THE IMPACT OF THE ELITE (ULEMA) CLASS ON THE OTTOMAN ECONOMY: THE CASE STUDY OF THE CASH WĀQFS

In Muslim societies, the views of religious law scholars are critical for the community's religiosity and the Islamicity of the state, and general socio-economic and cultural life. This study explores several financial aspects of Ottoman life governed by the Hanafi code of law and institutional...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational Journal of Economics, Management and Accounting Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 27 - 54
Main Authors Bulut, Mehmet, Korkut, Cem
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Petaling Jaya International Islamic University Malaysia 01.01.2022
Subjects
Borrowing
Clergy
Debates
Decision making
Economic life
Flexibility
Institutionalization
Investigations
Jurisprudence
Muslims
Religion
Society
Ottoman Empire
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Summary:In Muslim societies, the views of religious law scholars are critical for the community's religiosity and the Islamicity of the state, and general socio-economic and cultural life. This study explores several financial aspects of Ottoman life governed by the Hanafi code of law and institutionalized fatwas, and the effects of the scholarly class. The Ottoman financial institutions manifested as cash wāqf played a key role as credit mechanisms in the Ottoman economy. This study focuses on finance-related wāqf and fatwas in the Ottoman period. This research relies on primary fatwa sources and archival wāqf documents (wāqfiyahs). The institutions of fatwa and cash wāqf, respectively, as legal and credit institutions, had a significant effect on Ottoman socio-economic society. The fatwa institution played the role of monitoring and regulatory agency while cash wāqf operated as charitable institutions and interest-free 'banks'. Despite the religious debate around cash wāqf, the latter was able to fund community development projects with no interest but also influenced the market borrowing ratio and arrangement of the borrowing methods. The study's findings show that Islām strongly influenced the economic decision-making processes in Ottoman communities. Sample of fatwas and cash wāqf represent some of the most important indicators of these findings. The study will further guide recent progress made in Islāmic economy and finance. The flexibility of the fatwa institution and its ability to influence decisions are also critical new instruments in Islāmic finance.
ISSN:2462-1420