Understanding Ottoman Microcredit Mechanism: The Case of Cash Waqfs

The increased scrutiny of capitalist economic paradigms, particularly during epochs of economic and financial destabilization, has become palpable in contemporary academic discourse. Such critiques span a spectrum, from measured applications to comprehensive repudiations of the capitalist edifice. Yet, a rigorous critique of capitalist economic paradigms is often obstructed by its deeply rooted epistemological hegemony and the consequent marginalization of heterodox perspectives. Notwithstanding this dominance, alternative economic constructs, such as those informed by Islamic economic thought, offer substantive counterpoints to dominant economic ideologies like capitalism and socialism. Islamic economics, grounding its tenets in both historical praxis and the didactic principles of the Qur’an and Sunnah, underscores the salience of traditional economic methodologies. Historically, the economic engagements of the Ummah (the global Muslim community) have effectively addressed economic and financial challenges within Islamic territories. A salient exemplar of this is the cash waqf (CW), a socio-economic instrument that garnered significant traction during the Ottoman epoch and has been extant for over half a millennium. The operational mechanics of CWs, situated within an economic schema that eschews interest, elucidate the malleability and adaptability of Islamic jurisprudence or fiqh. This research endeavor seeks to critically appraise the Islamic economic paradigm, accentuating the waqfs instituted by the Ottoman polity in the Balkan landscape. The foundational manuscripts of waqfs, archived in the Ottoman Waqfs/Foundation depositories, constitute the primary corpus for this scholarly inquiry.