What they have left those before us
ALGERIA
- The madrasah Al Khaldounia is a madrassah of the city of Tlemcen which was built in 1347 under the order of Sultan Abu Al Hassan. It is part of the religious complex of Sidi Boumediene with the mosque that bears the same name, the palace of the Sultan (Dar es Sultan), the zaouia and the hammam.
By virtue of their great economic profitability, the baths of Algiers, during the Ottoman period, were most often constituted in waqf property for the benefit of religious, charitable or public utility institutions.
EGYPT
- The Cairo Library was a Waqf of Khalifa Al Hakim Biamri Allah which contained 2.2 million books, which was 20 times the number of works of the famous library of Alexandria at the time of the Romans.
Ali Bacha had made an inquiry on the agricultural lands. He found that out of 2 million feddans for agriculture 600,000 are Waqf lands, about one-third. Thus the Waqf was able to mitigate the feudal pressure.
The first to organize the Waqf property was Le Cadi Taoubatou bnou Namir, judge of Khalifa Hischam Bnou Abdel Malik in Egypt. He dedicated a particular Diwan under his direction with a special account called “Beit mal al Awqaf” (Waqf Treasury). Thus very early – a century after the appearance of Islam – the institution of the Waqf was under the management and control of the judge of the judges instead of being under the vizier’s tutelage and was organized in Diwan
Special clothes were funded by the Waqf to distinguish students at the University of El Azhar. The first to wear these clothes is Imam Abu Yusuf. This tradition will then spread to Europe and the United States at Oxford University.
The English occupation in Egypt led to an attempt to Egyptianize the language to weaken it by replacing it with the Egyptian dialect, even in Al Azhar University. But Sheikh Mohamed ABDOU fought for the defense of the Arabic language by dedicating part of Waqf funds to the expansion of this teaching. Al Azhar who has always benefited from Waqf funds and has remained one of the highest places of science and Islamic knowledge in the world.
The Sultan Hassan Mosque is an Islamic religious complex in the city of Cairo. Characterized by Mamluk architecture, it was built from1356 on the orders of Sultan An-Nasir al-Hasan. This vast complex was originally home to several important madrasas where the four madhhab or legal schools of Islam were studied.
SPAIN - It was in Muslim Spain that the first awqaf of the continent were developed. In the city of Cordoba alone, at the height of the Umayyad dynasty, there were no longer any schools and hospitals founded by this system. The Waqf also owes the financing of the scientific and philosophical works of Averroes, Avicenna or ‘Ali ibn Isa, which still influences European and Arab-Muslim culture today.
In Cordoba, during the reign of Al-Hakam bin Abdul Rahman III, there were 27 elementary schools sponsored by Awqaf in the neighborhoods of the city.
INDONESIA
- In Indonesia Dutch colonization has tried, throughout the Church, to Christianize Indonesian society. And it is thanks to the Islamic schools built by the Waqf, which were scattered all over Indonesia, that the Islamic identity of this people has been and continues to be preserved.
The Islamic renaissance observed today in Indonesia is the result, according to Western observers of the dynamism of the youth of the rural schools called Madrasa (Madrasa or Sokolah of Islam), which are erected in Waqf.
IRAQ
- Towards the middle of the tenth century in Mosul, a huge library was created from a waqf for all scholars. It offered scholarships to the poorest researchers. Another library in Baghdad has been extended through waqf to host and feed foreign researchers for free. On the other hand, awqaf were not only dedicated to basic services but also offered luxury goods to all citizens of the city.
The Mouristân medical complex in Baghdad and the Mansouri Hospital have founded thanks to the Waqf library of Ibn Annafîss who discovered the circulatory system.
MOROCCO
- In Morocco, the Habous Ministry has existed for almost three centuries (since 1140 AH).
The Waqf was used to finance the places of worship (mosques) and sometimes was intended directly for the two holy sites of Islam, the Koranic schools which were all dependent on Waqf funds in Morocco, but also for the auspices intended for the poor, sick, mentally handicapped, schools, Muslim courts, etc. It also financed military fortifications, road infrastructure, and water supplies, coverage of regional deficits when the public interest required it.
The waqf allowed to set up countless Zaouiya and school