EXAMPLES OF WAQFS FOUNDED BY JANISSARRIES IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 18th CENTURY

Abstract

Lots of benefactors from almost every status, member of military or non-military class and wealthy or middle class member in the Ottoman society, served and contributed to the city in which they lived by waqfs they founded and properties which they donated to the waqfs to their cities. Waqfs which founded with large participation and performed with an active administration and under close supervision both grew in number and served bigger crowds throuhout the Ottoman history. Janissaries who performed military duties in Ottoman İstanbul became the founders of assorted waqfs with getting stronger financally especially in the eighteenth century. In the eighteenth century, from high ranking officers such as janissary ağas to low ranking soldiers lots of janissaries founded waqfs. Accordingly, in this paper waqfs founded by members of the janissary corps which had an important place in Ottoman military power, will be analyzed and their new identity as waqf founders will be examined in the case of Istanbul. In this context, relationships of janissaries with civil life, econemic power of the corps, colloboration and credit relations will be analyzed and their affect on city life will be described. It will go over the documents which belong to the aforementioned period both in the Archives of Directorate General of Foundations and Directorate of State Archives.