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Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Imperial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem
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Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Imperial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem Hardcover - 2002

by Amy Singer


From the publisher

Ottoman charitable endowments (waqf) constituted an enduring monument to imperial beneficence and were important instruments of policy. One type of endowment, the public soup kitchen (>imaret) served travelers, scholars, pious mystics, and local indigents alike. Constructing Ottoman Beneficence examines the political, social, and cultural context for founding these public kitchens. It challenges long-held notions about the nature of endowments and explores for the first time how Ottoman modes of beneficence provide an important paradigm for understanding universal questions about the nature of charitable giving. A typical and well-documented example was the imaret of Hasseki Hurrem Sultan, wife of Sultan Sleyman I, in Jerusalem. The imaret operated at the confluence of imperial endowment practices and Ottoman food supply policies, while also exemplifying the role of imperial women as benefactors. Through its operations, the imaret linked imperial Ottoman and local Palestinian interests, integrating urban and rural economies.

Details

  • Title Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Imperial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem
  • Author Amy Singer
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Pages 240
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher State University of New York Press
  • Date June 2002
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780791453513 / 0791453510
  • Weight 1.04 lbs (0.47 kg)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Middle Eastern
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2002024171
  • Dewey Decimal Code 361.750

About the author

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.