the islamic waqf in yaffa and the urban space: from the

Introduction

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The Islamic Waqf in Yaffa and the Urban Space: Fromthe Ottoman State to the State of Israel

Mahmoud Yazbak Senior Lecturer, Department of Middle Eastern History

University of Haifa and Chairman of the Board of Directors, AdalahPresident of Middle Eastern and Islkamic Studies Association in Israel (MEISAI)

Introduction: The administration ofthe Islamic Waqf from the OttomanState to the State of IsraelThe Islamic waqf played an essential rolein providing social and religious services inthe state and in Islamic communities priorto the emergence of the modern state. Inseveral cases the waqf, and in particularthe charitable waqf, has been an essentialforce in stimulating and driving theeconomy in these communities. At a timewhen the state did not have a role in theplanning, initiation or programming ofthe provision of basic services, such aseducation and health, or maintainingplaces of worship, the institution of theIslamic waqf was a reflection of the localcommunity’s will and desire to performthese tasks. While it is true that in theIslamic system the sultan, governor, andstatesman established numerousinstitutions to provide social and religiousservices and launched constructionprojects, including dams, bridges androads, the vast majority of these publicenterprises were initiated as waqfenterprises. Projects instigated by affluent

members of society were of no lesssignificance. The charitable waqf providedservices to all members of the community,and in order to ensure the long-termviability of these services and theiruniversal scope, it was necessary to givewaqf properties the mark of permanence.In this way, it would be impossible toconfiscate or sell them, prevent Muslimsfrom gaining their proceeds, or for theseproceeds to be transferred for the benefitof non-Muslims, which would constitutea violation of the will of waqf donor,which is tantamount to the divine word.

Before the introduction of theOttoman-era regulations in the 1830s,there had been no centralizedadministration to oversee the managementof the charitable waqf. Each waqf propertywas allocated a commissioner toadminister its affairs locally, whichenabled small groups of the local socialelite to control the management of theseproperties. In the latter half of thenineteenth century, following theestablishment of the administrativecouncils, the Ottoman State sought to

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gain control over the administration of thecharitable waqf and wrest them from thelocal elite through a policy ofcentralization. To that end, a waqfadministration was introduced in theprovince of Jerusalem, for instance, thatwas headed by an employee with the rankof administrator. Subordinate to it werethree further departments that operated inthe districts of Gaza, Hebron and Yaffa.1

Parallel to the state’s growing role in socialand educational policy-making, andconsolidating its control over the waqfand strengthening the centraladministration, the Ministry of the Waqftransferred the administration andproceeds of the charitable waqf to itself.As a result, these proceeds became part ofthe overall public budget for the supportof social, educational and religiousinstitutions at the state level (Barron,1922: 56–57). In practice, the Ottomanpolicy of reform ended the independenceof the waqf and subsumed it within aninterconnected network with a centralizedadministration, which provided socialservices to all citizens of the state.

At the beginning of the British Mandatefor Palestine, and following the demise ofthe Ottoman Empire, administration ofthe waqf properties was transferred to theHigher Islamic Council, which becameresponsible for all waqf-related matters,including budgeting, the provision ofservices, the making of appointments, newconstruction, etc.2 Despite the fact that

the Higher Islamic Council was part of thegovernmental administration, it achievedalmost complete autonomy inadministering the waqf and associatedpolicy-making. Due to abundant financialresources that derived from the waqf, thisadministrative and political autonomyfacilitated the pioneering role played bythe Higher Islamic Council in theformation and leadership of thePalestinian national movement during theMandate period. In addition, the MandateAuthority did not adopt a systematicpolicy of stripping the Islamic waqfinstitutions of their real estate andtransferring them to non-Muslims, as wasto occur subsequently.

This state of affairs altered entirelyfollowing the establishment of the State ofIsrael, which sought, through variousmeans, to strip the institution of the waqfof its real estate, property, substance andobjectives. Underpinned by Zionistthought, the Jewish State sought from theoutset to remove all Arab and Islamicsymbols and institutions from Israel, lestthey constitute a basis for a nationalmovement opposed to the concept ofZionism and the Jewish State.3 The waqfinstitution, with its enormous economicassets and social and political objectives,could have acted as a social and politicalincubator for the Palestinians whoremained in their homeland within theborders of the Jewish State, as it hadduring the Mandate. Moreover, the

Introduction

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The Islamic Waqf in Yaffa and the Urban Space: From the Ottoman State to the State of Israel

charitable waqf owned a large amount ofland, equating to over 15% of the totalagricultural land within the borders of theState of Israel, while prior to 1948, Jewsand the Zionist institutions owned nomore than 10% of the land (Reudy, 1971:135; Dumper, 1997: 29). Thus the waqflands, together with the lands of thedestroyed Palestinian villages, constitutedthe core of the lands that were confiscatedby the nascent State of Israel. Insubsequent years the confiscation of waqfproperty continued, with the result thatthe waqf institution was stripped of itsmeaning and content and its beneficiarieswere deprived of its proceeds, which wereinstead diverted to the Jewish population.The lands of the Islamic waqf are nowcultivated by Jews, provide a living to Jewsand are distributed only to Jews. The waqfreal estate properties are no different;rather than allocate their proceeds for thebenefit of mosques, schools, hospitals, etc.,as stipulated by the waqf donor, they aregiven to institutions that have noconnection to Islam or Muslims.

In order to describe the above in adetailed manner, this article will examinethe waqf of Yaffa, as an example thatillustrates the fate of the Islamic waqfwithin the State of Israel.

Yaffa: Developments and shifts inthe late eighteenth centuryLife in the city of Yaffa – the bride ofPalestine and its gateway to the sea –

ground to a halt in the late twelfthcentury, following the expulsion of theCrusaders from the country. The city’sstatus remained unchanged until thesecond half of the seventeenth century,when the cultivation of cotton in centralPalestine gradually began to flourish inresponse to an increase in French demand.From that period, life began gradually toreturn to the port of Yaffa and the otherPalestinian coastal towns. The Ottomanauthorities consequently paid greaterattention to these areas. With the onset ofthe eighteenth century, a comprehensiveplan was drafted for Yaffa in Istanbul thatwas designed to safeguard the city andbolster its status; the plan included afortress, which was built and furnishedwith fifteen cannons and a permanentgarrison of Janissaries.

Trade at the port of Yaffa underwent aperiod of rapid growth, accompanied by amarked increase in the amount of customsduties collected by the State Treasury.Yaffa also began to display signs ofpopulation growth. These developmentsencouraged investors and financiers fromJerusalem to establish economic venturesin Yaffa, which proved highly profitable.The Ottoman administration’s awarenessof the radical shifts in the economic andstrategic significance of Yaffa prompted itto raise its administrative status to Sanjak(district), and to tie the port budget andtax commitments directly to the centraladministration in Istanbul. When he

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visited Yaffa in 1785, Constantin FrançoisVolney noted the sharp rise in tradingactivity at the port, describing the amountof customs duties collected as “very good”.He went on to record that supplies ofDamietta rice arrived at Yaffa on its wayto Jerusalem and other parts of Palestine,as well as products from the French cottonfactory in Ramle, Syrian coastal productsand Palestinian cotton yarn. In addition,goods from different parts of Palestinewere exported from Yaffa and Muslimpilgrims from Greece and Istanbul enteredat the town (Volney, 1788: 330, 334,338). During this period, a plan to dry upsome of the marshes surrounding the cityin order to turn them into citrus groveswas implemented, and the water millslocated on the banks of the al-Awja Riverwere repaired. These developments had apositive impact on population growth inthe city, which in 1797 stood at over7,000 people (Browne, 1806: 410-411).

However, the development of Yaffa wascut short once again when the city wassubjected to a horrific massacre,perpetrated by Napoleon Bonaparte andhis troops on 6 March 1799 during theiroccupation of the city, which claimed thelives of approximately 4,000 people. TheYaffa Shari’a court was not spared theburning and destruction, and even thecourt records, which provide the mainhistorical source for the city’s history andsociety, did not survive. However, theduplication of some of the waqf charters

in the court records, once its workresumed after the expulsion of theoccupiers, has enabled us to track theresurgence of Yaffa as a major trading andeconomic center in the late eighteenthcentury. Four extensive waqf records areparticularly noteworthy, as they contain adescription of dozens of waqf buildings,and give us an insight into the city’seconomic, social and urban structure.

One such waqf record belonged to amerchant named Muhammad Bibi, whoregistered it in 1749.4 The waqf inquestion consisted of 24 properties,including a large soap factory, two olivepress, fifteen shops, two houses, oneorchard and three vineyards. In 1796,Wehbe Muharram, a Yaffa traderoriginally from Cairo, registered his waqfin the court (Jabarti, 1968: 275, 327). Healso left a detailed logbook of hiseconomic activities prior to his murderduring the French occupation of the city.His waqf comprised 91 properties,including three soap factories, two sesameoil presses, a flour mill, a bakery, thirty-one dwellings, twenty-eight shops, twopacking houses, five orchards, nine grovesand several homes.5 According to the waqfcharter, he had a business partnership withthe Mufti of Yaffa, Mr. Yihya Al-Tibi inrelation to the Darwish Soap Factory, thelargest soap factory in Yaffa at the time,which consisted of twelve vaults.6 Thewaqf charters usually indicate the level ofinvestment in real estate for the purpose of

Introduction

27


leasing it out due to the increaseddemand, which is further evidence of thepositive shift in Yaffa’s economic statusduring the second half of the eighteenthcentury.

By examining the informationcontained in the aforementioned waqfcharters, one may delineate thearchitectural and urban features of the cityof Yaffa on the eve of the Frenchoccupation. It is clear that Yaffa had threecentral markets at the time, along withseveral inns (khans).7 In addition to actingas hotels for Muslim pilgrims and traders,these inns provided the main storage areasfor Palestinian merchants’ goods cominginto and out of the port. The economictransformation of Yaffa on the eve ofNapoleon’s invasion of the city hadattracted large numbers of people andresidents, which prompted two gentlemenknown as Al-Tibi and Muharram to buildtwo mosques to serve the swellingnumbers of worshippers. During thisperiod there were six working mosques inYaffa: the Al-Bahr (Sea) Mosque, whichwas built in 1675 and bequeathed as awaqf endowment by the Governor of theSanjak of Gaza, Musa Radwan Pasha;8 theBibi Mosque, bequeathed as waqf by theYaffa merchant, Muhammad Bibi in1738;9 the Great Mosque, erected in 1756(Cohen, 1973: 155); the TabiyahMosque; and the two aforementionedYahya (dating from 1792) and WehbeMuharram (dating from 1796) mosques.10

According to the waqf charter ofCaptain Hassan Pasha Cezayirli, who wasin charge of the customs of Yaffa, in 1780he established a sabil (a public drinkingfountain) near to the main gate of the city.To finance this fountain, he endowed agroup of shops in the Yaffa market locatedbesides the Great Mosque of Yaffa.11

These included a coffee shop located atthe city’s gate, which later became knownas the Cannon Cafe, and was one of themost famous cafes in Yaffa before itsdestruction in the Nakba.

Following the expulsion of the Frencharmy, the new governor of Yaffa,Mohammad Pasha Abu Maraq, madeattempts to revive the city. To encouragethe swift return of merchants to the cityhe reduced the taxes and customs imposedon imported and exported merchants’goods. He also rebuilt the bridges androads that had been destroyed and reducedtransportation costs to and from Yaffa.12

While the importance of Abu Maraq’sefforts should not be underestimated,Yaffa owed its real debt to his successor,Mohammad Pasha Abu Nabbut, whoassumed the position of governor in 1805,and gave the city a kiss of life.

Yaffa in the Era of Abu Nabbut:A comprehensive constructionproject13

Muhammad Pasha Abu Nabbut was anAl-Jazzar Mamluk. He was assigned by theGovernor of Acre, Suleiman Pasha Al-

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Adel, to govern the Sanjaks of SouthernPalestine, namely Gaza, Ramle and Yaffa,and held the position until 1819. Theresulting long period of stability in Yaffa,coupled with the personal aspirations ofAbu Nabbut’s to turn it into a capital noless prestigious than Acre, and attempts tocreate an entourage and household to rivalthe great Mamluk households of the age,left Yaffa radiant with artistic touches ofIstanbul and Damascus. Despite thedemolition of buildings and deliberateneglect of Yaffa following the PalestinianNakba, traces of Abu Nabbut can still bediscerned today. Abu Nabbut hadinstigated an integrated constructionproject alongside his political project inthe city, and designated everything hebuilt as a charitable waqf to serve theinterests of the city and its people, bothvisitors and inhabitants. MuhammadPasha Abu Nabbut’s waqf is considered tobe one of the greatest waqf properties tobe established in any Palestinian city.

In addition to the enormoustransformations made by Abu Nabbut tothe social structure of the city, his waqfalso prompted a dramatic alteration in thecity’s urban appearance through hisinvestment of vast sums of money in theconstruction of highly ornamentedbuildings. This investment would havebeen impossible without the massiveincrease in revenues of the treasury thatresulted from a sharp rise in commercialtraffic through the port, which had

become the main port of Central andSouthern Palestine. Through a series ofcharitable waqf endowments, madebetween 1809 and 1816, he renovated,restored and built the following structures:the external walls of the city, the port, theGreat Mosque, the school, the library(ketabkhaneh), four water fountains, twoinns, sixty-five shops and a large numberof houses.

After purchasing numerous houses inwhich to accommodate his Mamlukretinue and after gaining possession of alarge amount of real estate, Abu Nabbutbegan to implement his plan to alter thecity’s appearance. Firstly, he moved theIslamic cemetery from within to outsidethe walls of the city; to that end hepurchased a plot of land lying adjacent tothe city’s northern wall and endowed it asa new Muslim cemetery.14 Later, duringthe British Mandate, it became known asthe Old Cemetery, and prominentbuildings were erected in its vicinity andon its borders, such as the Saraya buildingand the Bustrus and Sursuq buildings. In1928, the Higher Islamic Council leasedpart of its land to the Yaffa Sports Club,and subsequently the building that housedthe German-Palestinian Bank, under thegeneral waqf administration, was erectedon the land.15

In 1809, on the ruins of the Great YaffaMosque and the adjacent Cezayirli Sabil,which had suffered damage during theFrench invasion, Abu Nabbut established

Introduction

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an extensive building complex, whichincluded the Great Yaffa Mosque, aschool, rooms for students and a library.At the southern (qibli) entryway to themosque, located at the entrance to thecity, he also built one of the most beautifulsabils in Palestine, the Mahmoudi Sabil,which was also known as the JuwaniSabil.16 Not far from that location, in theFaraj market, the city’s central market, hebuilt another exceptionally beautiful sabil.Despite the large-scale destruction thatwas visited on Yaffa in and after 1948,these structures still stand prominently inthe center of Yaffa to this day, bearingwitness to the city’s past.

These architectural features were built aswaqf property. However, as few people areaware of their history and othersdeliberately disregard it, it is valuable toreview the attributes and past of some ofthem, starting with the Great Mosque.

The Great Yaffa Mosque incurred agreat deal of damage during the Frenchinvasion of the city, as did the waqfproperties appended to it.17 MuhammadPasha Abu Nabbut attributed his decisionto restore the Great Mosque to the factthat he “had seen... the Great Mosque inYaffa ruined and destitute...”18 Describingthe renovation work he carried out, AbuNabbut indicated that he had “rebuilt andrenovated the mosque... a solid building,greatly expanded it, connected it to thewater supply, and made arrangements foressential staff positions…”19 Abu Nabbut

also endowed new waqf properties to servethe mosque, which comprised of fortyshops, three residential buildings, and theaforementioned properties.20 Thesefacilities garnered enormous profits for themosque, which enabled its future overseersto attach further properties to it.

Muhammad Pasha Abu Nabbutregistered the waqf charter of theMahmoudi or Juwani Sabil21 on the 22ndof Dhu Al-Qi’dah, 1227 (December 27th,1812), and in the ensuing years endoweda large group of properties in its service.The properties that Abu Nabbut endowedas waqf for the city’s public institutions,the two sabils , and the well werecompletely destroyed after 1948 and agreen-grassed public park built over them.It is therefore imperative to create a recordof these properties to prevent them frombeing completely erased from the pages ofhistory, along with the architecturalstructures themselves. The waqf propertiesestablished for the sabil included:– All the khans that were established by

the waqf donor in the askala (port) ofYaffa, near the Great Mosque and thecity gate.

– Thirty-seven shops spread among thecity’s markets: the New Market, theFaraj Market, the Siter Market and theBlacksmiths’ Market. All these buildingsstood near the Great Mosque and theeastern section of the city wall.

– Four houses in the Burj and Felaheenquarters.

30

– A cafe that stood near to the city’s gate.– An orchard (garden) near the city’s gate

and adjacent to the rear side of theMahmoudi Sabil.

– A plot of land (Al-Muragha) that laybetween the two walls, onto which theablution water from the mosque ran.

– A warehouse located next to theaforementioned new khan.

In order to raise the administrative statusof Yaffa and turn it into a capital to rivalAcre, Abu Nabbut established the GreatMosque School, and a beacon ofknowledge in Southern Palestine. In hiswaqf records for the school he stated thathe had, “founded a school with solidfoundations, peerless and matchless in itsperfection, in the great Mosque withGod’s blessing... he appointed scholars,thinkers, and students and provided fortheir needs”.22 Abu Nabbut stipulated thatthe revenue earned from the waqfproperty should be spent as follows: “Theoverseer will pay whoever perseveres instudying at the school and is deemedsuited to learning and educationadequately, according to time andaccording to revenue... and the studentsaccording to their personal circumstances,and whether they be diligent, devoted tostudying and virtuous...”23

Abu Nabbut also established a spacioushall in the mosque’s courtyard to serve asthe school library. The library’s assets wereregistered in the records of the Shari’a

court: in 1812 the list included 137 titlesin the subjects of the Hadith, Islamicjurisprudence, history, Islamic theology,logic and grammar. In 1913, an inventorywas made of the library’s assets and thevalue of its bound volumes, which revealsthat it contained 206 titles in various fieldsof learning.24

In 1815, after trading activity hadgrown more brisk and traffic to and fromYaffa increased, Abu Nabbut built theShifa or Barani Sabil approximately twokilometers to the east of the city’s walls, onthe road between Jerusalem and Ramle ata site known as the “Hajjar tax land,” inorder to facilitate the transport andmovement of travelers.25 In his waqfrecord, Abu Nabbut recorded that he had“established a sabil once more on the greatroadway, with perfectly elegant buildings,flawlessly decorated and impeccablyconstructed,” and “drilled a new waterwell and wheel, using wood and steel. Healso built two great iwans (vaulted halls)of stone and plaster on either side of thesabil, which proved advantageous in thatregard.”26 To sustain this waqf property,he endowed a number of other waqf,including an orange grove next to thefountain, on which there stood threehouses, as well as two houses within Yaffaitself and six shops in the Faraj Marketand the New Market.27

The sabil continued to function untilthe end of the Mandate era. However,after 1948, when the orange grove was

Introduction

31


confiscated and the other waqf propertiesthat were endowed to the sabil destroyed,the water stopped flowing. Under Israelilaw the sabil was considered “absentees’property,” along with the majority of waqfproperties in Israel. Despite the deliberatenegligence of the sabil and a prohibitionthat was placed on its restoration, thestructure remains standing on the roadbetween Yaffa and Jerusalem.

Abu Nabbut established a further sabilwithin the Faraj Market on the ruins ofthe Khan al-Naqeeb (Captain’s Inn) closeto the Great Mosque, known as the Souq(Market) Sabil. The records of the GreatMosque School waqf include a fulldescription of this sabil, which was built inthe courtyard of the central market andreferred to as the arsa (courtyard). TheState of Israel demolished the Souq Sabil.Fortunately, the Foundation for theRevival of Islamic Heritage in Abu Dis hasretained a drawing of it and created aspecial file on the sabil in its archiveswhen the Higher Islamic Council beganits renovation in 1926.28

The numerous waqf buildings that werefounded by Abu Nabbut in Yaffa, withtheir many and varied decorative stylescarved in marble, altered the architecturalcharacter of the city. These endowmentsformed part of a large, comprehensiveconstruction project that aimed to raisethe architectural status of Yaffa, byupgrading its administrative status fromhead of Sanjak to the capital of a new

province that Abu Nabbut was striving tobring into being (Al-Ora, 1936: 352, 361,362). The ornate waqf buildings and thelarge markets established by Abu Nabbut,including the Amoud, Faraj and SiterMarkets, in conjunction with therebuilding and development of the portarea to accommodate the growing tradingactivity, and the reconstruction of the citywalls to bolster its defenses, all served torender Yaffa’s appearance no less elegantor impressive than that of Acre, Palestine’snorthern port. A comparison of thecontents of Abu Nabbut’s waqf recordwith that of Ahmad Pasha Al-Jazzarreveals that there are great similaritiesbetween the two, not only because AbuNabbut was a member of the Mamelukretinue of Al-Jazzar in Acre, but alsobecause he desired to emulate his master,and make Yaffa as prestigious as theprovincial capital. Ultimately, the waqfcollection gathered by Abu Nabbut wasno less venerable or profitable than thatestablished by Al-Jazzar in Acre.29

Yaffa’s Mosques: Past and presentIn addition to the aforementioned waqfproperties, the public waqf in Yaffacomprised another group of facilities thatincluded mosques, religious sites(zawaya), shrines (maqamat) cemeteriesand schools, until the late Ottomanperiod. There were a total of thirteenmosques in the city, namely the Al-Tabiyah Mosque, the Al-Bahr Mosque,

32

the Hassan Pasha Cezayirli Mosque, theBibi Mosque, the Sayyid Yihya Mosque,the Wehbe Muharram Mosque, the GreatMosque, the Al-Siksik Mosque, theIrshaid Mosque, the Sheikh Raslan al-Bakri Mosque, the Al-Ajami Mosque, theAl-Jabaliya Mosque, and finally the Al-Mansheya or Hassan Bek Mosque.

The oldest of these mosques was the Al-Bahr (Sea) Mosque, which was establishedby Musa Pasha of the Radwan Emir al-Hajj family and the Emir of Gaza in1675.30 As its name suggests, this mosquewas located close to the coast, adjacent tothe port. In 1962, in a report on thecondition of the mosques in Yaffa, anengineer employed by the Municipality ofTel Aviv noted that this mosque was,“One of the oldest mosques in Yaffa andwas built approximately 300 years ago.The mosque contains a large hall with twoarches and a uniquely-shaped minaret.Today, the mosque is used as awarehouse”. The report adds that theAssociation for the Development of OldYaffa (the government institution chargedwith the demolition of Arab and Islamiclandmarks in Yaffa and the Judaization ofthe city) planned to renovate the buildingand convert it into an art gallery, museum,or something similar.31 However, after aprotracted struggle and due to publicpressure from both Islamic leaders in Yaffaand the Palestinian leadership inside Israelthe mosque was rescued: it was restored to

Muslim hands and its doors opened toworshippers once more.

The Tabiyah Mosque is located at thefoot of the city to the west. It overlooksthe port, close to the port lighthouse thatwas erected in 1865, and is still in usetoday. It is one of the oldest mosques inYaffa, appearing in documents datingfrom the late eighteenth century.Following the establishment of the Stateof Israel, the mosque ceased functioningand its doors were closed to Muslims, andremain so today. An official report issuedby the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairsin 1950 states that, “The State has turnedthe mosque into a home inhabited by aChristian family who work in themanagement of the adjacent lighthouse”(Meir and Venkerfield, 1950: 28).According to the aforementioned reportby the Tel Aviv Municipality engineer,“This mosque includes a hall and aminaret, and there is nothing to indicatethat it is a mosque other than its name. Infact, the mosque is used as a passageway toa place that is sacred to Christians, whobelieve that St. Simeon lived there.”32

The Sheikh Raslan Bakri Zawiya Mosqueis located in the fortress quarter, close towhat was known as the Yaffa citadel at thecenter of the Ottoman city.33 The mosquewas a Sufi zawiya (religious site) used bythe followers of the Khaluti order, but thedate of its establishment is unknown. In

Introduction

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Sketch of the Souq Sabil

34

his book, “Our Country, Palestine”,Mustafa Al-Dabagh states that this zawiyawas erected on the spot where SheikhArsalan al-Ramly spent his summers (Al-Dabagh, 1988: 249). Al-Dabagh believesSheikh Raslan to be the Sufi Ahmad binHassan, who died in 1440 andconstructed a large mosque in Ramle anda tower in Yaffa that he frequently residedin, known as the Sheikh Raslan Mosque(Al-Dabagh, 1988: 417). The officialreport issued in 1950 by the IsraeliMinistry of Religious Affairs dedicated asingle line to this mosque: “The RaslanMosque is inhabited by a family ofMizrahi Jews, and the building is cleanand in good repair” (Meir andVenkerfield, 1950: 30). The name of thismosque does not appear in the report bythe Tel Aviv Municipality’s engineer, whoinvestigated the conditions of mosques inYaffa in 1962. This mosque, like the gravewithin the shrine, was completely razed inthe 1950s, when the Israeli authorities setout systematically to erase the Palestinianpresence and history in Yaffa. Anyone whovisits Yaffa today will find a wide spaceextending between the Church of St. Peterand the Great Yaffa Mosque, largelycovered by grass, trees and flower beds.Beneath this grass once stood OttomanYaffa, including the mosque of SheikhRaslan Bakri, and his shrine and zawiya.

The aforementioned Sayyid WehbeMuharram Mosque was established by

waqf donor Sayyid Wehbe adjacent to hishome, which is located close to the SheikhIbrahim al-Malahi Shrine. The mosquewas erected above five shops, whichprovided it with revenue, in addition toseveral other waqf properties.34

Subsequently, the governor of Yaffa,Muhammad Pasha Abu Nabbut,established the Saraya building (agovernment building) within the vicinityof the mosque. The mosque was renovatedand its doors were open to worshippersuntil 1948. After the Nakba, the Wehbeor Al-Dabagh Mosque suffered a similarfate to the Sheikh Raslan Mosque.According to the official report by theIsraeli Ministry of Religious Affairs, “Themosque did not suffer any architecturaldamage” (Meir and Venkerfield, 1950:30). However, its doors were closed andworshippers were prevented fromperforming religious rites in it. In the late1970s, the prayer hall was used as officesby the Yaffa Municipality Museum, whichwas set up in Mohammad Pasha AbuNabbut’s Saraya building. A short timelater, the minaret was removed and themosque was used as a gallery for artists’paintings (Yahav, 2004: 46). Thephotograph on page 37 shows the minaretof the Al-Dabagh Mosque prior to itsdemolition in the early 1980s.

The Sayyid Yihya Mosque, which wastotally demolished after the Nakba, derivesits name from its founder, Sayyid Yihya al-

Introduction

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The remnants of the Sheikh Raslan Bakri Mosque and its zawiya prior to their demolition

in the 1950s (Yahav, 2004: 48)

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Tibi, the Mufti of Yaffa in the late-eighteenth century.35 Yihya endowedmany waqf properties in and outside Yaffato support the mosque.

The Al-Jabaliya Mosque was the firstmosque in Yaffa to be established outsidethe city walls, in the Jabaliya quarteraround the year 1880. It was establishedby Hajj Muhammad al-Sakhafi, whoendowed a number of other waqfproperties to cover the costs of itsoperation and expenses.36 Following theNakba and the deportation of Arabs fromYaffa and the surrounding areas, themosque became redundant and served as arefuge for an Arab family that had lost itshome. The report by the Tel AvivMunicipality’s engineer states that theJabaliya Mosque was located alongsideGivat Ha’aliah (the Hebrew nameallocated by the Jewish State to theJabaliya quarter, in an attempt to erase itshistory and geography from thePalestinian consciousness). The reportadds that the mosque was small and had ahall divided into four rooms. It furtherstates that only a small number of Arabsinhabited the area, and that, even if themosque were to be restored, it would notbe able to accommodate more than fiftyworshippers.37 This statement was, in fact,an implicit recommendation to evacuatethe mosque’s residents in preparation forits demolition. However, the family’spresence precluded this outcome. The

Islamic Movement saved the Mosque afterpaying compensation to the family livingin it. In the late 1980s, the mosque wasrenovated and its name restored, andprayer services were resumed for theresidents of the Jabaliya quarter (Yahav,2004: 45).

The Al-Siksik Mosque was the secondmosque to be constructed outside the citywalls. It was established by Hajj Abd al-Qadir al-Siksik in 1885 on the land of hisfamily’s orchard on the Yaffa-Jerusalemthoroughfare (Al-Bawab, 2003: 441). Theaforementioned report by the Ministry ofReligious Affairs states that, “The physicalcondition of the Al-Siksik Mosque is verygood, but its doors and windows are inneed of repair and the stolen water faucetsmust be replaced” (Meir and Venkerfield,1950: 30). The official engineering reportby the Tel Aviv Municipality containedthe following reference to the mosque:“Nothing remains of the mosque exceptfor a tower and an arch. The buildingitself has been all but destroyed and allthat remains of it is some walls. Part of thesite is being used as a Jewish café.”38 Theterminology employed by the engineerreveals that the sanctity of the site and itsreligious functions were deliberatelyignored. For instance, the tower to whichhe refers is in fact the minaret, whichremains standing and in good conditiontoday. The arch is an architecturalmasterpiece that was the location of the

Introduction

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The Islamic Waqf in Yaffa and the Urban Space: From the Ottoman State to the State of IsraelThe Islamic Waqf in Yaffa and the Urban Space: From the Ottoman State to the State of Israel

The minaret of the Al-Dabagh Mosque prior to its demolition in the early 1980s

38

sabil adjacent to the mosque. Today, themosque’s structure is solid, but suffersfrom neglect. The deliberate overlookingof the significance of the site in theengineer’s report paved the way for itsdemolition, as planned by theMunicipality of Tel Aviv. Following thesuspension of prayers at the mosque in1948, its courtyard and part of the prayerhall were transformed into a café, it wasfinally confiscated in 1965 (Yahav, 2004:42). In addition to the café, a factory forthe manufacture of plastic tools wasestablished on a portion of the mosque,and the second floor became a club forBulgarian Jews (Ha’aretz, 2005). Theyounger members of the Siksik familywent to court several times in an attemptto salvage the confiscated mosque, but tono avail. The Islamic Movement iscurrently engaged in a legal and publicbattle to rescue the Al-Siksik Mosque.

The Ajami Mosque was the third to bebuilt outside the city walls. It wasestablished by Haj Yousef al-Manawi in1895 on the most famous shrine in Yaffa,that of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ajami.39 Afterthe Nakba, the Arabs who remained in thecity were gathered together in the Al-Ajami quarter,40 and until the late-1960sthe Israeli authorities forbade the residentsof Yaffa from holding their daily prayersanywhere other than in this mosque.

When al-Ajami was graduallytransformed into a residential area during

the 1970s and grew increasinglyovercrowded, the waqf land adjacent tothe shrine, which had been an orchardthat produced various kinds of fruit,became a Muslim cemetery.41 In 1936, theHigher Islamic Council allowed HassanArafa to establish an Islamic charitablewaqf property on a section of the land inthe cemetery that was empty of graves.Arafa then turned it into a waqf school,which is known to this day as the HassanArafa School. The Israeli authoritiesannulled the school’s status as waqfproperty and confiscated it, along with theremaining waqf properties, on the pretextthat it was “absentees’ property,” on theground that it has been administered bythe Higher Islamic Council, which wasconsidered “absent” after the Nakba.

Hassan Bek al-Jabi, the Yaffa districtcommissioner, established the Hassan Bek(Al-Mansheya) Mosque in 1915. Thechoice of the far northern section of theAl-Mansheya quarter as the location of themosque, in the north of Yaffa, was notaccidental, but part of a comprehensiveplan to develop the northern part of thecity, improve transportation within theold town, and connect the area to theport. More importantly, the establishmentof the mosque on that site was an attemptto thwart the Zionist plans, the scope ofwhich had begun to become evident withthe establishment of the first quarters ofTel Aviv in 1909. It was clear to the

Introduction

39

district commissioner that the Zionistleadership was striving to encircle Yaffawith Jewish quarters in order to block itsexpansion to the north, and then gaincontrol of it (Levin, 2005: 74). This wasHassan Bek’s main motivation inestablishing an expansive waqf propertyon the outskirts of the populated area inthe far north of the Al-Mansheya quarter,and building a large, beautifully decoratedmosque in this area, which was almostentirely unpopulated.42 Despite theastonishment and opposition of the peopleto a mosque being built in an area so farfrom their homes and the city center(Haykal, 1988: 76), Hassan Bek sought tokeep this strategic region under Arabcontrol in perpetuity, in order to preventthe encroachment of the Jewish quarterstowards the as-yet uninhabited shores ofnorthern Yaffa. With the exception of themosque, he designated most of this area asa waqf endowment to ensure that itsownership could never be transferred tonon-Muslims (LeVine, 2005: 74).Practically speaking, the establishment ofthe mosque at this location and itsconnection to the city’s road network andmodern streets shifted the center of thecity and the focus of its constructionactivities from the old town to the bordersof Tel Aviv. Yousef Haykal, the last mayorof Yaffa prior to the Nakba, commentedin relation to this development that theHassan Bek Mosque and the surroundingwaqf endowment had prevented the city

of Tel Aviv from expanding southwardsinto Yaffa (Haykal, 1988: 77, 80). Ofcourse, following the Nakba most of theArab quarters were razed and wiped offthe city’s maps. The waqf landsurrounding the mosque was confiscatedand all the waqf buildings demolished.The mosque was again abandoned in anarea that was to become exclusivelyJewish, and teem with hotels, businesses,entertainment establishments, restaurantsand cafés.

Less than two years after hisappointment to Yaffa, and upon theOttoman State’s entry into the FirstWorld War, Hassan Pasha was transferredout of Palestine. The administration of themosque, which had yet to be completed,was transferred after the war to the WaqfDepartment of the Higher IslamicCouncil, along with the rest of thePalestinian waqf properties. Work on themosque was completed in 1923, andincluded a number of exteriorornamentations. The constructioncontract was awarded to Yaffan engineerDarwish Abu El-Afiah.43 The HigherIslamic Council carried out repair andmaintenance works, and in 1935 built thesurrounding walls.44 Once the Al-Mansheya quarter had grown to becomeone of the largest in the city, and thepolitical and strategic importance of themosque’s location had become clearlyapparent, the Higher Islamic Councilbegan to pay considerable attention to the


40

mosque, which subsequently became amajor social center in northern Yaffa. Thisinterest is evident in the records of thecouncil and in its rapid responses to allrequests for restoration and maintenancework. Nor did the council hesitate toprovide funding for teaching posts in themosque, for supplying water toworshippers, paving the courtyards,building walls, and other such expenses.45

After the State of Israel had erased allArab traces from the area between the Yaffacity center and the Hassan Bek Mosque,the Al-Mansheya quarter was convertedinto a public park, covered over with grassand palm trees, and named after SirCharles Clore, the donor who had fundedthe renovation. The Hassan Bek Mosqueremained standing within its walls,deprived of revenue to cover itsmaintenance costs. The Israeli public andpress made accusations that prior to 1948the mosque had harbored fighters andsnipers inside the building, on the roof andinside the minaret, who had aimed theirbullets at Tel Aviv (Suriyan, 1983). Afterthe Nakba, the mosque was closed down,praying in it was forbidden and itscondition deteriorated. A report submittedto the Tel Aviv Municipality in 1978, givesthe following description of the mosque:“There is no guard in place. They havelooted the mosque, pilfered its doors andwindows, and lifted the marble stones thatcovered the floor. They have desecrated themosque and turned it into a toilet.”46

Israel’s policy towards the Islamicwaqf and the consequencesthereofOn March 20th, 1950, in the aftermath ofthe founding of the State of Israel, theIsraeli Parliament passed the Absentees’Property Law, for the purpose ofconfiscating the property of thePalestinian refugees. In accordance withthe law, an office named the “Custodianof Absentees’ Property” was established,which seized all of the real estate andproperty belonging to the refugees,allegedly pending a resolution of therefugee issue. In truth, however, the lawlegitimized the appropriation of suchproperties, and authorized the Custodianof Absentees’ Property to transfer the realestate under its custody to any party,without legal accountability. TheAbsentees’ Property Law had a devastatingeffect on the Palestinian waqf. It operatedalongside a system of ancillary laws andregulations to transfer the waqf properties,which had originally been bequeathed toMuslims, to the Jewish population ofIsrael. This transfer was achieved throughthe designation of these properties as theproperty of the Development Authority, agovernmental agency managed by theIsrael Land Administration, or of theJewish National Fund, which is entitledby law to prevent Arabs and Muslimsfrom using the land under its control(Peretz, 1958: 143). Naturally, this lawdid not make any serious inquiry into the

Introduction

41

origins of these properties, or whether theywere classified as private property, privatewaqf or charitable waqf, and all ultimatelymet the same fate (Eissenman, 1978:225). The Islamic waqf, which hadpreviously been administered by theHigher Islamic Council, was considered tobe “absentees’ property” on the groundthe council’s chair, Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini, and other members of thecouncil had become refugees and werelocated outside the borders of the JewishState (Dumper, 1997: 32). Althoughapproximately 130,000 Palestinians hadmanaged to stay in their homeland – andtoday account for around 18% of the totalpopulation of Israel – the law ignoredtheir existence, and indeed barred themfrom using the waqf properties, and evenfrom administering them. Under theAbsentees’ Property Law, the cemeteries,shrines, zawiyas and mosques, classified as“absentees’ property”, were placed underthe control of the Custodian of Absentees’Property. Until 1965, the Minister ofReligious Affairs had full authority over allthe waqf properties placed under thecontrol of the custodian; under themilitary regime that was imposed onPalestinians in Israel in the aftermath ofthe Nakba, ownership of in excess of 75%of private and charitable waqf propertieswas transferred to Jewish organizations(Lustick, 1980: 98-100).

In order to lend a veneer of legitimacyto its domination of the Islamic waqf, the

Israeli government appointed a group ofMuslim advisory committees, whosemembers were willing to collude with thegovernment in overseeing themanagement of the waqf institutions,including mosques, cemeteries andshrines. In reality, they were merely ameans of facilitating Israeli control overthe waqf. Some of these individuals openlyand regularly frequented bars in Tel Aviv,and would reportedly even signdocuments for the transfer of Islamic waqfproperties in exchange for a few glasses ofwine (Ha’aretz, 1984). These individualsrepresented no one but themselves, andwere not above surreptitiously offeringtheir signatures to authorize the sale ofland belonging to cemeteries andmosques. Upon hearing that theCemetery and Shrine of Abd al-Nabi hadbeen sold to an Israeli investmentscompany, the Arab residents of Yaffa roseup in demonstrations. However, thegovernment was unswayed, and gave thedeal its backing. Today, the Tel AvivHilton Hotel stands on the grounds of thecemetery and shrine in the north of Yaffa.A highway was also built on the bulk ofthe land belonging to the Taso Cemetery(Ha’aretz, 1981; Jiryis, 1970: 120).

In 1965, the Israeli Knesset enacted anamendment to the Absentees’ PropertyLaw, and in 1975 passed a group ofregulations concerning the Islamic waqf.Together, these measures revoked thewaqf classification of all the waqf


42

properties, thereby legitimizing theirconfiscation and transfer to stateownership and enabling their sale towhoever wished to acquire them.47 Tolegitimize these steps, government-appointed Muslim committees known as“Trustee Committees” were set up, whoseactual function was to provide an Islamicfaçade to the process of appropriating theremaining waqf properties.48 Followingthe appointment of these committees,large portions of the Islamic waqf weresold off to Israeli and other Jewishinvestors (Lustick, 1980: 190).

The records of the Yaffa WaqfAdministration from the Mandate eraindicate that around 33% of shops in thecity were previously waqf property.49

Following the Nakba, ownership of themajority of real estate in Yaffa, with theexception of Church-owned real estate,was transferred to the Custodian ofAbsentees’ Property, and thereafter to theIsraeli Development Authority or JewishNational Fund. The northern quarters ofYaffa, including Irshaid and Al-Mansheya,which extended from the city center andalong the coast up to the Hassan BekMosque, were completely leveled andpublic parks were built on their ruins. Aswas the case throughout the city, theownership of the Islamic waqf propertiesin these areas was transferred to Jewishinvestment companies under theAbsentees’ Property Law. The remainingshops, as well as some of the mosques and

Muslim shrines, were turned into souvenirstores, restaurants and cafés (Ha’aretz,1981). In 1971, and in total secrecy, theWaqf Trustees Committee in Yaffa leasedout the Hassan Bek Mosque for a periodof forty-nine years for a nominal fee to theEdgar Investment Company, a privatecompany owned by Gigi Peres, thebrother of Israeli President and formerMinister of Foreign Affairs and SecurityMinister, Shimon Peres (Yahav, 2004:41). The transaction came to light at thebeginning of the 1980s, when thecompany began to “implement its plan toconvert the mosque into a tourist sitecontaining several restaurants, cafés andsouvenir shops” (Ma’ariv, 1983). Thisblatant attack on the waqf and mosqueincurred the wrath of Palestinians inIsrael, as well as some leftist Israeli groups,whose opposition compelled the StateComptroller to conduct a review into thelegality of the lease. The resulting reportissued by the State Comptroller in 1975confirmed that the lease was illegal basedon the fact that the Waqf TrusteesCommittee had subsequently transferredownership of the land and the mosquethat stood on it to the lessee company, atransaction that was prohibited underIsraeli law (Yahav, 2004: 42). In responseto sustained public pressure led by theIslamic Movement and the Arab politicalparties, the State Comptrollersubsequently annulled the lease.

As a result of the ongoing neglect of the

Introduction

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Hassan Bek Mosque and prohibitionplaced on its renovation, in April 1983 itsminaret caved in. The collapse of theminaret, amid allegations by Arab andIslamic organizations that extremist Jewishgroups had intentionally destroyed it,refocused the attention of the public andthe press on the mosque, exposed Israelipolicy towards the Islamic waqf, andserved to highlight the issue of theconfiscation of waqf properties andIslamic holy sites in Israel in general(Ma’ariv , 1983). In light of thesedevelopments, Arab and Musliminstitutions, in particular the IslamicMovement, began to call for prayers to beheld in the mosque once more, in defianceof the thirty-year policy of closure. Facedwith the tremendous sense of anger thatswept through the Palestinian populationin Israel, the Israeli establishment could dolittle to oppose the will of the worshippers.Muslim organizations collected donations,and with the assistance of the IslamicUnity Organization in Amman and theMuslim Waqf Department in Jerusalem,embarked upon the complete renovationof the mosque and the restoration of theminaret to its former state in 1985(Jerusalem Post, 1981, 1987). Themosque subsequently opened its doors toworshippers, and continues to do sotoday. The exposure of the illegal lease andthe obstruction of the sale of the mosquealso led to the monitoring of othertransactions that had been approved by

the Waqf Trustees Committees. Some ofthese sales were made public by the Israelipress. However, since the official recordsof the work of these committees are highlyconfidential, it is unfeasible to uncover theentirety of its transactions (Jerusalem Post,1987, 1988).

In summary, under Israeli lawPalestinian waqf properties have beenlooted and destroyed, and Musliminstitutions, including the mosques,shrines and schools, have been deprived ofany financial backing or permanentincome to support either the buildingsthemselves or their employees. Most of themosques in Yaffa, as is in other Arab citiesand villages in Israel, are built,administered and paid for by personaldonations and contributions. In thissituation, the Islamic institution operatesindependently, in many cases incontradiction to state policy, which seeksto impose its own control over thisinstitution. The systematic elimination ofthe Islamic waqf has not brought an endto the Islamic institution as the Israelilegislature hoped; on the contrary, it haspropelled the Muslim community toreorganize itself and to develop internalmechanisms with which to preserve itsnational and religious identity.


44

Notes

1 On the administration of the waqf in theProvince of Jerusalem, see Gerber, Haim(1985) Ottoman Rule in Jerusalem, 1890-1914. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, pp. 183-194;on the waqf administration in the lateOttoman era, see Nufal Ni’mat Allah Nufal,trans. (1985) The Constitution, Vol. 2. Beirut:The Literary Press, pp. 124-144.

2 On the administration of the Higher IslamicCouncil, see Kupferschmidt, Uri (1987) IslamUnder the British Mandate for Palestine.Leiden: E.J. Brill.

3 On the policy of settlement in Zionist thought,see Masalha, Nur (1992) Expulsion of thePalestinians: The Concept of “Transfer,” inZionist Poli t ical Thought , 1882-1948.Washington, DC: The Institute for PalestineStudies, pp. 4-5; Dumper, Michael (1997)Is lam and Israel , Muslim ReligiousEndowments and the Jewish State .Washington, DC: The Institute for PalestineStudies, p. 19 (hereinafter: Dumper, Islam andIsrael).

4 Yaffa Shari’a Court Records, Vol. 2, 14 May1801, p. 31 (hereinafter: Yaffa Records).

5 Yaffa Records, Vol. 1, 17 May 1800, pp. 21-22; Vol. 3, pp. 567-570 (no date).

6 Yaffa Records, Vol. 10, 2 April 1832, p. 179.7 The researcher, Kamel al-Asali, sketched the

Al-Naqeeb Khan (inn) waqf property in hisbook, Historical Documents on Jerusalem.Beirut: The Arab Institute for Studies andPublication, 1985, pp. 125-128.

8 Yaffa Records, Vol. 2, 19 March 1802, pp.68-69.

9 Yaffa Records, Vol. 1, 14 May 1801, p. 37.10 Yaffa Records, Vol. 5, 13 August 1821, pp.

105-106.11 State of Palestine, Institute for Research and

Revival of Islamic Heritage, file nos. 3-6, 3-195-16 (hereinafter: Heritage RevivalInstitute).

12 Yaffa Records, Vol. 2, 19 March 1802, pp.68-69; 5 December 1805, pp. 206.

13 On the history of Yaffa in the period of AbuNabbut and his waqf properties, see Kana’an,Ruba (1988) Yaffa and the Waqf ofMuhammad Aga Abu Nabbut (1799-1831): AStudy in the Urban History of an EastMediterranean City. Ph.D. Dissertation,Oxford University.

14 Yaffa Records, Vol. 2, 20 February 1809,p.230.

15 Heritage Revival Institute, file nos. 10-24, 1-18-16.

16 Yaffa Records, Vol. 2, 1-5 January 1809, pp.282-283.

17 Yaffa Islamic Library, The Blessed Sabil Waqf(manuscript), microfilm copy, the Documentsand Manuscripts Center, University of Jordan,Amman, Jordan. Shortlisted as Yaffa, Islamiclibrary, tape No. 18, manuscript no. 212, no.of pages: 80 (hereinafter: Blessed Sabil Waqf).

18 Blessed Sabil Waqf, p. 21.19 Blessed Sabil Waqf, p. 25.20 Blessed Sabil Waqf, pp. 21-34.21 Blessed Sabil Waqf, pp. 1-13, 62-65. See also

Yaffa Records, Vol. 2, 1 January 1809, p. 283.22 Blessed Sabil Waqf, pp. 42-45. Also see

photograph of the waqf school, HeritageRevival Institute, file nos. 3-7, 3-227-16, alsorecorded in the Yaffa Records, Vol. 10, 13February 1812, p. 88.

23 Blessed Sabil Waqf, p. 78.24 Heritage Revival Institute, file nos. 3–1, 5–

329–16.25 Blessed Sabil Waqf, pp. 51-62. This waqf

property was registered on 7 July 1815.26 Blessed Sabil Waqf, p. 51.27 Yaffa Records, Vol. 4, 21 November 1816,

p. 62.28 Heritage Revival Institute, file nos. 20-14, 4-

23-16.29 On the Al-Jazzar waqf property, see

comprehensive study of the topic by Mahibish,Ghassan (1999) The Jazzar Charitable

Introduction

45


Compound in Acre . Acre: Al-AswarFoundation.

30 Yaffa Records, Vol. 2, pp. 68-69 (no date).See also, Al-Taba’, Othman Mustafa Al-Ghazzi(1999) History of Gaza from Ancient Timesto the Beginnng of the Mamluk Era: A studyof Abdel Latif Zaki Abu Hashem, 4 Volumes.The Yaziji Library, Gaza, Vol. 1, pp. 178, 183(hereinafter: Al-Taba’, History of Gaza).

31 Tel Aviv Municipality Archives, Group 4, Fileno. 2241, Document no. 877/62, Tel AvivMunicipality Engineer’s Report, 9 December1962 (Hebrew).

32 Ibid.33 Yaffa Records, Vol. 5, 9 May 1822, p. 4.34 Yaffa Records, Vol. 3, pp. 567-570 (the

document is incomplete and is missing a date);Vol. 8, 28 May 1797, pp. 24-26.

35 Yaffa Records, Vol. 5, 11 March 1824, p. 105.36 Yaffa Records, Vol. 46, 29 January 1881, pp.

20; Al-Bawab, Encyclopedia of Beautiful Yaffa,m.2, p. 440.

37 Tel Aviv Municipality Archives, group 4, fileno. 2241, document no. 877/62, Tel AvivMunicipality Engineer’s Report, 9 December1962.

38 Ibid.39 Yaffa Records, Vol. 64, 14 April 1896, p. 13;

Al-Bawab, Encyclopedia of Beautiful Yaffa,m.2, p. 441.

40 Tel Aviv Municipality Archives, box no. 897,file no. 11/8/e, letter no. 17, from MayorYisrael Rokah to the Prime Minister, 21 May1950.

41 Yaffa Records, Vol. 52, 22 January 1885, p.9.

42 For more information about the waqfproperties of Hassan Bek, registered on 2October 1915, 19 April 1916, and 20November 1915, and copied in the Shari’aCourt Records, see Yaffa Records, Vol. 53(Period of the British Mandate) newspaper129-135.

43 Heritage Revival Institute, file nos. 20-3, 4-

23-16, from the Chair of the Technical Bodyto the Chair of the Higher Islamic Council,3 March 1923 and a wide range ofcorrespondence; file nos. 20-14, 4-23-16, fromthe Yaffa Waqf Commissioner to the Chairof the Higher Islamic Council, 14 January1924.

44 Heritage Revival Institute, file nos. 40-1, 16-3-37, from the Deputy Director General ofthe Waqf to the Secretary of the HigherIslamic Council, 18 November 1937.

45 Heritage Revival Institute, file nos. 40-5, 1-39-16 from the Director General of the Waqfto the Under-Secretary of the Higher IslamicCouncil, June 4, 1941; file nos. 40-1, 1-35-16 from the Chair of the Higher IslamicCouncil to the Director General of the Waqf,2 October 1935.

46 Tel Aviv Municipality Archives, group 4, file9/T, no. 329/48, 5 July 1978.

47 For comprehensive research and analysis ofthis law, see Dumper, Islam and Israel, pp.44-62.

48 See State of Israel, “Absentee Property Law”,para. 29A (Hebrew).

49 Heritage Revival Institute, file nos. 10-18, 5-19-16, 10-27, 1-22-16. These files containdocuments from the years 1922 and 1939,which are lists of the numbers of these stores,their location and types. See also Dumper,Islam and Israel, p. 54; Barron, John Bernard(1992) Mohammedan Wakfs in Palestine.Jerusalem: Greek Convent Press, p. 63.

46

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