Abstract
FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE IN URFA CITY ACCORDİNG TO MUSLİM JUDGE REGİSTERS (1884-1899)
Non-Muslim people in the Ottoman Empire have been able to establish a foundation freely like the Muslim population in the religious tolerance environment afforded to them. They have met the various needs of their temples, religious places, educational institutions, and needy co-religionists through these foundations. Registers of the non-Muslim foundations have been recorded with the supervision of the kadis in sharia courts. The income and function of these foundations have not been interfered in as long as they have adhered to the issues specified in the foundation certificate-charter.
In XIX. century in Urfa, non-Muslim population, particularly Armenians, have established various foundation. Some of these foundations have been recorded by the kadi court of the city. In this study, foundation activities of the mentioned community are revealed and evaluated in the light of 16 Armenian foundations recorded by the Sharia court in Urfa between the years of 1884-1899.
Urfa Armenian foundations have been carried out in the form of donations to the church, and the administration has been left to the clergy in the church. Typically real estates like houses, shops, fields, vineyards, and orchards were devoted to these foundations. Foundation incomes have been donated to the repair of Big Armenian Church, to the needs of the orphan school students and the poor of the church, and to the water needs of the temples and Armenian quarters.
Keywords
Urfa, Armenians, Foundation Religious (Vaqf), Patrimony.
