The Vakıf Established by el-Hâc Ali Ağa bin el-Hâc Ahmet Ağa, the Voyvoda of Kemer-Edremit, and its Vakfiye

This paper studies vakfiye (deed), which is dated by 1 Cemaziye’levvel 1172/ 31 December 1758 and belongs to the vakıf (endowment), established by the voyvoda (governor) of Kemer-Edremit (Burhaniye), el- Hâc Ali Ağa bin Ahmet Ağa, in his locality. The creator of the endowment entrusted his properties situated in the kasaba (town) of Kemer-Edremit—olive trees and olive yards, shops at the marketplace, bakeries, coffehouses, gristmills, and olive oil mills—to a mosque which he ordered to built in Mahkeme district (mahalle) of Kemer-Edremit. The vakfiye specifies that el-Hâc Ali Ağa bin Ahmet Ağa entrusted to the vakıf 11 shops, 2 bakeries, 3 coffeehouses, 2 gristmills, and 3 olive oil mills as well as 66 olive yards and olive trees, which locations are precisely described. In total, the vakfiye mentions 87 items. The voyvoda stipulated several conditions for the use of the endowment. The properties and the incomes were to be used to provide support to religious leaders (imam, hatip, vaiz, muezzin, kayyim, etc), a primary school and its teachers, and the arrangement of Islamic holy nights and lighting candles on the minaret of the mosque during them. The trusteeship over the vakıf was to belong to its creator until his death; afterwards the trusteeship was to be transferred to male and female children of his family. The present study gives information about the structure of the vakıf institution in the Ottoman Empire and the vakfiye studied in the paper gives important information from the point of historical geography.