Staff of the Jerusalem Hebron Foundation and Their Role in the Foundation Mechanism in the 17th Century

Abstract

The Jerusalem Hebron Foundation which was centered in Jerusalem is regarded as the oldest foundation of the World. Till the conquest of Arabic lands by the Ottoman Empire, the former Muslim rulers had made an effort to take care of the foundation for its persistence. Court records (sijils) shows that Ottomans also behaved in the same way with them. The aim of this study is to seek the nature of the administrative mechanism of the Hebron Foundation which was one of the most important endowments of Jerusalem in the 17th century by using the court records of Jerusalem. The study, by examining its staff, also tries to show one side of the foundation which has never been handled before, namely, the role of the staff in the administrative mechanism.