THE PRACTICE OF CIHET IN THE TRADITION OF OTTOMAN FOUNDATION

45243

This article attempts to study on the practice of cihet within the procedures applied in the tradition of Ottoman foundation. “The cihet”, putting it simply, is a name given for being allocated works for services provided within a foundation. The plural of the term was “cihât”. It is to be faced with services of foundations in many fields such as religious, social and cultural, that is, a kind of cihet. Cihets which are determined their types and qualities were allocated to people who had the stipulated conditions. Thus, people who had cihet had been assumed responsibility through an employee identity of the related foundation. The efforts to systematize the foundation institution gained momentum especially in the first half of the 19th century had relatively taken place in a late stage. As a matter of fact that the Foundation Ministry (the Awqaf Ministry) had been established in 1826, according to the State Yearbooks, the establishment of the office which would execute the cihet procedures and the assignment of the first cihât director had taken place in 1870. Likewise, the first legislation in the cihet field was enacted in 1870 as well. The practice of cihet in the tradition of Ottoman foundation had obtained more a systematic way since this date.

293

Ottoman , Foundation , Awqaf Ministry , Cihet , Cihet Allocation

Abant Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi

322

Abant Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi