Sudski sporovi oko vakufa carskog kzlarage Mustafe / Judicial Disputes About the Waqf of the Imperial Kızlar Aga Mustafa

Abstract

This paper deals with the establishment of the waqf and the judicial procedures between 1598 and 1652 which disputed the endowment of the Kızlar Aga Mustafa. Numerous judicial processes brought to light the disputes between the administrator of the foundation (mütevelli) and the Sipahi. The Sipahi had difficulties in accepting the change of status, from “Sipahi in the village of Gornja Kloka”, on the area where the kasaba of Novo Jajce was based, into the status of a “Sipahi in the kasaba”. Interchangeable variations in the use of the term “Sipahi in the village” into “Sipahi in the kasaba”, which can occasionally be noticed in the official documents, indicate that gradually a new status of two local Sipahis was being established, whereby they lost a part of their income on which they became accustomed in the preceding period. It could be said that the mentioned conflict, to a certain degree, reflected the clash of interests, from one side between the timar organization as the primary bearer of conquering military operations, in which Sipahis and soldiers from nonurban areas took part, and on the other between the newly established institution of waqf as the bearer of the new urban development of the privileged town area. Namely, the waqf of the Kızlar Aga, beside having significant capital from the beginning, was also given the right to collect the tenth from the waqf estates by the state authorities, and it later received the tenth which was introduced again after the clearing of certain endowed land lots which were, at the time of endowment, not cleared. In that way the waqf was given a significant part of income such as those which were previously given to the Sipahi as the income which held the timar system in power.