VAKUFNAMAS: CHARACTER AND KINDS

The vakufnama (deed of endowment) is a legal document which defines the motive, the subject, the purpose of endowing, conditions and way of using and managing the waqf. It regulates crucial issues pertaining to the subject of endowing, regardless of whether it is a real property or a movable property. With respect to real property, waqfs included facilities of various types and purposes (masjids, mosques, maktabs, madrasas, inns, caravanserais, bridges, water-supply systems, fountains, shadirvans, bakeries, stores, clock towers etc.) and agricultural parcels (orchards, vineyards, arable land, meadows, forests). The movable property in vakufnamas included books, money, dishes, jewelry, decorative and other items in mosques, masjids, madrasas, or devices for heating and lighting. There was often an entire spectrum of immovable and movable properties endowed by the same person, particularly if it was a highly-positioned officer of the empire, an officer at the emperor's court, a regent in Bosnia or a regent originating from Bosnia, who established waqfs in their homeland. Most waqfs in the classical age were conceived on the principles of “economic sustainability and functionality”, so that expenses could be covered by revenues of the waqfs themselves and, in some cases, bring revenues for new investments. Sometimes, a vakufnama included everything that one vakif (founder of a waqf) donated to a community for use in one or more places, particularly if all these made up a single waqf. Vakifs sometimes endowed several vakufnamas, depending on how the facilities were built, or in which order they endowed their property. It was the case with Gazi Husrev-bey, who had three vakufnamas for his waqfs, Ćejvan-ćehaja from Mostar, who had two (in 1554 and 1558), or Karađoz-bey from Mostar with three (1570), two dated at the same time, in February 1570 and the third one in October 1570. Subjects of endowments satisfied needs of an environment and the time when waqfs were created, as well as vakif's wish for doing good. The purposes of endowing varied, i.e. they would satisfy needs of spiritual, educational, infrastructural or social nature, which was defined in the vakufnama to the smallest detail. For this reason, vakufnamas are extremely significant sources for studying the emergence of educational institutions, educational circumstances, emergence of some other institutions, cultural circumstances in Bosnia, as well as intellectual and educational circles at some places.

Vakufnamas were produced in several copies. The original was kept by the waqf founder or mutevelija (waqf manager), while the original or later transcripts were intended for a qadi or institutions in charge of the supervision and control of the waqf business. Consequently, a large number of valkufnamas have been preserved in court records – sidžils of local qadis. This is why we presently have a large number of vakufnamas in different forms, with some differences, depending on the time of their occurrence, with authentic signatures or stamps of all participants, drafters, qadis or witnesses present at the legalization of the vakufnama or without it, particularly in the case of summaries or vakufnamas in the form of short notes in books. Transcripts of vakufnamas included additional certification of the originality and authenticity of the text, which was certified by a competent qadi according to an appropriate legal procedure. They were also made due to various disputes between a waqf and users of waqf property or the vakif's successors. In this case, all the previous certifications found in the variant which was transcribed were entered. Sometimes, excerpts or summarized varieties of vakufnamas were made. There were cases when, based on the affidavit by a witness, the text of a lost or destroyed vakufnama was drafted with the participation of waqf officers and using billing registers of the waqf, to avoid the possibility of any omission.

The draft of a vakufnama was made by the vakif, as the initiator and developer, and an attorney, a qadi, who turned the vakif's intention into a legal text. In vakufnamas, we find two varieties of defining this act, “written” or “composed”. Thus, the vakif gave the basic coordinates, motives for the endowment, subject of the endowment, what is endowed, to what purposes, how he wanted his endowment to be used and managed. The attorney turned the vakif's wish into a text of legal nature, according to Sharia usage of Hanafi legal school, structural and diplomatic patterns, keeping in mind that the text of the vakufnama did not leave space for legal uncertainties or abuses of the subjects of endowment. Besides, the process of drafting a vakufnama could include a professional scribe. There are vakufnamas which were written in longhand, according to high artistic standards. They were written by distinguished professional scribes, depending on the level at which vakufnamas were created: at the imperial court, seat of the province, mulaluk (mullah kaza), kadiluk (qadi kaza) or a judicial branch – naibluk. Some vakufnamas from Bosnia were drafted or certified with their stamps by outstanding jurists, the supreme legal authorities of the Ottoman Empire: Istanbul qadi, deputy Istanbul qadi, kadiasker (military judge) of Anatolia, kadiasker of Rumelia, and by Ebu's-su'ud, the best-known legal authority of the Ottoman Empire. Some Bosnian vakufnamas were written in Tripoli (present Lebanon), Agriboz (present Greece), Budim (Hungary) and, of course, most of them were written in the cities in Bosnia. In the classical period, they were typically written in Arabic and, from the 17th century on, mostly in Ottoman-Turkish.

The oldest Bosnian vakufnama is the vakufnama on the establishment of the City of Sarajevo dating back to February 1462, preserved as a transcript in the court records; the oldest preserved vakufnama in the first transcript from the original is the vakufnama by Mustafa-bey, Iskender-pasha's son, regent of Syria (25.12.1517–3. 1.1518) and the oldest original vakufnama for the City of Sarajevo is the vakufnama by Muslihudin Čekrekčija of August 1526.  

In their historical development, vakufnamas could exist in various forms: in the form of a scroll, notebook or small books, miniature manuscripts with various artistic or calligraphic ornaments. The preserved Bosnian vakufnamas with artistic ornaments include those from the area of Mostar. Thus, some Bosnian vakufnamas were written as miniature collections, smaller literary works of up to 28 leaves, which might consist of one, two or three vakufnamas. However, these vakufnamas are few. They were mostly written on one sheet of paper of different sizes, depending on the content of the endowment, the drafter's eloquence and inspiration. Therefore, some vakufnamas have different, sometimes even unexpected size, more than one, two and some even reach the length of three meters. In contrast, some vakufnamas are one-page manuscripts, and others have a form of a short note, only a few words, when some vakifs endowed handwritten works.  

As legal documents, vakufnamas had a characteristic content and legal form, regardless of the fact that contents of vakufnamas differed. Pursuant to diplomatic standards and diplomatic form, constituent parts of a vakufnama were following: a short invocation, a stamp of the certification of the original or the transcript, a longer invocation – acknowledgement to God, exposition – motives for endowing, disposition – subject of endowing, conditions, legalization, sanctions, dating and witnessing. Some vakufnamas had a supplement (zejl). Dating in the bottom of a vakufnama could be very accurate, including the exact date of legalization, or have approximations, such as “early”, “mid” or “late”, depending if it referred to the first, second or third part of a month. Sometimes they contained only the month and the year when the vakufnama was legalized in a legal procedure. All vakufnamas were dated according to the Hijri calendar.