Urban and social historical background

by Stefan Knost

Aleppo becomes Ottoman

On 25 Rajab 922 / 24 August 1516, Mamluk and Ottoman armies clashed in Marj Dabiq, not far from Aleppo. The Ottomans were victorious and within a short period Aleppo and the whole of Syria and the Levant (Bilad al-Sham) were integrated into the growing Ottoman Empire with its capital in Istanbul. In the decades following the conquest, Ottoman policies prepared Aleppo for its role as one of the major trading hubs of this vast empire.

Situated approximately mid-way between the Euphrates Valley and the Mediterranean, Aleppo has been an important emporium since time immemorial. Long distance trade routes from the Eastern Mediterranean traditionally crossed the Euphrates River east of Aleppo, continuing eastwards towards Iran and Central Asia, and to Southern Mesopotamia.

The Mamluks, ruling from Cairo, already benefitted from this particular role of Aleppo and constructed caravanserais and markets in the city for that purpose; however, urbanism took on a different shape and dimension in the 10th century AH / 16th century AD. Yet the legal-administrative framework of these engagements – the institution of the waqf, or Islamic religious endowment – remained the same.

Islamic religious endowment (waqf) and urban development

These endowments were established to achieve individual pious or social goals. Usually, a distinction is made between a charitable endowment (waqf khayri) which benefits immediately religious or social institutions – like a mosque, a madrasa (Islamic college), a zawiya (dervish lodge), or a hospital – and a family endowment (waqf ahli or dhurri) which initially benefits the offspring of the founder before finally reaching a charitable end, usually supporting the poor.

Since medieval times, waqf increasingly became the chosen tool to undertake large urban infrastructural projects. Nur al-Din Zangi (d. 569 AH / 1174 AD) was one of the first who used the waqf institution to rebuild Syrian cities after centuries of decline and destruction. [1] 

Following dynasties like the Ayyubids and Mamluks subscribed to this policy as well, but the Ottomans filled it with new life and used the institution of the waqf for their imperial projects.

Khusraw Pasha, the patron and his endowment

Khusraw Pasha, the patron of Aleppo’s first Ottoman-style külliye (complex of buildings serving the social and religious needs of the community), was originally from Bosnia and was recruited as part of the devșirme (child levy), which forcibly mustered young boys from Christian families in the Balkans and Anatolia into the Ottoman army and civil service. He served as a governor (wali) of Aleppo in the second half of the 930s AH / first half of the 1530s AD and returned to the city during the winter of 941 AH / 1534–35 AD with the campaign against Safavid Iran. [2]

His architectural complex including a Friday mosque (jamiʿ), a madrasa (Islamic college), and a takiyya (travellers lodge) with an imaret (public kitchen, mainly used to provide food for travellers), was built in front of the citadel, thus symbolically occupying a prominent location next to the old Mamluk centre of power (see picture 3). It was completed in 953 AH / 1546–47 AD; in 2014, it was destroyed. Just across the street, a commercial structure (qaysariyya) with more than 50 shops was located: the – today partly destroyed – Khan al-Shuna, one of many similar buildings to generate income for the endowment (see picture 4).

This and other Ottoman endowments of the 10th century AH / 16th century AD provided Aleppo with the infrastructure needed to function as an important hub of long-distance trade.[3]

Realising such a large complex in the centre of Aleppo required some sophisticated urban operations. A number of plots needed to be acquired, some of them already waqf properties, including a mosque and a madrasa. [4]. Although rejected by some jurists, waqf property could be exchanged against other assets, provided a judge determined that it was of advantage to the endowment.

The long life of the Khusrawiyya

When it was first established, Khusraw Pasha’s endowment was among the richest in Aleppo, maybe second only to the Umayyad mosque. It gave numerous employment possibilities for members of the families of Aleppine ulama (Muslim religious scholars), and for that reason, it provided additional legitimacy for Ottoman rule in Aleppo. In the decades after the foundation, it certainly was one of the most active, maybe the most active religious centre in Aleppo.

Waqf funds were spent on a total of 117 positions, ranging from the two prayer leaders (sing. imam), one preacher (khatib) and one professor (mudarris) as well as eight stipends for students of the madrasa. Beside the ‘essential’ religious positions, like imam or khatib, others were employed to recite only a particular section (sura) of the Quran.

An important number of persons were initially employed on the associated takiyya and the kitchen, like two cooks (sing. tabbakh) with two assistants, one person who had to clean the rice, and two bakers (sing. khabbaz), underlining the importance of these facilities for the founder Khusraw Pasha. Therefore, not only sons from among the elite ulama families could make a living from the salaries resulting from the Khusrawiyya’s waqf revenues, but a number of ‘ordinary’ people as well. [5]

The number of people employed and the amount of revenue generating property belonging to the waqf attested to the supreme economic importance of the Khusrawiyya for this part of Aleppo. The patron equally stipulated that the imam (prayer leader) and the mudarris (professor) of the madrasa should follow the Hanafi School, the official Islamic legal school (madhhab) of the Ottoman Empire. Strengthening this school in Aleppo was another step towards better integration into the empire. [6]

Islamic law stipulates that endowments are established for eternity, but they were – like any other property – exposed to wear and tear, and occasional destructions due to earthquakes and military conflicts. Over a period stretching from the 10th to the 13th centuries AH / 16th to the 19th centuries AD, it can be observed that increasing costs for renovations of the Khusrawiyya’s waqf property consumed stagnating revenues. As a result, the administrator (mutawalli) had to cut expenses.

From the middle of the 12th century AH / 18th century AD onwards, no expenses for the kitchen and the takiyya were recorded and a number of other positions had disappeared as well. On the other hand, the endowment then provided payments for the Hanafi mufti or jurisconsult of Aleppo (who was – along with the qadi or chief judge – an important dignitary within the Muslim community of the city), and for the imam of the Umayyad Mosque, and an elementary school teacher (shaykh maktab).[7]

Later, the earthquake of 1237 AH / 1822 AD severely affected the area around the citadel and left most of the remaining revenue generating assets in the vicinity of the complex destroyed and the mosque itself damaged. [8]

At the beginning of the 14th century AH / end of the 19th century AD, the Khusrawiyya’s mosque and some of its functions as a madrasa were finally restored and revived.[9] Renovated once again after 1338 AH / 1920 AD, because soldiers had occupied the building during the First World War, it remained the most important madrasa in Aleppo with a ‘traditional’ curriculum well into the middle of the 20th century. Its professors were recruited from among the most illustrious families of Muslim religious scholars (ulama), like the famous historian Muhammad Raghib al-Tabbakh, who served as its director in French mandate times (1920–1946).[10]

Footnotes

[1] See Heidemann, “Charity and Piety for the Transformation,” 153–74.
[2] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 71–72.
[3] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 63‑64.
[4] Al-Ghazzi, Nahr al-Dhahab, 2:95.
[5] Knost, Die Organisation des religiösen Raums, 299–301.
[6] Al-Ghazzi, Nahr al-Dhahab, 2:95.
[7] Knost, Die Organisation des religiösen Raums, 180–83.
[8] Knost, “Living with Disaster,” 304.
[9] Al-Ghazzi, Nahr al-Dhahab, 2:97.
[10] Gaulmier, “Note sur l’état présent,” 118–19.