Cash Waqfs in Bosnia Herzegovina

It is known that settlements such as Gornji Vakuf, Donji Vakuf and Varcar Vakuf and especially Sarajevo, have become cities thanks to the waqfs. Cash waqfs helped the economy to be healthy and efficient by supporting production and commerce. It has been seen that the waqfs have played a very important role in order to overcome the material and spiritual depressions experienced by the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In fact, at the beginning of the occupation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Bosnia, the greatest struggle between the new administration and Bosnian Muslims was in this area of waqfs. Because the Austrian-Hungarian administration understood the vital importance of waqfs for Muslims and tried to destroy this institution by weakening them. It was clear that the religious, social, economic and educational status of the Muslims was entirely dependent on the waqfs. For this reason, the resistance of Muslims was focused particularly on the protection of the institutions of waqf. Although the people tried to protect the existing waqfs in these difficult conditions, they tried to keep the issue alive by establishing new waqfs. The number of waqfs established in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1878 and 1940 was 488 according to the waqfiyya of the Sarajevo Gazi Husrev Beg Library. This number clearly demonstrates that the people embraced the waqfs