The mosque’s endowment
[Picture source: © 2008 Rami Alafandi ] [Picture source: © 2008 Rami Alafandi ] Ghazzi informs us about the property endowed in the original waqfiyya: a number of shops (sing. dukkan) adjacent to the mosque, a coffee roastery (bayt mahmas al-bunn)[1]. In addition to the property next to the mosque, there are four other objects, three shops (sing. dukkan) and one house (sing. dar), in the northern and eastern suburb of Aleppo, as well as the tax income– or shares thereof – of villages in Aleppo province, like the village of ʿAjjar close to ʿAzaz, or one quarter of the village of Harim.[2]
We possess an account document from the Sharia Court Records of the mosque’s endowment from a later period: In 1167 / 1753-54, the endowment owned eleven real-estate objects and another 25 hikr contracts (ground-rent)[3]. Like in many other neighborhood mosques, most of the waqf property is situated close to the mosque. Some may be identified as belonging to the initial endowment, like two shops next to the mosque’s entrance, or two rooms (sing. oda) inside the mosque.[4] The hikr (ground rent) of the Hammam Khass Bek in the Shumaysatiyya Neighborhood (Banqusa area) belonged to the endowment, whose single most important object was a garden (bustan) in the village Baballah north of Aleppo.[5] The substantially higher number of objects, particularly the hikr-contracts, than in the original waqfiyya can be explained by the cumulative character of the endowment. A number of these additional these additional endowments (awqaf mulhaqa) could be found in the court records.[6]
The high number of rituals performed in the mosque require a high number of employees paid from waqf revenues. The account document probably does not give the entire picture and can only partly confirm the historians’ statement that the Banqusa Mosque was a particularly active institution. The document lists eight positions: an imam-khatib, three other imams, one muezzin, a waqf-administrator (mutawalli) and one cleaner of the ablution facilities. Two additional muezzins and one servant are employed during Ramadan.[7] Other employees may have been rewarded by the additional endowments (awqaf mulhaqa) that were not included in the account document.
We do not know much about the administration of the mosque before the 19th century. But from the mid-19th century until well into the 20th century, the position of mutawalli (administrator) of the mosque was occupied by the members of the Mallah family that was of Bedouin origin, controlled the revenues of the Jubbul saltworks (Mamlahat al-Jubbul) southeast of Aleppo and whose members were among the notables of the eastern suburb of Aleppo. Hajj Salih Agha al-Mallah (died 1288/1871-72) is the first one who took this office, restored the mosque and part of its real estate waqf property. In addition, he exercised the function of mutawalli for other mosques in the eastern suburb and engaged in other urban projects, like the paving of streets in that area.[8]
