated by the state on his death. Such an endowment, moreover, enabled the Kizlar Agasi in effect to bequeath his properties as inheritances. In the absence of offspring, a eunuch typically named his agent(s) (wakfl) beneficiary. But the vehicle of the waqf also gave the agha far more control over the eventual disposition of his property than the conventional will did. A case from the Cairo

qadiF court registers reveals that cAbbds left his personal residence at Birkat al-Fil to his wakfl, Ahmed Agha the katkhudd of the (avugan corps, 5) and allowed Ahmed Agha to hand the property down to his own descendants. Once Ahmed's line died out, however, the house was to revert to "whoever is

n.z@r of the Awqdf al-Haramayn". 6)

Yet CAbbis Agha's waqf inventory yields far more than just an example of the personal exploitation of an imperial institution. The list of properties, along with the intriguing book list, offers a clue to the range of cAbbds' interests in Egypt and to his personal affinities, as well. It can, furthermore, shed light on the manner in which an exiled Kizlar Aigasi represented the Ottoman court in the largest of the Ottoman provinces. The Kizlar Agasi

(The months of all Ottoman documents will be rendered according to the usage of the Redhouse New Turkush-English Dzctwnary [Istanbul, 1968].) The order may, in fact, be con- nected to this waqf inventory In that case, the inventory could date from the mid- to late 1690s.

4) These may have comprised his remittance from the Kepide corps, through which exiled Klzlar Agalari and other former Ottoman officials received pensions after retiring to Egypt. If so, the stipend would have been paid monthly although the amount given here is almost certainly a daily allowance. On the Keqlde, see Shaw, Financial and Admmnistrattve, pp. 202, 216, 396-397

5) The Ottoman soldiery in Egypt consisted of seven corps (ocaks): the Janissanes (Mustahfizan), CAzeban, Miiteferrika, Qavugan, G6nfilliiyan, Tiifenkciyan, and Qerakise. The rank of katkhudA was second only to that of agha. The katkhudd of the Qavugan was closely linked to the governor's council, or divan.

6) Topkapi E 7900, dated 24 Ramazan 1076 (March 1666), with the waqfahliof the house to begin in Zilkade 1080/May 1670. Obviously this was an arrangement that cAbbis had made while still in office.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 295

was, after all, the sole imperial figure for whom an extended stay in Egypt was customary, if not inevitable.

THE DOCUMENT

Merhfim CAbbds Ai'nin Mislr-i Kdhire ve nev.hisinde

olan evklfidir.

> Misir-1 KIhire'de .Haleb

zo.ki.mda batt-1 IKuifin'da mekan kebir > ve yine Mixir'da Saliblye-i Tiuliniye'de Maglabey yolunda Cemdmiz

karqusunda menzil ve bagge

Mushaf-1 ierif: 1

Eczi-i : erife: 60

Tafsir Abi al-Layth: 2 cild Tiirki Tacbzr- ,seriff:

1

Khuldsat al-wifdqi [sic]: 1

Kdi•bdn: 1 Sadr al-Shar-ca: 1

Hdshzyat Ahmad Qelebt: 1 Durar wa ghurar: 1 Metn-i Hiddya: 1 Sharh al-munya: 1 J dmi: 1 Sharh mashdrnq Muqaddimat [al]-Ghaznawi: 1

Sharh rajiyya ft al-fard'id [sic]: 1 RasPil Nibh Efendi: 1 Ta'rikh Ibn Kathir: 2 cild Kimlya-z sa Cdde Sharh mujaz f! al-tibb

Abladk-z CAl4)3r: 1

Rawdat al-akhbdr: 1 Mecmzica-z mevdciz

Qzrd'at al-awrid: 1

Tabaqdt al-awliyd [sic]: 1 Sharh man4tzq al-harr [sic]: 1 Tevdr7b-i Al-z COsmin Dhakhfrat ft al-tibb defca yigirmi d6rt Caded klcta kiitiib

> Divan-i CAli'den miiretteb klrk COsmini >ve bey evzen [sic] bugday, Divin-i CAli)den miiretteb

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

296 JANE HATHAWAY

> n.hiye-i

Minye'de on Caded feddin >ve otuz Caded fedd~n n1.iye-i Cize'de (?) > sekiz tlbbpI ifiin d6rt Caded niihais karye-i Zifte'de meviiica > ve iiu piring marifac ve fir; biiyiik kazgin > ve on dane kebir niilhas riisvet (?) >baric-i Hiiseynlye'de batt-1 Uandak'da kadimden Emir Ijamza Bey dimekle maCrfif ariinda

vd.iC baggeve alti Caded slkiye

> Seyb Demirda~ makaml kurbmda yigirmi sekiz feddin > nahiye-i Ijarab Fezire-i IKeylfiblye'de [sic] feddan yigirmi tolkuz rizka > Minyet CaCfer

nh.iyesinde on iki feddin rizka

> baric-i Bab-i Futfih'da Kedddsin ve vek~let-i bagklet .kurbmda

mekan, bind', ve ari-1 valif > yine malhall-1 mezbiirda bir dekirman > ve bir zaviye > ve menzil-i birader'e mutassil bir menzil >Birket-i Fil'e nazir Tibb Zokdk dhilinde batt-1 IKfiiSin'da

v4u.f-i merlhiimun kendi menzili > n•hiye-i Zifte'de:

> kaysariye ve bundan mukarrabi mahall ve anda on bir diikkkn > ve bir vekilet ve bir kahvebhne ve bir kahve d6 ecek malhall > ve buna muta~sil d6rt

diikka-n ve iki kdca, birinin iizerinde bir mekteb > Garblye'de $iibre Besyiin'de d6rt Caded keten islatacak maliall ve iki

sa•iye >ve IKeylhibye'de [sic] araix-1

nd.iye-i Bahide elli sekiz feddin ve on iki

kirit tin-i savad > ve arail-1 Minye-i CAsim'de IKeyliblye'de [sic] ikiyiiz on iki feddan ve alti kirat tin-i savad >Derb-i HIzin baslnda Saliblye-Tfilfinlye'de vdkic menzil > Zoki~k-i Haleb'de Kisiin

.kurbinda menzil

> Mlslr'da Bul.k'da

vikiC vekilet kebir >Mlslr'da Cem5iye kurbinda Seyh CAll Tiiri mekam mukabilinde ii ratabe ve boy~bine ve diikkan iizerinde ota, ve bunlara

mutag•il baribe mahall ve yine on diikkan >Riikn-i Muballak b~ignda vekilet kurbmnda batt-1 Cemaliye'de

v4.iC mekan kebir

TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY

[In order to make my presentation of the translation more compatible with the discussion that follows it, I have separated the book list from the list of

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 297

properties. In the original document, two items of property precede the book list.]

The late CAbbas Agha's wagf properties in Cairo and its districts:

THE BOOK LIST

1) Mushaf-1 erif (1 copy)-the redaction of the Qurdan approved by the caliph cUthman (644-656 C.E.)7) 2) Ecza'-i serife (60)-portions of the Qur'an 3) Tafsir Abi al-Layth (2 volumes)-exegetical work of the Hanafijurispru- dent Nasir b. Muhammad Abfi al-Layth al-Samarqandi (d. 993). It was translated into Turkish by the Hanafi jurisprudent al-Shihab Ahmad b. Muhammad, a.k.a. Ibn CArabshah (d. 1450). 8)

4) Tacbfr-z serzf in Turkish (1 copy)-a work on dream interpretation, evidently usually encountered in Arabic9) 5)

Khuld.at al-wfiiqi (1 copy)-should almost certainly be

Khuld.at al-wafa',

an abridgement and distillation of several versions (two lost) of an Arabic history of the Prophet's tomb in Medina by the Egyptian Shafici Nfir al-Din Ahmad b. cAll al-Samhidi (d. 1506). The work belongs to thefaa•Wil genre, extolling the virtues of Medina. This abridgement was translated into Turkish by one Muhammad al-CAshiq al-Hanaff al-Riimi. 10) 6) Kdiiban (1 copy)-the Fatdwd of the 12th-century

.Hanaff jurist Fakhr al-

Din al-Hasan b. Manisir al-Farghdni. This was not a collection offatwas per se but a treatise on fiqh. ") 7) Sadr al-Sharica (1 copy)-a commentary on a work of fiqh by the Bukharan Hanaff jurisprudent Burlhn al-Sharica Mahmfid b. Sadr al-

ShariCa I CUbaydallah al-Khumiali. The commentary was composed by the author's grandson, Sadr al-Sharica II CUbaydallah b. MasCfid al-Mahbfibi (d. 1346). As Katib Qelebi explains, the commentary was so thoroughly dominated by its author's personality that it came to bear his name as its title. The commentary itself gave rise to a wide range of marginalia (hdTshiya), including those of prominent Ottoman jurisprudents. 12)

7) All dates are Common Era unless otherwise noted. 8) See Kitib Qelebi, Kashfal-zunufn Can asamt al-kutub wa al-funtn, hereafter K( (Tehran,

1967), I: 303. 9) To judge from KQ (I: 291), tacbfr is understood to refer to dream interpretation. 10) KQ, I: 472, II: 637-638. Wifaqz, as it appears in the list, is probably a scribal error.

A work called Khulasat al-wifaqz was composed by the qadd Ibrdhim Hanif al-Rdimi (d. 1785) long after CAbbis Agha's death.

11) See the Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v "Kadi Kh~an," by T Juynboll. 12) KQ, II: 78, 640-641.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

298 JANE HATHAWAY

8) Hishiyat Ahmad Qelebi (1 copy)-the marginalia to a work by one Ahmad Qelebi, possibly the history of Abfi al-CAbbis Ahmad b. Yfisuf Sinin al- Dimashqi al-Qaramidni (d. 1611), son of the prominent Ottoman jurist Yiisuf, Molla Sinan (d. 1578). This history was a summary of the Ta'rikh of the Ottoman jurist al-Jann~bi

(Mu.tafa b. al-Sayyid IHasan al-Rfimi, d.

1591), which was an enormous work encompassing all the polities of the world. Ahmad Qelebi added some polities, as did Katib Qelebi himself in his Fadhlika. Al-Jannabi wrote an abridgement of his own work and a translation into Turkish. '3)

9) Durar wa ghurar (1 copy)-probably Durar al-hukkim ft sharh ghurar al- ahk'im, a commentary by the Ottoman Shaykh al-Islim Molla Hiisrev (d. 1480-1481) on his own work of Hanafifiqh. This work was translated into Turkish by Siileyman b. Veli al-Anqardwi during Molla Hiisrev's lifetime. 4) 10) Metn-i Hiddya (1 copy)-undoubtedly Hidiyatftal-furuC, a commentary by Shaykh

al-Isl.im Burhin al-Din CAli b. Abi Bakr al-Marghindni (d. 1197)

on his own work of Hanaffifiqh. Kitib Qelebi remarks that this work is in essence a commentary on two fundamental works of Hanafi fiqh: al- Shayb~ni's (d. 803)Jdmic al-saghkrfial-furic and al-Qudiiri's (d. 1036-1037) Mukhtaiar al-Qudiri Jft al-furfc al-hanafiyya. Both al-Qudiiri's and al- Marghinani's works were included in the curriculum of the Palace school during the time of Mehmed II.15) 11) Shar4A al-munya (1 copy)-There are a number of works entitled Al- Munya. . However, the one invoked here is perhaps Munyat al-myalli wa ghunyat al-mubtadi', a 13th-century work of HIjanafifiqh by Sadid al-Din al- Kishgiri. At least four commentaries to this work were composed, most notably those of Ibn Amir al-Hajj Muhlammad b. Muhlammad (d. 1474- 1475) and Shaykh Ibrihim b. Muhlammad al-IHalabi (d. 1549). According to Katib Qelebi, the latter's commentary was accepted by "the people". 16)

12) Jdmi (1 copy)-undoubtedly the work of the famous Persian mystical poet Ntir al-Din CAbd al-Ralnmidn

b. al-Jrnmi (d. 1492), who worked at the court of the amir Husayn Bayqara in Herat. His most influential works

13) KQ , I: 60, 223. On Molla Sinin's career, see Al-CAqd al-manzimftdhikr af-adil al-Ram, supplement to Ahmed Tagk6priizade, Al-Shaqiiq al-nugmindyya fi CulamV al-dawlat al- Cuthmainyya (Beirut, 1975), pp. 489-490.

14) KQ, I: 388-389, 1: 151, 153. On Molla Hiisrev's life, see R. C. Repp, The Mufti of Istanbul (London, 1986), pp. 129ff., 154-166.

15) KQ, II: 646-654, 402-405 (on al-Qudfiri); Barnette Miller, The Palace School ofMuham- mad the Conqueror (Cambridge, MA, 1941), p. 109.

16) KQ, II: 558-559.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 299

were three divans of ghazals and seven mathnawfs collectively known as the Haft Awrang 17)

13) Sharh mashdriq-refers to Mashdrzq al-anwdr al-nabawzyya mm n sihah al- akhbdr

al-mus.tafawtyya, a hadfth collection by

Ra.di al-Din IHasan b. Mu1ham-

mad al-Saghini (d. 1252). A commentary on this work was written by Hayreddin Hizir b. Omer CAtiift al-Marzifiini (d. 1541), the tutor of Sultan Bayezid II. 8)

14) Muqaddimat al-Ghaznawf (1 copy)-a work on Cibddat, or pious acts of

devotion, according to Hanafi law, by the Aleppine jurisprudent Jamil al- Din Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Sayyid al-Ghaznawi (d. 1197). 9) 15) Sharh rajiyya ft al-fard'id (1 copy)-should almost certainly be Al-Fard)id

al-Sirdjiyya, the leading HIanafi work on the law of inheritance by the jurist Siraj al-Din Abfi Tdhir Muhammad al-SajAwandi (fl. c. 1200). Al- Sajawandi wrote the first commentary on his own work; many others fol- lowed, including a number in Turkish and Persian. 20)

16) Rasd'il Nizh Efendi (1 copy)-treatises of the Hanaff jurisprudent NCilh Efendi b. Mustafa al-Rilmi al-Misri (d. 1659). He wrote three major rasa'il, most intriguingly Rzsdila ft Cawd al-rnih ild' al-badan bacd al-mawt li-su'adl

(Treatise on the Return of the Soul to the Body After Death for the Interrogation). 21) He also wrote marginalia (hdshzya) to Molla Hiisrev's Durar wa ghurar (No. 9, above) as well as an Arabic history of Egypt (Ta 'rfkh Misr) running from the Creation through 1517 22)

17) Ta'rikh Ibn Kathir (2 volumes)-the famous history Al-biddya wa al- nihdya of the Damascene CImdd al-Din Abfi al-Fida Ism1Cil b. CUmar b. Kathir (d. 1373), ranging from the hijra to Ibn Kathir's time and including the early Ottomans. A Turkish translation was composed by Mahmud b. Mehmed b. Dilshad. 23)

18) Kifmya-z sacdde-most likely the mystical work, in Persian, of al-Ghazdll (d. 1111). It was translated into Turkish by Molla Mehmed b. Mustafa al- Vdni (d. 1611) and by the poets Nejati and Sihabi. 24)

19) Sharh mijoazfi al-tibb-possibly refers to the medical compilation of the

17) KQ, I: 507; EP, s.v "Djimi," by C. Huart and H. Masse; E. J. W Gibb, A History of Ottoman Poetry, ed. Edward G. Browne, II (London, 1902): 7

18) KQ, II: 436; Karl Brockelmann, Geschzchte der arabischen Litteratur, Supplement II (Leiden, 1938): 639

19) KQ, II: 506; Brockelmann, Geschzchte, Suppl. I (Leiden, 1937): 649 20) See EP, s.v "al-Sadjdwandi," by Rudi Paret. 21) The mterrogation m the tomb conducted by the angels Munhir and Nhir. 22) KQ, II: 153; Brockelmann, Geschzchte, Suppl. II: 432. 23) KQ, I: 187-188. 24) KQ, II: 346; Brockelmann, Geschzchte, Suppl. II: 229-230.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

300 JANE HATHAWAY

Ottoman astronomer CAla'eddin CAll b. Mehmed al-Qiishgi (d. 1474), who before coming to the court of Sultan Mehmed II had directed the astronomical observatory of the Timurid ruler Ulugh Beg at Samarkand. 25)

20) Abldk-z CAld'T (1 copy)-a work, in Turkish, on ethics by the Ottoman qddi and Khalwati shaykh Molla CAla'eddin CAli b. Mehmed, a.k.a.

Kmnahzade, who died in Edirne in 1572. The work was composed in Damascus for the Ottoman governor, CAll Pasha. 26)

21) Rawdat al-akhbir (1 copy)-probably the Turkish history Rawdet iil-ebrdr al-mubfn bi-haqd'ig iil-abbdr by the Ottoman qddf and historian CAbdulaziz, a.k.a. Karagelebizade (1591-1658). The work ranges from the Creation until 1646, with a supplement to 1657; the fourth section concerns the Ottoman Empire. Rawdat al-akhbdr was also the (partial) title of a commen- tary on Sadr al-Sharina (No. 7, above) by Shaykh Abfi al-Yaman Muhammad b. al-Muhibb. 27) 22) Mecmiuca-z mevdCiz-evidently a collection of sermons. 23) Qird'at al-awrdd (1 copy)-concerns recitation of special devotional prayers (wtrd, pl. awrdd) based on the Qur•).n. Such prayers, which are in addition to the five daily prescribed prayers, are typically associated with sufis.

24) Tabaqdt al-awliyd~)(1 copy)-probably Tadhkirdt al-awliyd, a collection of

biographies of stiff saints by the 12th-century mystic Farid al-Din CAttar. 25) Sharh mandrtq al-harr (1 copy)-probably a commentary on al-cAtt~r's mystical allegory Man.tq al-tayr (The Parliament of the Birds). 28)

26) Tevdri?4-z Al-i COsmdn--the history of the Ottomans. Usually this title refers collectively to the popular anonymous chronicles of the 15th-17th cen- turies, as well as the chronicles of such 15th-century historians as Uruc b.

CAdil, Aplkpasazade, Negri, Kemalpasazade, and Idris al-Bitlisi (the first four in Turkish, the last in Persian). However, it can also be taken to encompass various Selimnames, Siileymannames, and ghazavatnames composed after the 15th century. 29)

27) Dhakhfrat ft al-.tibb-possibly the work of Galenic medicine Kitdb

25) Brockelmann, Geschkchte, Suppl. II: 329-330; Tako6priizade, Shaqa•iq, pp. 97-100. 26) KQ, I: 67, Taqk6priizade, Shaqa*iq, pp. 411-418. 27) KQ, I. 581, II: 683; Franz Babmger, Die Gesch/chtsschreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke

(Leipzig, 1927), pp. 204-205. 28) See EP, s.v "cAttir," by H. Riter. 29) KQ, I: 218-219 See also V L. M6nage, "The Beginnmgs of Ottoman

Historiography," and Halil Inalcik, "The Rise of Ottoman Historiography," in Bernard Lewis and P M. Holt, eds., Historians of the Middle East (London, 1962).

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 301

dhakhiratfit ilm al-tibb by the CAbbasid philosopher-physician Abfi al-Hasan Thibit b. Qorra al-Sdbi (d. 901). 30) and 24 other books

PROPERTIES

1) a large site in Aleppo Street31) in the neighborhood of Qiisun, in Cairo 2) also in Cairo, in

.Slibiyya-i Tiilfiniyya, on the road of Maghlabey, 2)

opposite Darb al-Jamamiz, a house and a garden 3) as a salary from the high (imperial) divan, 40 COsmanis33) 4) and 5 measures34) of wheat as a salary from the imperial divan 5) in the district of Minya, ten fedddns35) 6) thirty fedddns in the district of Giza (?) 7) four copper vessels located in the village of Zifta [Minyat Zifta in Ghar- biyya subprovince] for eight physicians 8) three brass under-tables36) and three large kettles

9) a bribe (?) of ten large copper vessels

10) in the neighborhood of Khandaq, outside of IHusayniyya, on the land known for many years as Amir Hamza Bey37), a garden and six water

30) Brockelmann, Geschzchte, Suppl. I: 384; George Makdisi, The Rise of Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West (Edinburgh, 1990), p. 249

31) Aleppo Street ran from Bib Zuwayla into Qfisfin. See Ahmad b. CAll al-Maqrizi, Kitab al-mawdCid wa al-ictibdr bi-dhikr al-khitat wa al-athdr (Bulaq, 1877; repr. Baghdad, 1970), II: 23. Mekln most likely refers to a site on which an edifice could be built. Witness its similar use in Topkapi E 7900, the court case (in Arabic) concerning CAbbis Agha's house: "the

makain of the late Mehmed Agha" and "the makan of Yfisuf Agha, the former Mfiteferrika Bap," which together formed the western border of the house.

32) In a waqflyya dated 1676, this personage is identified as the deceased Maghlabey al- Zardakash, who had endowed land in Aleppo Street to his own waqf. The name suggests an amir of the Mamluk sultanate. See Hamza CAbd al-CAziz Badr and Daniel Crecelius, "The Waqfs of Shahlun Ahmad Agha," Annales islamogtques XXVI (1992), pp. 95, 100.

33) The akge, or Ottoman silver coin. 34) The plural of vezn ("weight, measure") should be evzdn. 35) 1 feddin = 4200.833 square meters. 36) Rather than the plural of mtrfac, an implement for raising things, I take this as the

plural of marfac, which R. Dozy, m Suppliment aux dictionnaires arabes, 3rd ed. (Leiden and Pans, 1967), I: 543, defines as a flat dish or a small table. S. D. Goitein, in his notecards on microfilm (Pnnceton University), cites a Cairo Geniza document in which the Arabic marfac is equated with the Persian zfr-kho'dn, which means literally "under-table" Thus the marfac would seem to be a sort of standing tray or sideboard.

37) This site is not to be confused with Hamzawi, a neighborhood west of the Ghfinyya. The namesake of that neighborhood was the early Ottoman amir Janim al-Hamzdwi; he may also have given his name to the site in Khandaq, although I have seen no reference to such a place. There was also an amir named Hamza Bey who was prominent dunng the 1560s. On Hamzdwi, see CAll Pasha Mubdrak, Al-khitat al-Tawftqzyya al-jadfda li-Misr al-

Qdhtra, new ed. (Cairo, 1969), III: 163. On the later Hamza Bey, see Ahmad Celebi b. CAbd

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

302 JANE HATHAWAY

wheels 38) 11) 28 feddins near the place of $eyb Demirda? [probably the Demirda? tekke just northeast of Bdb al-Nasr] 12) in the district of Kharab Fazara in Qalyfibiyya, the income from 29

fedddns 13) in the district of Minyat Jacfar [Gharbiyya subprovince], the income from 12 fedddns 14) outside Bdb al-Futfih, near Kaddisin and the caravanserai of the mules, a site, a building, and waqf land 15) in the aforementioned neighborhood, a mill 16) a zawiya (iifi lodge) 17) a house attached to [his] brother's house-For a discussion of the possi- ble meanings of menzil-z brdader, see below.

18) in the neighborhood of Qfi?in, in "Medicine Street," overlooking Birkat al-Fil, the late waqf-founder's own house 19) in the district of Zifta:

a) a qaysariyya, 39) and near this a neighborhood in which are 11 shops b) a caravanserai, a coffeehouse, and a coffee-pounding establishment c) 4 shops attached to this and two workshops, 40) over one of them a

Qur':n school 20) in Shubra Basyfin in Gharbiyya, 4 flax-wetting establishments and 2 water wheels 21) in the lands of the district of Balida in Qalyfibiyya, 58 feddns and 12

qf•r4tse4) arable land

22) in the lands of Minyat CAsim in Qalyfibiyya, 212 fedddns and 6 qirdts arable land

al-Ghani, Awdah al-tshirit jf man tawalla Misr al-Qdhzra mmn al-wuzardt wa al-bdshdt, ed. A. A. CAbd al-Rahim (Cairo, 1978), pp. 116-117

38) Edward W Lane, in An Arabic-English Lexicon (London, 1885; repr. New York, 1956), IV 1386, gives the first definition of sidqya as an irrigation channel but adds that the word is "now vulgarly applied" to the water wheel. Gardens m elite residences commonly con- tained water wheels; see Badr and Crecelius, "Waqfs of Shahm Ahmad Agha," p. 98, n. 98.

39) On the use of the term qaysaryya, see below In this list, qaysanyya is spelled with a sin, as was apparently common in Egypt. S. D. Goitine finds this spelling repeatedly in the Cairo Geniza; see A Mediterranean Society (hereafter Med Soc), I (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967): 194.

40) For this use of qdcah, see Raymond, Artisans, I: 323. Dozy (Supplimment, II: 419) and Goitein (Med Soc, I: 187) agree that a qdCah is the ground floor hall of a house, which, Goitein notes, could serve as "storage room, office and living quarters" for a transient merchant. He also finds qdcah used to mean a shop rented by a transient merchant (Med Soc, I: 157 and 439, n. 29).

41) 1 qfrdt= 1/24feddin, or 175.035 square meters.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 303

23) a house located at the head of Darb al-Khdzin in Silibiyya-Tfiliniyya 24) a house in Aleppo Street, near Qfi?in 25) a large caravanserai located in Bulaq, in Egypt 26) near Gamaliyya in Cairo, facing the site of Shaykh CAIT Tirl, 42) three fulling [mills],43) a dyehouse, and a room44) over a shop; and connected to this, a ruined place; and also 10 shops 27) a large site located in the neighborhood of Gamaliyya, near the caravanserai at the head of Rukn al-Mukhallaq45)

PROPERTIES

CAbbds Agha's properties fall into four principal categories: metal

implements, income from land, residential and religious structures, and commercial structures. The brass tables and copper vessels appear to form one of the rare exceptions to the rule that endowed property must be immovable; books were another such exception. Most intriguing among the metal objects are the "four copper vessels for eight physicians" in Minyat Zifta, a village in the western Delta subprovince of Gharbiyya. The

specificity of the wording suggests that CAbbas Agha meant to provide a per- manent subsidy for Minyat Zifta's medical community. He may, in fact, have had an affinity for members of the medical profession in general. His Cairo residence was located in "Tibb Sokak," 46), and his book list includes two medical works. We cannot, however, know for certain whether he valued Minyat Zifta's physicians for their medical expertise47) or for reasons extraneous to their profession.

42) An unidentified shaykh from the port of Tur in the southern Sinai, where the Gulf of Suez joins the Red Sea.

43) Goiteln's notecards note the appearance of the word ratba in a Genlza document to describe a fulled gown ([thawb] maqsvira ratba).

44) Raymond (Artisans, I: 257) has oda as a room in which a merchant lodged while stay- ing in a wakala. Here, of course, that meaning does not fit although the room in question could be where the keeper of the shop below resided (the proverbial "room over the store"). The oda could also be a workshop, roughly equivalent to a qdCah--a smaller establishment than a diikkin.

45) The caravanseral is probably Waknlat CAbbis Agha, a coffee wakila. See Raymond, Artzsans, I: 332; Mubdrak, Al-khitat al-Tawfiqzyya, II: 220. MubArak notes only that the wakila is for imports from the Hijaz and elsewhere, but coffee dominated Hijazi imports.

46) I have been unable to find a reference to such a street in any of the conventional topographical guides to Cairo. Perhaps "Tibb Sokak" was a nickname adopted because of CAbbis Agha's proclivities.

47) Eunuch-hood carried the potential for medical problems, e.g., severe urinary tract infections. See Shaun E. Marmon, "The Eunuchs of the Prophet: Space, Time and Gender in Islamic Society," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1990, p. 183.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

304 JANE HATHAWAY

The lands from which CAbb.s

Agha draws income (rizqa) total 389feddrins, plus 18

qfra.ts •in-z savdd, or arable land. Most of these belong to villages that produce revenues for the Awqdf al-Haramayn. What this income probably comprises, then, is the fda'id, or surplus revenue left after payment of the villages' taxes to the imperial treasury. Other accounts show that the fadid could be converted to private property, or mulk, and bequeathed to selected clients or wakfls. 48) The prospect of laying hands on the fdaid can only have added to the competition among Egypt's military ranks for the tax farms of Awqdf villages in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Accordingly, alliances of convenience with the Kizlar Agasi and even service as his wakfl became more and more attractive to the military grandees of the period. 49)

The distribution of CAbbds Agha's land revenues has, I believe, everything to do with the question of wakfls. 299 of his 389 feddns are con- centrated in Awqdf villages in Qalyufbiyya subprovince; of these, 212 lie in the village of Minyat CAsim. I suspect that this cluster of Awqif villages in

Qalyfibiyya, with Minyat CAsim as their "capital," was administered by a single wakfl or client as serbesttyet, if not as mulk. Such Awqdf-related bailiwicks, under the jurisdiction of powerful beys or garrison officers, seem to have been a common feature of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. 50)

Further research in court records or imperial fermadns may clarify the status of the Qalyfibiyya villages.

In contrast, CAbbds Agha's residential properties are concentrated in Cairo. The aged eunuch51) probably rarely, if ever, left the city; hence his need for wakfls. But like his rural holdings, his non-commercial urban pro- perties cluster in one area-namely, the general vicinity of Birkat al-Fil in the city's southern sector. The greater neighborhood includes the quarters of the mosque of Ibn Tfilun, Sil-biyya, and Qiisin. CAbbds' own residence

48) An account of el-Hac Besir Agha's (1717-1746) fdaid (Topkapi D 2520/1, dated 1158/1745) reveals that the fadid was converted into mulk.

49) CAbbds Agha's own wakil, as we have noted, was Ahmad Agha the Qavugan kathkhudd. The wakil of his predecessor, Musli Agha (1662-1667), was Kencin Bey On the competition for tax farms, see, for example, Richard Pococke, A Descrptwon of the East and Some Other Countries (London, 1743), I: 167

50) The powerful Goniilliiyan agha, Hasan Agha Bilifyd, assembled such a bailiwick around the tax farm of BilifyS m al-Bahnasa subprovince. His mamltik Mutafa Bey Bilify& was granted this cluster as serbesttyet by afermdn of 1146/1733-1734 (Istanbul, Prime Ministry Archives, Mihtmme-i Mistr, V 18). Serbesttyet ("freedom") connotes virtual admimstrative autonomy, though not outright ownership. Pococke also speaks of rune villages, centered on Mallawi in CUshmunayn subprovince, that form "a small pnncipality belonging to Mecca, and...subject to the Emir Hadge" See A Descrnpton, I: 60.

51) Most Kizlar Agalan attained the post relatively late in life. Those exiled to Egypt generally died within a few years of being exiled.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 305

lay on the southern shore of Birkat al-Fil. As Andre Raymond has demon- strated, the pond was the hub of elite residence late in the 17th century. 52) It seems to have held particular appeal for exiled Kizlar A'alari, for CAbbas' house was bordered to the west by the residence of Mehmed Agha (1649- 1651) and to the south by the residence of Hazinedar cAll Agha (Kizlar A'asi 1686-1687). 53) In fact, Hazinedar CAli's house is referred to as "the palace residence of the aghas" (sukn qasr (?) al-dghdwdt), implying that exiled Palace eunuchs commonly established residence in the vicinity. 54)

The three other houses that CAbbds Agha possessed in S1libiyya- Tfilfiniyya and Qfisfin may have been used by members of his entourage. Some may also have been "small houses" (ddr saghfra) used for caching valuables. 55)

The remainder of CAbbds Agha's non-commercial urban property is con- centrated near Bab al-Futfilh. This is where his zdwaya apparently stands, and it is tempting to conclude that the other properties in the area are con- nected to the zdwaya. Particularly intriguing in this regard is the "house attached to [his] brother's house". Perhaps the most obvious interpretation of the Persian birdder is a fellow eunuch, but a stifi "brother" might also be intended. (The meaning could, of course, be simply a house that is attached to the house next to it.)56) In any case, the garden and six water wheels at

Khandaq indicate a desire to improve that area, which had been one of the poorest in Cairo since the Mamluk era.57)

As for the commercial properties, these, too, tend to cluster in two key areas: the northern sector of Cairo, including Gamaliyya and Bdb al-Futfih; and Gharbiyya subprovince. (There is also a wakdla, or caravanserai, at Buldq.) Moreover, these properties seem to cater to two key enterprises: the production of linen and the coffee trade. In the Awqdf village of Shubra

52) Raymond, "Essal de geographle des quartiers de residence anstocratique au Caire au XVIIIe sibcle," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient VI, 1 (1963): 65ff.

53) Topkapi E 7900. The former Miiteferrika Baqi Yfisuf, whose house abuts that of the late Mehmed Agha, may well be Mehmed's wakfl. This court record allows us to make a slight correction to Raymond's map of elite residences in the 17th and 18th centuries ("Essai," p. 66), where CAbbis' residence is shown on the eastern bank of Birkat al-Fil.

54) Indeed, a street m the vicimnity was known as Darb al-Aghawit. See Ahmad Celebi, Awdah, p. 187

55) On these, see Raymond, "Essat," p. 83. 56) According to Topkapi E 7900, CAbbis Agha's house at Birkat al-Fil had been joined

to the house of Ahmed Bey ndzir al-kzswa (supervisor of the covering prepared for the Kacaba), which bordered it on the east.

57) Susan J. Staffa, Conquest and Fusion: The Social Evolution of Catro, A.D. 642-1850 (Leiden, 1977), pp. 112, 187 Khandaq had, in fact, been a garden under the Fatimids. See al-Maqrizi, Khttat, II. 136.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

306 JANE HATHAWAY

Basyfin in Gharbiyya are four "flax-wetting places"--or, more properly, flax retting places, where the plant was soaked to separate the fibers from the core. The flax was then dried and beaten to remove the seeds from the fibers, which were then combed. 58) Once combed, the flax was ready for weaving. This, too, as often as not took place at Shubra Basyfin, for the inner Delta was the site not only of the most intense flax cultivation in Egypt but also of a pervasive linen-weaving industry. Girard cites "Bassyoum" as part of a network of linen-producing villages centering on Tanta, in whose market the cloth was typically sold. 59)

Some of the flax grown in the Delta and Upper Egypt was transported up- or downriver to Cairo for weaving. On arriving at the port of Buldq, it was typically stored in a wakdla, one of the commercial complexes that combined storage space for goods with lodging for the merchants who ship- ped them. Buliq contained many wakdlas, a number of which had been endowed by Ottoman governors and other officials. 60) By endowing his own wakdla at the port, then, CAbbas Agha was following a good old Ottoman tradition. Flax from his retting-works at Shubra Basyfin may perhaps have been stored there on its way to the weaveries of Cairo.

In Gamaliyya, cAbbis Agha had endowed a complex where linen could be woven, fulled, dyed, and sold in one location. According to Raymond, Cairo's linen industry had begun to expand into Gamgliyya by the late 17th century. The quarter was the site of a linen wakdla as well as numerous other wakdlas. 61)

Through his flax-retting establishments, wakdla, and weavery/dyeing- house, CAbbas Agha promoted Egypt's linen industry at all its various stages. At the same time, the combination of enterprises enabled him to control this particular source of revenue from raw material to finished product. In this scheme of things, cAbb~s' link to the flax villages of Ghar- biyya looms especially large, for control of the source of flax ensured the linen production that raised revenue for the Holy Cities. The four retting plants provided this critical link to Gharbiyya.

58) S. D. Goitem describes the linen-making process m Med Soc, I: 105. Virtually the same process is described by P S. Girard, "M6moire sur l'agnculture, l'industne, et le commerce de l'Egypte," m the Descrpthon de l'Egypte, 2nd ed. (Pans, 1824), XVII: 99ff.

59) Descrnptton, XVII: 103, 217-219. Some of this cloth was resold and exported to Syna, Istanbul, and the Greek islands. Girard notes that Delta linen in particular was exported to the islands; however, it was exported m the form of unwoven fibers.

60) For example, the wakdlas of the 16th-century governors Koca Sinan Pasha (1567- 1568, 1571-1572) and Hafiz Ahmed Pasha (1591-1595).

61) Rayrpond, Artsans, I: 260, 322-323. The linen wakdla, he notes, was the headquarters primarily of Syrian merchants who traded in local cloth and in cloth imported from Syria.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 307

The other commercial link to Gharbiyya that appears in this inventory is the ponderous commercial complex in the Awqdf village of Minyat Zifta. Most of the enterprises in Minyat Zifta are related to coffee, which would have reached the Delta town after being shipped across the Red Sea from Yemen to Suez. By the late 17th century, the Red Sea coffee trade was inseparable from the provisioning of the Holy Cities: in the course of the

hajj, Egyptian grain was traded for coffee in the Haramayn and at the port of Jidda. 62) As supervisor of the grain supply, the Kizlar Agasi was in a good position to take advantage of the coffee trade. CAbbas Agha himself, in fact, appears to have established a coffee wakdla just west of Gamiliyya (see item 27 in the property list). Moreover, a Kizlar Agasl's wakfls and other clients typically belonged to the cadre of military grandees who con- ducted the

l.ajj and controlled the customs of the ports through which coffee

entered Egypt. 63)

Minyat Zifta's coffee complex seems to be an establishment where beans were stored, prepared, and sold, as well as a place where the beverage could be consumed. The wakila/coffeehouse combination was nothing new; at least one 16th-century governor had endowed a wakdla and coffeehouse at Bulaq and a similar duo at Rosetta. 64) The innovation lay in erecting such a complex in a provincial town. Minyat Zifta, located on the Damietta branch of the Nile, had, however, been an important regional trading center, especially for textitles, during the medieval period. 65) It may there- fore have been a natural stopping point for coffee-laden Nile boats en route from Suez to Cairo. From such provincinal entrep6ts, the coffee trade could be diffused into the countryside, much as the silk trade had been centuries earlier.

The qaysariyya complex at Minyat Zifta is somewhat harder to gloss. The term qaysariyya could be synonymous with wakala; according to Raymond,

62) On this point, see Pococke, A Descriptwon, I: 204; and Michel Tuchscherer, "Le

pelennage de l'6mir Sulaymin Gawis al-Qazdugli, sirdar de la caravane de la Mekke en 1739," Annales islamogtques XXIV (1988): 175.

63) CAbbis' successor, Yiisuf Agha (1671-1687), is notable for patronizing a succession of pilgnmage commanders belonging to the Faqiri faction. By the late 17th century, the Janissanes had monopolized the coffee trade, as well as the customs. On this subject, see Raymond, Artisans, II: 619ff., 707-710.

64) This was Hafiz Ahmed Pasha (1591-1595). See Ahmad Qelebi, Awdah, p. 123; Muhammad CAbd al-MuCti al-Ishdiqi, Akhbdr al-uwalft man tasarrafa ftMisr mmn arbdb al-duwal

(Cairo, 1887), p. 163. 65) Goitem encountered trade m silk, flax, indigo, sesame, and sugar dunng the 12th cen-

tury A portion of these products were consumed locally, the rest transported to other towns, including Cairo. See Med Soc, II (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971): 45-46.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

308 JANE HATHAWAY

the use of one or the other to designate a commercial warehouse was largely a matter of vogue. However, qaysartyya could also carry the connotation of a bezestan: a market, covered or un-, for the sale of luxury goods, especially textiles. 66) In this list, qaysartyya and wakdla are clearly not synonymous since one of each is carefully specified for Minyat Zifta. Since the wak•la appears to be associated with the coffee trade, the qaysariyya may well be associated with textiles. This interpretation squares well with Minyat Zifta's previous history as a regional silk hub.

'Abbas Agha, in fact, appears to have chosen Minyat Zifta as his pet charity. He established more commercial enterprises here than in any other single location. It was only here, furthermore, that he appears to have endowed a school.67) And, of course, we have already puzzled over his distinctive arrangement with Minyat Zifta's physicians. The notion that Minyat Zifta received such treatment because it was the "capital" of an

Awqdf-related bailiwick, as Minyat CAsim in Qalyfibiyya appears to have been, seems untenable. The two other Gharbiyya villages in which CAbbds had interests, Shubra Basyfin and Minyat Jacfar, were located at some distance from Minyat Zifta and from each other. They were too far apart, I would venture, to be administered comfortably by a single client on the spot. Once again, further research is called for to determine why Minyat Zifta, of all the localities that CAbbas Agha patronized, should have become the special object of his attention and the seat of his coffee-marketing venture.

THE BOOK LIST

We notice at once that portions of the Qur)an far outnumber any other sort of book in cAbbas Agha's collection. To the outside world, in fact, his library was apparently known as a collection of Qur'ans and exegetical works. Thus an imperial order of 1697 describes the collection as "the Qur':ans, works of exegesis, and various other kinds of books".68) Of course, Qur'dns, particularly precious manuscripts, would have been a

66) For a discussion of the terms waklla and qaysaryya, see Raymond, Artisans, I: 254-263. According to Raymond, the usage of qaysarnyya enjoyed a limited revival during the 18th century

67) The sabdl-kuttnb, a Qur an school (called mekteb in Turkish) over a fountain, was the philanthropic foundation most frequently endowed by Kizlar Agalan.

68) Mihilmme Deften 110, No. 947- "Masdhaf-s ;ernfe ve tefa-sr ve si'ir kiftiib-z miitenevvice'" It is curious that the miihimme speaks of masdhtf when only one Mushaf-: erff is given in the list. Perhaps some of the 24 "other" books are QurA'ins.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 309

sound investment for any wealthy personage building a library. 69) They were also appropriate for an official whose professional life was to a large extent taken up with the needs of the cities of the Prophet.

The Kizlar Agasi's link to the Haramayn is reflected in the presence of al-Samhudi's Khuldsat al-wafd' among CAbbds Agha's books. Composed in late Mamluk Egypt, the work is a paean to Medina and in particular to the Prophet's tomb. In detailing the tomb's history, al-Samhidi describes the corps of eunuchs who began to guard the tomb in the 12th century and who by the late 15th century held the exclusive right to enter the tomb's inner precincts. 70) Sometime after 1517, the tomb eunuchs were incorporated into the Palace slave hierarchy of the Ottoman Empire. From the end of the 17th century, in fact, the post of Shaykh al-Haram al-Nabawi, or chief guardian of the Prophet's tomb, was not infrequently filled by an exiled Kizlar Agasi. 71) Although CAbbas Agha spent the bulk of his life between Istanbul and Cairo and was never himself named Shaykh al-Haram, his possession of al-Samhiidi's work points to an identification with the tomb guardians- an identification that, moreover, transcends the temporal limits of the Ottoman Empire. Such an identification may be simply a manifestation of eunuch solidarity. But equally significant, I believe, was the Kizlar A'asi's professional preoccupation with the Holy Cities. 72)

As if to make up for the supra-Ottoman sensibilities suggested by al- Samliidi, much of the rest of cAbbas Agha's library marks him as a

69) Makdisi (The Rise of Humanism, pp. 71-76) describes the worth of books In private col- lections during the classical era and explains that they were not Infrequently sold to generate income.

70) For a descnption of al-Samhiudi's work in the context of a study of these eunuch guar- dians, see Marmon, "Eunuchs of the Prophet," esp. pp. 107-111. Marmon notes that al- Samhiidi was opposed to the exclusion from the Inner precmcts (maqsiira) of all but eunuchs beginning in 1477 Under the Ayyubid and Mamluk sultans, the tomb guardians were not exclusively black, nor were their chiefs exclusively eunuchs. Indeed, two of the earliest chief guardians under Ottoman rule were a Shdfici

q.di and a Mamluk amir. See Gaston Wiet,

" La mosquee de Kdffir au Caire," in Studies in Islamic Art and Architecture in Honour of Professor K. A. C. Creswell (Cairo, 1965), pp. 266-269.

71) Under the Mamluk sultanate, it had been possible for a eunuch to hold jointly the posts of chief of the royal harem and chief guardian of the Prophet's tomb, as Shibl al-Dawla Kiffir did dunng the last several years of his life (c. 1422-1427); see Wiet, "Mosqu&e de Kiffir," p. 263. CAbbas Agha's successor, Yuisuf Agha, was, however, the first exiled Ottoman Kizlar Agasi to assume the post. Late in the 18th century, it became quite common for a deposed Kizlar Agasi to become Shaykh al-Haram. The early 19th-century traveller J. L. Burckhardt notes that "cette place &tait plut6t un exil honnete qu'un avancement" (quoted in Wiet, "Mosquee de Kifiir," p. 265).

72) Caroline Williams has drawn my attention to the fact that the tombs and possibly the homes of Kizlar Agalan exiled to Cairo during the 17th and 18th centuries were decorated with images of the Kacaba.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

310 JANE HATHAWAY

representative of the Ottoman court and, moreover, as a familiar of the Ottoman learned hierarchy. A number of the works he owns come from the pens of Ottoman scholars such as Ahmad Qelebi, Molla Hiisrev, al- Marzifiini, Nilhi Efendi, al-Qiishgi, Kmalizade, and Kararelebizade. Many of the others, however, belong to the intellectual baggage of the Ottoman man of letters and more particularly of the Ottoman courtier. Hanafifiqh and Turkish history had been staples of the Palace School, where court pages were trained, since the time of Mehmed II. CAbbas' collection encom- passes works in all three languages with which the Ottoman courtier was routinely familiar: Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and Persian. 7) Although Turkish translations were available for many of the Arabic works listed here, we can safely assume that CAbbas Agha owned editions in the original language. Thus a special notation is made in the case of a Turkish version of TaCbfr-i erff.

CAbb5s Agha must have brought his schoolbooks, and probably most of the prominent Ottoman works he owned, to Cairo with him or imported them later. Thus CAbb~s' exile adds one more strand to the network of cultural contact between imperial center and province. Ottoman rule brought a flood of Turkish works into the Arab provinces and inspired the translation into Turkish of many Arabic works. One need only mention the numerous Turkish translations and extensions of Ibn Zunbul's chronicle of the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. 74) Nfih Efendi, meanwhile, furnishes an apparent instance of an Ottoman scholar who sojourned in an Arab pro- vince; hence he is styled al-Rurmf al-Mi4rf, "the Anatolian-Egyptian". His Rasdiil, we notice, as well as his history of Egypt, were composed in Arabic.

73) On the books, see Miller, Palace School, p. 109; and Paul Rycaut, The Present State of the Ottoman Empire, reprint (New York, 1971), p. 32 (where he mentions al-Marghminni's Hidaya). On the curriculum in general, see Miller, pp. 94ff. Miller notes that m the 15th century, white eunuchs received exactly the same education as the Palace pages. (The Palace school was, moreover, administered by the Chief White Eunuch and other high white eunuch officers.) We can probably assume that black eunuchs received similar educations. On the eunuchs' role, see Miller, pp. 86-90, 38, 64. To judge from J. L. Burckhardt's account, the Shaykh al-Haram, at any rate, by the 19th century knew no Arabic but spoke only Ottoman Turkish; see Wiet, "Mosqu&e de Kgifir," p. 265.

74) KQ, I: 218-219; Stanford Shaw, "Turkish Source-Matenals for Egyptian History," in P M. Holt, ed., Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt (London, 1968), pp. 44-46; Hathaway, "Sultans, Pashas, Taqwims, and Miihimmes: A Reconsideration of Chronicle Writmg m 18th-Century Ottoman Egypt," in Daniel Crecelius, ed., 18th Century Egypt: The Arabic Manuscript Sources (Claremont, CA, 1990), pp. 54-55 and notes 11-12. On Ahmad b. Zunbul's Tanrikh ghazwat al-sultin Salim Khln mac al-sultin al-Ghawrs (mid-16th century), see Holt, "Ottoman Egypt (1517-1798): An Account of Arabic Historical Sources," in Political and Social Change, pp. 5-6.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 311

Original Turkish works were produced in the Arab provinces, as well; this inventory offers the example of Ablik-z CAldaT, composed for the Ottoman governor of Damascus. The Ottoman provincial administration could, on occasion, contribute to the cultural exchange. I have suggested elsewhere, in fact, that a cadre of bilingual ulema and bureaucrats, often in the employ of the provincial administration, served as a genuine channel of cultural and linguistic exchange between Istanbul and its Arab provinces and helped to define the Ottoman character of these provinces. 75) CAbbas' library raises the possibility that exiled Palace eunuchs formed a significant part of this channel.

Turning to the subjects of these books, one is immediately struck by the preponderance of IHanafi exegesis and jurisprudence. Roughly a third of CAbbds' books, leaving aside the Qur'ans, are works offiqh and tafsfr, and all the authors of such works who can be identified are Hanafis: Abfi al- Layth, al-Farghani, Sadr al-Sharica, Molla Hiisrev, al-Marghinrni, al-

Kashgrir, al-Marziffini, al-Ghaznawi, al-Sajiwandi, and Nfih Efendi. This fact only adds to the Ottoman flavor of the list since Hanafism was the legal school to which the Ottoman court adhered. Indeed, the works of al-

Marghin.ni, al-Ghaznawi, and Sadr al-Sharica belonged to the curriculum

of the Palace school. 76)

The histories included in the book list are even more explicitly Ottoman and could easily have come out of the Palace school's history curriculum. The Tevdrih-z Al-z COsman speaks for itself. The other three chronicles-those of Ibn Kathir, Ahmad Qelebi, and Karacelebizade-contain sections on the Ottoman Empire in the context of universal histories. Of their authors, Ahmad Qelebi was the son of the prominent Ottoman jurisprudent Molla

Sinin while Karagelebizade was himself an Ottoman qd4f. It seems highly likely, then, that CAbbas Agha's early education as an

Ottoman courtier laid the foundation for his small but distinguished library. Perhaps, then, the almost consciously Ottoman-HanafT cast of the book list results from the state of court education during the 17th century. We notice, for example, that with a few exceptions, the classics of Islamic legal science and belles lettres are absent. Even among the I;anafi texts, cornerstones of the madhhab, such as the original works of Abfu Yfisuf and al-Shaybdni, are passed over in favor of the output of jurists of the medieval and Ottoman eras. Some of the legal and historical works are, moreover, nearly contem- porary with the former Kizlar Agasi himself. Kararelebizade and Nilh

75) Hathaway, "Sultans, Pashas...," in 18th Century Egypt, pp. 51-78. 76) Miller, Palace School, p. 109

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

312 JANE HATHAWAY

Efendi were at work during CAbbas Agha's lifetime; Al.mad Qelebi died during CAbb~s' youth. In general, few of the texts, outside of the Qur'an itself, are composed before the 12th century. A number of them, are, fur- thermore, commentaries (sharh) on and marginalia

(.hishzya) to earlier

works. This state of affairs may confirm the verdict reached on Ottoman, and more particularly Egyptian, learning after the so-called Golden Age of the 16th century: that intellectual life had become stagnant and derivative, yielding little more than an endless stream of commentaries on commen- taries. 77) While this inventory could not, by itself, support such an asser- tion, it does give the impression of a certain distancing from the works of classical Islam. But on the other hand, a solid core of medieval and Ottoman-era juridical and historical texts had filled the gap. Libraries such as cAbbis Agha's were the standard-bearers of this core in Egypt.

Those few texts that do not belong to the orthodox religious sciences or to history may give a clue to cAbbds Agha's personal interests, or at least to the interests of the people with whom he associated. Six works testify to a mystical bent: TaCbfr-i ferif, K'm~ya-i sacdde, the divan of Jami, Qird'at al- awrid, Tadhkirdt al-awliyda, and Mantiq al-.tayr. TaCbhr-i erff may well hark back to the Kizlar Agasl's link with the Prophet's tomb since visions of the Prophet occupied a large place in the science of dream interpretation. Al- Ghazgi's Kifmsya-i sacdde, meanwhile, along with his Ihyd') Culim al-din, had a considerable influence on dream interpretation and was used to affirm visions of the Prophet and angels. 78)

The dream book and the work of al-Ghazill, along with J.mim's poetry, indicate certain siifi sympathies but do not point to any antinomian tenden- cies. All fall within the bounds of acceptable Ottoman orthodoxy. Although KimTya-i sacdde is a mystical guide, its author cannot be called heterodox in the sense that Ibn CArabi (who wrote an Arabic work with a similar title) or the more radical Shicite-oriented sgifis were. Al-Ghazglli was himself a

Shafici faqth who sought to reconcile mysticism with orthodox praxis. Indeed, the tajdid, or renewal, movement, a wave of orthodox sufism that

77) On this point, see, for example, Gamal el-Din el-Shayyal, "Some Aspects of Intellec- tual and Social Life in 18th-Century Egypt," in Holt, ed., Political and Social Change, passzm., Daniel Crecelius, "The Waqf of Muhammad Bey Abu al-Dhahab m Historical Perspec- tive," InternatzonalJournal of Middle East Studies XXIII, 1 (February 1991): 71. However, one must also take into account those rare instances in which a commentary eclipsed the work it glossed. This list offers the example of Sadr al-Sharina.

78) On this point, see Jonathan G. Katz, "The Vision of the Prophet in 15th-Century North Africa: Muhammad al-Zawiwi's Tubfat al-Nazir," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Prnnceton University, 1990, pp. 299-301, 309

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 313

swept the Ottoman Arab provinces toward the end of the 18th century, drew inspiration from al-Ghazal7's writings. 79)

As for Jdimi, it was his poetic oeuvre, rather than his Naqshbandi indoc- trination, that left its mark on Ottoman society. In company with the work of his fellow Herati court poet Mir CAl Shir-i Nev iN, Jmmi's

divans and the seven mathnawis of the Haft Awrang comprised the wellhead from which Ottoman court poetry sprang during the Siileymanic era. 80) It speaks to the poet's pervasiveness that his divan is the only work of belles lettres included in CAbbas Agha's collection: even a courtier with no great taste for poetry would, perhaps, possess the work of Jami. And even if he were unac- quainted with Jami's poetry, he might well have encountered Jami's com- mentary on Ibn al-Hiajib's Kdfiya, a work on Arabic syntax that was used in the Palace school. 81) In some senses, then, CAbbis' acquaintance with Jdmi serves more to mark him as a product of the Ottoman court than to confirm his mystical leanings.

Qzrd'at al-awrdd, a collection of sifi devotional prayers, along with Tadhkirat al-awliyda and Man.tzq al-tayr, is, in contrast, blatantly stifi. CAbbas' possession of these works constitutes, in certain respects, a political state- ment since Ottoman society during the mid-1 7th century was shaken by the rise of a group of militant fundamentalist preachers known collectively as Kadizadelis, after the Anatolian preacher Kadizade Mehmed Efendi (d. 1635). the Kadizadelis vehemently opposed all forms of sufism; one of their pet peeves, in fact, was the veneration of the tombs of isfif saints. Their views carried great weight at the court of Mehmed IV (1648-1687). Kbpriilii Fazil Ahmed Pasha, the grand vezir at the time of CAbbZs Agha's tenure, took the neo-Kadizadeli Vani Mehmed Efendi as his personal shaykh and allowed him to repress .isfi

as well as other "immoral" prac- tices. This sort of acquiescence in fundamentalist repression marked a

departure from court practice earlier in the 17th century. Murad IV (1623- 1640) and his mother had patronized stiff orders. A number of prominent Ottoman ulema who had opposed the Kadizadelis during Murad's reign had, moreover, belonged to the Khalwati order. 82) From this standpoint,

79) On this point, see, for example, John O Voll and Nehemiah Levtzion, eds., 18th- Century Renewal and Reform tn Islam (Syracuse, 1987), Introduction, p. 9.

80) EP, s.v "Djmxni," by Huart and Masse; E. J. W Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, II: 7ff., I (London, 1901): 127-129. Mir CAlI Shir-i Nev:i' composed mainly in Chagatai Turkish.

81) Miller, Palace School, p. 108. It seems, however, highly unlikely that this commentary could be evoked simply by the name "Jimni," which appears in the book list.

82) On Vant Mehmed, see Madeline C. Zilfi, The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the Postclasswcal Age, 1600-1800 (Minneapolis, 1988), pp. 146-149; on the changing religious climate, see the same work, pp. 133ff., 165-172. Zilfi claims (pp. 141-42) that the Palace

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

314 JANE HATHAWAY

CAbbas Agha's apparent mystical leanings represent something of a throwback to the "traditional" religious stance of the Ottoman court and the upper echelons of the Ottoman ulema: strict Hanafi orthodoxy with a nod toward the sufism of "mainstream" tariqas. 83)

If the book list does not suffice to establish CAbbds Agha's stifl inclina- tions, the property list settles the matter by revealing that CAbb~s endowed a zdwzya, or gfif lodge. Where this zdwiya was located is not specified; how- ever, it follows two properties outside Bdb al-Futfih and is linked to them

by ve. If the zdwiya lies outside Bdb al-Futiih, it must be situated in the

H.usayniyya quarter or its vicinity, which during the Ottoman period

housed a number of giff lodges, particularly lodges associated with the Khalwati order and its various offshoots. Among these was the tekke of the

Demirdali order, near which CAbbis Agha held title to land.84) Cir- cumstance, in any case, links CAbbis to the very isfi order that the Kadizadelis most detested.

In contrast to the mystical texts, the two medical works included in

CAbbZs Agha's library do not carry political overtones but seem to bespeak a genuine interest in medicine. Both are works of distinction: Dhakhfrdt fi al-.tibb respresents the pinnacle of Galenic medicine in classical Islam; Mijaz ft al-tibb is the work of one of the greatest Ottoman men of science (albeit al-Qishgi was primarily an astronomer). Meanwhile, CAbbis Agha

"aghas" promoted the Kadizadelis for their own pragmatic purposes. Yet the eunuchs would have had little reason to sympatluze with the Kadizadelis: the eunuchs were the tomb guardians par excellence, and their place at the Prophet's tomb was an mnovation which the Kadizadelis would have condemned. As regards the Khalwatis, it is worth noting that Kmnalizade, the author of the Ablik in CAbbis' possession, was the shaykh of the Khalwati zdw!ya of Mugtafa Pasha in Istanbul in the latter half of the 16th century

83) Kadizadeli sympathies would re-emerge many years later m Egypt. In a well-known incident in 1711, an Anatolian preacher mincited a Cairene crowd against siifi practices, above all the veneration of saints' tombs. In Mehmed b. Yiisuf al-Halliq's Ti-rib- Misir-t Kihzre (Istanbul University Library, T Y 628), ff. 296v-297r, the preacher reads Birgili Mehmed Efendi's (d. 1573) Rstila, which was the vade mecum of the Kadizadeli movement. In Arabic accounts of this mcident, Birgili Mehmed is not mentioned. The incident has been examined by Rudolf Peters m "The Battered Dervishes of Bib Zuwayla: A Religious Riot in 18th- Century Cairo," in Voll and Levtzion, eds., 18th-Century Renewal; and by Barbara Flemm- ing m "Die vorwahhabitische Fitna im osmanischen Kairo 1711," in Ismail Hakkz UzunGarf lh Armaamnz (Ankara, 1975). On Birgili Mehmed, see Zilfi, Polittcs, pp. 143-146; on the Kadizadeli movement generally, see the same work, pp. 131ff.

84) See Ernst Bannerth, "La Khalwatiyya en Egypte," Milange de l'instatut domincain d'itudes oruentales VIII (1964-1966): 1-74; B. G. Martm, "A Short History of the Khalwati Order of Dervishes," in Nikki R. Keddie, ed., Scholars, Saints and Sufis (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972), pp. 290-292. In the 18th century, Husayniyya was the headquarters of the Bayfimlyya order, a Khalwati offshoot whose membership was dommated by the quarter's butchers.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 315

evidently rubbed shoulders with members of the medical profession in Egypt, to judge from his house in "Tibb Sokak" and his connection to the physicians of Minyat Zifta. (The physicians could, of course, explain the books: they may have been gifts to the physicians' benefactor in exchange for his generous bestowal of copper pots.)

CAbbas Agha's library, then, yields what appear to be tantalizing clues to his character, tastes, and beliefs. Yet the books are not all texts that CAbbas chose personally from motives that reflect the workings of his psyche. Rather, so far as we can tell, the inventory presents a precis of the Palace education, embellished with such works on more specialized subjects as it was possible for an Ottoman courtier to accumulate and carry into exile with him-or, alternatively, to assemble while in exile. For the list does mark cAbbis Agha as an Ottoman courtier whose religiosity found expres- sion, on the one hand, in conventional

.Hanaff orthodoxy and, on the other,

in at least a flirtation with sufism. The two notable exceptions to the pattern of book-accumulation that this

inventory reveals are al-Samrnhdi's paean to Medina and the two medical works. Al-Samhfidi's work can be explained by the Kizlar Agasl's profes- sional connection to the Holy Cities and personal empathy with the eunuchs who guarded the Prophet's tomb. The medical texts, however, seem to fall entirely outside the bounds of a normal Palace education and a normal imperial career. Yet perhaps they, too, are traceable to the Palace. Everyone trained as a Palace page, including the crown princes, had to learn an alternative craft lest he unexpectedly find himself without his customary means of support. 85) If this held true for the black eunuchs, as well, then perhaps CAbbds Agha chose medicine as his alternative. This line of speculation makes one eager to seek out the libraries of other Palace eunuchs to see if they entertained similar side-interests.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken as a whole, CAbbds Agha's waqf inventory offers a portrait of an Ottoman courtier-businessman. The two parts of the document present the two parts of CAbbas' career: the book list testifies to his Palace education while the property list speaks to the formidable wealth and commercial power he amassed in Egypt while serving as Kizlar Agasi. The book list is, admittedly, the more intriguing part of the inventory. Although it consists in large part of the Palace line on Muslim praxis, it also offers some inkling

85) Miller, Palace School, pp. 97-98.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

316 JANE HATHAWAY

of CAbbas Agha's personality and tastes-the sort of inkling that is all too rare in a society that did not leave behind many diaries or personal letters. In addition to the puzzle of the medical texts, CAbbas' WSif leanings raise tantalizing questions. One wonders whether his mystical inclinations were consistent with those of other Ottoman courtiers or other Palace eunuchs.

The issue of CAbbas Agha's religious beliefs looms particularly large given the religious climate of Istanbul at the time of his exile. The Kadizadelis had reached the height of their powers although it seems unlikely that they could have been solely responsible for CAbbis' exile. Under the circumstances, however, the siifi sympathies of the Kizlar Agasi, who was one of the most powerful officials in the realm, cannot have been overlooked. His connection to the eunuchs who guarded the Prophet's tomb would have made him particularly odious to the Kadizadelis.

That CAbbds Agha was himself aware of his link to the tomb guardians is borne out by his possession of al-Samlfidi's Khuliyat al-wafad This work stands out all the more since it is the only text that concerns itself with any locale outside the Ottoman central lands. The other books, in contrast, con- vey the impression that CAbbas' role as an Ottoman courtier easily took precedence over his ties to the eunuchs of the Prophet's tomb.

Yet a sense of eunuch solidarity is not entirely lacking in this case, even if one must dig a bit to find it. CAbb~s' house at Birkat al-Fil bordered the houses of two other exiled Palace eunuchs. In some instances, exiled Kizlar Agalari passed their residences down to their proteges within the corps of eunuchs, or to their wakfls. 86) Thus a sort of eunuch community-in-exile sprang up in Cairo through which a Palace eunuch could prepare for his likely banishment.

The interplay between Ottoman and eunuch identities to which this waqf inventory subtly points is, I believe, of a piece of the interplay between imperial duty and personal interest which it more overtly reflects. Most of the properties that cAbbas Agha endowed-certainly all of the lands and large commercial structures-were meant to provide revenue for the Awqdf al-Haramayn, the prime responsibility of the acting Kizlar Agasi. Yet all surplus revenues went into the pockets of CAbbds and his wakfls, to build the houses and shore up the clients that would sustain a Kizlar Akasi in exile. 87)

86) Thus Yiisuf Agha inherited TRg Ydtfir CAll Agha's (1645-1648) house at Suwayqat 'Usffir (al-HallAq, Tdrfb-z MZssr-z Kihkre, f. 219v). We observed previously that CAbbis Agha himself left his residence to his wakil Ahmed Agha.

87) In the same fashion, revenues from the inheritance of the Mamluk royal harem chief Shibl al-Dawla K~ffir (1408-1427) were endowed to his own mosque and mausoleum in and near Cairo. See Wiet, "Mosquee de Kiffir," p. 264.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE WAQF INVENTORY OF CABBAS AGHA 317

The commercial ventures in which CAbbis Agha invested in the countryside-flax processing in Shubra Basyuin, coffee marketing in Minyat Zifta-were in well-established enterprises located in villages already endowed to the Awqdf al-Iaramayn. Such relatively risk-free invest- ments guaranteed revenues for the Haramayn and, ultimately, for cAbbas himself. In this fashion, the imperial waqfs dovetailed neatly with the exiled Kizlar A'asi's personal endowments. While performing his duties toward the one, he laid the foundations for the other.

A third sort of interplay which this inventory allows us to consider is that between the imperial capital, whence the Kizlar Agasi came, and Egypt, to which he was exiled. The combination of the Kizlar Agasi's duties to the Awqaf al-Hjiaramayn while in office and his interest in his own endowments while in exile could mean enormous benefits for Egypt. Those villages attached to the Awqdf stood to prosper from the enterprises developed within their precincts and from the stability that resulted from belonging to the serbest?yet grant of the Kizlar Agasi's wakfl or client. In this case, the Nile town of Minyat Zifta, under cAbbas Agha's patronage, seems to have become something of a regional coffee capital. Its prosperity raises the ques- tion of the importance of imperial waqfs and of the interests of Ottoman officials, exiled or not, to the welfare of other Egyptian provincial towns and to other commercial ventures.

Beyond this lies the question of the cultural influences spawned by the exile of Kizlar Agalari and other Ottoman officials. If cAbbas Agha's library is, in the main, typical of the libraries of Ottoman officials, then one can only imagine how many solid Ottoman libraries were to be found in Cairo by the late 17th century. Their effect on Egypt's intellectual life cannot have been entirely negligible. Likewise the effect of the schools founded in Egypt by Kizlar Agalari and other imperial figures.

In sum, our study of this one brief waqf inventory leaves many desiderata. Further research in the waqfiyyas and estate inventories of Kizlar A'alari could one day reveal the full effect of exiled Palace eunuchs on Egypt's cultural and economic life. If this sort of research were broadened to encompass Ottoman officialdom as a whole, then it could begin to suggest the effects of the Ottoman brand of exile on the intellectual and commercial vitality of the Empire at large.

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:56:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions