Place without an Owner: Urban Modernization and Waqf Property in post-Ottoman Niš

Abstract

This article takes the example of post-Ottoman Niš to argue that the transformation of post-Ottoman cities was not a local, nationalism-induced architectural phenomenon, as suggested by the studies of “de-Ottomanization,” but rather a global development which was made possible through the dismantling of the local Ottoman legal regime of urban property. Focusing on the waqf as a quintessential Ottoman form of urban property, this article examines how war and displacement of the Muslim population on the one hand, and new associations between the modern city and particular forms of property on the other together contributed to the destruction of the waqf despite its protection by international law.