Charity, Endowments, and Charitable Institutions in Medieval Islam (review)

Charitable institutions—hospitals for the sick, homes for orphans, asylums for the aged—did not exist in Classical Greco-Roman civilization nor in Germanic or Celtic cultures of northern Europe. Christianity created these institutions in the fourth century in cities such as Antioch, Alexandria, Caesarea (Cappadocia), and Constantinople in the Eastern Mediterranean. The rapid development of these philanthropic institutions into specialized facilities for needy people was no doubt linked to the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity and the process of Christianizing the Roman state. Historians have traced the subsequent evolution of Christian philanthropic institutions in the Eastern Christian society of Byzantium and their slower development in the Western Latin provinces. Scholars of European civilization, however, have largely ignored the history of charity and charitable institutions in the Islamic world, although medieval Muslim hospitals, orphanages, poor houses, and free schools represent an important element in a continuous history of charity which began with the fourth-century Christian foundations.

Yaacov Lev's monograph is the first attempt in English to fill this lacuna by summarizing the history of Islamic charity from its origins in the Koran to the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

Lev begins by discussing the basis of Muslim charity found in the Koran, zakat and sadaqa. Zakat was an obligatory payment to benefit the poor paid by believers; sadaqa a voluntary contribution for the needy, offered by Arab tribes allied with Mohammed. In the wake of the Muslim conquests and the formation of the caliphate, zakat evolved into a tax paid to the government, not given directly to the poor. By 1171, the government of Saladin in Egypt collected zakat as a port tax in Alexandria, and used its proceeds not for the needy, but for holy war against crusaders.

The concept of sadaqa (voluntary aid to the needy) proved more effective in helping the poor, the sick, and others in need of society's support. Like Christianity, Islam emphasized that voluntary deeds of charity atoned for sins. Thus, in 972 the Fatimid Calif al-Muizz expiated his cruel execution of rebels by conspicuous acts of charity. Personal acts of charity also helped to legitimize a new ruler's authority. Nur al-Din, the Turkish beg who seized power in Syria and Egypt (1100's), justified his de facto independence of the Caliphate through his impressive charitable foundations.

Sadaqa proved to be an effective concept for supporting charitable institutions because early on it was supported by a flexible legal institution called a waqf. By establishing a waqf, a private donor dedicated land and sometimes movable wealth to support a particular charitable cause. In establishing the waqf, the founder prepared a written document often with very detailed instructions on exactly how the charity was to function. Waqf donations supported the great Islamic hospitals (bimaristan) including the Tulunid hospital in Fustat (872-874), the Adudi hospital in Baghdad (982), and the houses of the sick founded by Nur al-Din in twelfth-century Syria. Some of the waqf documents describe the number of physicians assigned to treat the sick and the organization of the hospital wards.

Through waqf donations, Muslims funded many other charitable activities. Waqf endowments provided ornate drinking fountains in many towns, maintained libraries, and provided food and lodging for pilgrims to Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. By the late eleventh and twelfth centuries many waqfs were supporting educational institutions such as free Koranic schools for orphans and poor children where students learned to read, memorize, and recite the Koran, and madrasas, schools in which older students learned Islamic law. Lev stresses that very few Muslim charitable foundations actually provided food or shelter for the truly poor. Lev maintains that even those institutions founded to shelter wanderers (fuqara) were often for mystics—sufis or later dervishes—rather than those who were destitute.

In addition to his descriptions of Muslim charities, Lev also summarizes some of the scholarly debates surrounding key issues. For example, he explores the possibility that the waqf...