'Every Soul Shall Taste Death': Dealing with Death and the Afterlife in Eighteenth-

Century Ottoman Salonica

Author(s): Eyal Ginio
Source: Studia Islamica , 2001, No. 93 (2001), pp. 113-132
Published by: Brill

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1596111

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Studia Islamica, 2001

'Every Soul Shall Taste Death' (1)-

Dealing with Death and the Afterlife
in Eighteenth-Century
Ottoman Salonica. *

'To write about death is to write about life; "death is an import

and permanent aspect of the human condition, affecting the mean
and value of life."' (2)

Death, as the inevitable final stage of earthly life before one faces
menacing unknown, has haunted human minds in all cultures. Facing de
and preparing for its unavoidable arrival, are an essential part of the hu
experience. Nevertheless, while the significance of death is universal, r
tions to it vary, often significantly, in different cultural contexts across
and time.
Death is only one of the main stages of life, and burial is only one of
major rites, which mark the course of an individual's life. However, t
study of death in past societies, from the historian's point of view, offe
important perspective: it is connected - more than any other stage of l
with the written word. Dealing with death is obviously related to the p
blem of post-mortem memory, to eternity, to the fear of oblivion. Co
quently, the individual endeavours to entrust his ambitions to an "etern
witness such as a written document. In the pre-modern Islamic world i
not unusual to have a legal document drawn up in advance of death, a
registered by seriat court clerks, which was believed to eternally repre
one's post-mortem wishes. Even though, in theory, Islamic law considers
* This article is based upon a shorter version which was read at the International Congress of Tur
Studies (the 13th CIEPO symposium) held at the Institut fiir Orientalistik der Universitait Wien, Vien
21-25 September 1998. I am grateful to Prof. Haim Gerber and to Prof. Miriam Hoexter for their usefu
ments regarding earlier versions of this essay. I would like also to thank the Skilliter Centre for Ottoma
dies, Newnham College, Cambridge for its financial support for the preparation of this article.
(1) 'Kull nafs dhd'ikat al-mawt.' This ominous assertion, quoted from the Koran ("The Proph
21:35), was written at the head of some endowment deeds in Ottoman Salonica.
(2) Derek Morgan, 'Law, Ethics and Death: Silence and Symbolism', in Robert Lee and Derek M
(eds.), Death Rites : Law and Ethics at the End of Life (London and New York, 1994), x.

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 EYAL GINIO

written document legally non-binding unless confirmed by the oral testimony

of two witnesses, in practice written documents were generally admitted a
valid proof. (3) Documents, that deal with post-mortem wishes, shed light o
individuals' perceptions, fears and hopes with regard to their own death.
Further more, imminent death does not necessarily liberate a person from
mundane and earthly anxieties and hopes. This world and the next often
intermingle in people's thoughts - fear of death and concern about the after
life are coupled with anxiety about the fate of one's possessions and pro-
geny. Consequently, studying the way people deal with death yields signifi-
cant data about individuals' perspectives on their lives. The path a person
chooses to follow can reveal much about his attitudes towards life, famil
and the religious and social groups to which he is affiliated.
In this context Ottoman Salonica was no exception. The local matrix of
social, religious and economic ties, and the perceptions of ordinary Saloni-
cans, can be culled from their thoughts and preparations in advance of death
as recorded by ?eriat court clerks. Their final decisions reveal to us feeling
and contemplations in a moment of absolute truth: 'La seconde regle est
qu'une civilisation se livre le plus parfaitement dans son prononce sur la mor
(parole, geste, ecriture). C'est l1, et 1h seulement, qu'on ne triche pas.' (4)
This paper aims to explore the eighteenth-century Salonicans' approach
to death and life, as reflected in the ?eriat court records. These documents
offer a glimpse into the thoughts and beliefs of ordinary Salonicans at tha
time - an otherwise almost inaccessible domain. (') They enable us to
explore the mental and material world of common people who lived in this
prominent Ottoman port city. (6)
(3) Joseph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Oxford, 1964), 82-83; 193.
(4) Pierre Chaunu, 'Mourir A Paris (xvf'-xvW-xvir' siecles)', Annales: .conomies, Soci&ts, Civilisations 31 : 1
(1976), 34. For the methodology, and some potential pitfalls that can arise when using such documents, and for som

of their yields, see Michel Vovelle, << Les attitudes devant la mort: probl~mes de mnthode, approches et lectures dif-
f6rents >, Annales : tconomies, Societs, Civilisations 31 : 1 (1976), 120-32 ; S.D. Goitein, < Dispositions in
Contemplation of Death - A Geniza Study', Proceedings of the American Academyfor Jewish Studies 46-47 (1979-
1980), 155-78; Steven Epstein, Wills and Wealth in Medieval Genoa, 1150-1250 (Cambridge, Mass., 1984); Samuel
K. Cohn, Death and Property in Siena, 1205-1800 (Baltimore and London, 1988); Robert I. Burns, S.J. Jews in the
Notarial Culture. Latinate Wills in Mediterranean Spain, 1250-1350 (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1996).
(5) The search for individual Ottomans' thoughts and beliefs has yielded some insights in the rare diaries and
accounts of dreams that have survived over the centuries. See Cemal Kafadar, 'Self and Others: the Diary of a Der-
vish in Seventeenth Century Istanbul and First-Person Narratives in Ottoman Literature', Studia Islamica 69
(1989), 121-50; idem, Ri~,a Mektuplari - Asive Hatun (Istanbul, 1994); Cornel H. Fleischer, 'Secretaries' Dreams:
Augury and Angst in Ottoman Scribal Service', in Ingeborg Baldauf, Suraiya Faroqhi and Rudolf Vesely (eds.),
Armagan: Festschriftfiir Andreas Tietze (Prague, 1994), 77-88. A more available source is found in the Islamic
opinion (fetva) which represents a mufti's attitudes towards everyday questions, thus revealing the mental world
of Islamic intellectual elites. See Haim Gerber, 'Rigidity Versus Openness in Late Classical Islamic Law: the Case
of the Seventeenth Century Palestinian Mufti Khayr Al-Din Al-Ramli', Islamic Law and Society 5:2 (1998), 167.
(6) Ottoman Salonica was one of the most important urban centres in the Balkans. Various European sources
provide estimates of Salonica's population during the eighteenth-century - these range from 40,000 to 80,000
people. For the different estimates, see N.K. Moutsopoulos, Thessaloniki 1900-1917 (trans. by A. Ward,
Thessaloniki, 1980), 21-23. The most detailed research regarding Ottoman Salonica is Vassilis Demetriades'

Tonoypa4btaT
of 7rC OEUr
Salonica is preserved todayAcAo1,r; KaTra Archives
in the Historical 7rrv ETnoXY 7-qc ToupKoKpacTtac
of Macedonia (Thessaloniki, 1983). The sicil
in Thessaloniki, Greece.

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 DEALING WITH DEATH

The Sources

My paper is based to a large extent on the seriat court records, known a

sicil. (7) The ?eriat, the Islamic holy law, offers Muslims several legal pro
cedures to improve their lot in the hereafter. Some of these legal devices ca
be also used to achieve more worldly ends - such as the circumvention of
the otherwise fixed and compulsory rules of inheritance. (8) These legal
options include: establishing an endowment (vakif) (') or a testamentary
endowment, (to) making a will (vasiyet), (") bestowing a gift inter vivos
(hibe) (12) and manumission (i'tak). ("3) These acts each had different lega
advantages and constraints that made them suitable for different require-
ments, as will be demonstrated in this paper. Another way to determine th
division of property was by respecting the deceased person's last request, o
for the heirs to reach an out-of-court agreement, possibly according to th
deceased's wishes. It is clear from the ?eriat court of Salonica records tha
the scribes did not hesitate to register such a request or such an agreement
and subsequently to divide the assets accordingly. Thus, for example, a cer

(7) For other sources on Ottoman attitudes towards death (funeral epigraphs, historical chronicles), see
Gilles Veinstein, 'Prdface', in Gilles Veinstein (ed.), Les ottomans et la mort (Leiden, 1996), 7-16.
(8) For a detailed survey of Islamic inheritance rules and their social significance, see Noel J. Coulson, Suc
cession in the Muslim Family (Cambridge, 1971); David S. Powers, 'The Islamic Inheritance System: A Socio
Historical Approach', in Chilbi Mallat and Jane Connors (eds.), Islamic Family Law (London, 1990), 11-29.
(9) The purpose of establishing a vakif (Arabic: waqf) is to provide charity, for the sanctification of God
name, by endowing an asset that will yield revenues indefinitely. By endowing the asset, the founder relin
quishes all his ownership rights in that asset. In return, it is assumed that he will get his compensation in t
afterlife. He can designate, at his discretion, the beneficiaries and their specific entitlements. The founder c
name a pious institution as the first beneficiary (the so-called public endowment) or designate the first ben
ficiaries from among his relatives, or any other people he wishes. In the last cases (the so-called fami
endowment), the ultimate beneficiaries must be Muslim religious or charity beneficiaries who receive entit
lement after the demise of all former beneficiaries. On the vakf,. see 'Wakf', El' [W. Heffening]; John Robe
Barnes, An Introduction to Religious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire (Leiden, 1986).
(10) The testamentary waqf is almost unknown in the Hanafi school that dominated in the Ottoma
Empire. I found only four cases in which testamentary waqfs were registered; in three cases the founders were
Muslims and in the fourth the founder was a Christian. The main distinctions between the waqfand the tes
tamentary waqf, are the commencement of its fulfilment and the restrictions on issuing wills in general (s
note 11); in the case of testamentary waqf the endowment becomes valid only following the death of the foun-
der. Moreover, the latter can revoke his will in his lifetime. However, we can glean from the language of th
sicil that the testamentary waqf was much less connected with, or even devoid of any religious prestige i
comparison with the waqf. See, for example: sicil v\IEP (hereafter sicil) volume 108, page 41, 19 Safer 118
[27.7.1767]. On testamentary waqf in different Islamic societies, see Aharon Layish, 'The Maliki Famil
Waqf according to Wills and Waqfi3yat', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 46:1 (1983
1-32; idem, 'The Druze Testamentary Waqf', Studia Islamica 71 (1990), 127-54.
(11) Islamic law strictly regulates the making of a will: the bequest is limited to one third of the total
estate and no bequest can be made in favour of a legal heir without the consent of the other heirs. See Cou
son, Succession, 1-2; 213-15.
(12) According to Islam, a person while living can offer gifts at his discretion, provided that he does no
suffer from any mental or physical problem that might affect his discernment. However, using the gift as
way to discriminate between children was reportedly condemned by the Prophet Muhammad. See 'Hiba', E
[Y. Linant de Bellefonds]; Coulson, Succession, 239.
(13) On manumission in Islamic law and its practice in the Ottoman state, see Alan Fisher, 'Studies in
Ottoman Slavery and Slave Trade, II: Manumission', Journal of Turkish Studies 4 (1980), 49-50.

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 EYAL GINIO

tain Seyyid Mustafa Efendi, originally from Tokat, and in Salonica far fro
his family, asked that following his imminent death some of his possessio
not be sold in auction, as was the custom, but rather be put aside in trust fo
his only son, a minor who lived with his mother in Istanbul. The precio
items included a copy of the Koran and other religious books, a silver poc
ket watch, a new, richly embroidered fur from the Crimea (kontov kiirk)
shiny brass cup (tombak) and silverware. (4")
The Ottoman authorities also formally acknowledged the right of Chri
tians to give wills (Parrisia and Prothesis) (1") that would benefit their re
gious establishments, according to what the scribes labelled as the Christian
'false rituals,' and they obliged local Muslim authorities to implement suc
charity, in case their interference was required. (16) Some Christians opted
approach the ?eriat court to use Islamic law - mainly gift-giving - in order t
achieve the sought-after results. (17) However, few registrations exist for th
establishment of Jewish or Christian pious endowments in this period. An
although Ottoman jurists dealt extensively with the issue of non-Muslim piou
endowments, and authorised them albeit with some major restrictions, ("8)
the period under review almost no non-Muslims founded new endowments
the ?eriat court. (9) This phenomenon stands in sheer contrast to the religiou
minorities' well-documented approval of vakif in the eighteenth and nine
teenth centuries in other Ottoman cities and provinces. (20) It seems that in t

(14) See sicil 95\24, 2 Rebitilahir 1172 [3.12.1758]. For other examples, see sicil 34\44, 3 Cem
ziyel'evvel 1136 [29.1.1724]; sicil 47\27, [Zilkade 1144, 27.4.-26.5.1732].
(15) Both Greek terms were used in everyday language to mean 'will.' The Ottomans used these Greek
terms in their relevant official records. The Ottoman authorities approved these bequests to Christian r
gious establishments, but limited them to one-third of the estate. On the Greek will in Ottoman documen
see Joseph Kabrda, Le systmne fiscal de i'glise orthodoxe dans I'empire ottomane (Brno, 1969), 80-4.
(16) This injunction was specified in all appointment decrees given to a newly elected patriarch, or in
cases where the latter asked the Sultan to reassert his privileges. See, for example: sicil 8\85, 25 Cem
ziyel'ahir 1110 [25.12.1698].
(17) See also Rossitsa Gradeva, 'Orthodox Christians in the Kadi Courts: the Practice of the Sofia She-
riat Court, Seventeenth Century', Islamic Law and Society 4:1 (1997), 37-69.
(18) Eugenia Kermeli, 'Ebfi Su'fid Definitions of Church vakfs: Theory and Practice in Ottoman Law', in
R. Gleave and E. Kermeli (eds.), Islamic Law Theor, and Practice (London and New York, 1997), 141-56
(19) One exceptional case was the endowment established by two monks - Papa Sufrino veled Andr
and Papa Yasif veled Kosto - from Mount Athos (Ayineroz ceziresi). They endowed a small house in Sa
nica for the benefit of the poor who lived in the monastery of Ayor. They stipulated that the administrator of
the Ayor monastery's endowments should rent the house and use the revenues to provide the poor in th
monastery with food. Sicil 78\14, 16 Muharrem 1164 [15.12.1750]. It is worth noting that even in this ca
the endowment was actually attached to an already-existing endowment. This Christian endowment deed w
devoid of any religious praise. Other Christian endowments were mainly embodied in old Byzantine monas
tic trusts that were founded long before the Ottoman conquest and later were treated as vakif. On the stat
of the Byzantine monasteries and their landed property under the Ottomans, see Nevra Necipoglu, 'Byza
tine Monasteries and Monastic Property in Thessalonike and Constantinople during the Period of Ottoma
Conquests (Late Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries)', Osmanli Arapttrmalart 15 (1995), 123-35; Eva
gelia Balta, Les Vaktfs de Serrbs et de sa region (xv et xvr s.) (Athens, 1995), 39-47, 185-211.
(20) See the following examples Arieh Spitzen, 'Jewish Charitable Trusts in Late Nineteenth Century
Jerusalem: Legal Considerations', Cathedra 19 (1981), 73-82 [in Hebrew]; Roni Shaham, 'Christians an
Jewish waqf in Palestine during the Late Ottoman Period', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African S
dies 54 (1991), 460-72; M. 'Afiff, 'Les waqfs coptes au xix' sibcle', in F. Bilici (ed.) Le waqf dans le imon

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 DEALING WITH DEATH

eighteenth-century the Jews and Christians of Salonica regarded the Mus

pious endowment as a specifically Muslim institution and, consequently, p
ferred to use their own legal devices to allot their property and assets to in
viduals and/or religious institutions after their death. (21)
My sources overwhelmingly consist of Islamic legal deeds that shed lig
on the manner in which Salonicans - Muslims and, to a lesser extent, Ch
tians (22)_ tried to use Islamic law to their own advantage, thus revealing
correlation between legal rules and social customs. In the sicil records o
eighteenth-century Salonica I found about 120 documents spanning a per
of three-quarters of a century (1694-1768) that deal with such procedure
They include stipulations made by proprietors regarding their properties
well as claims by disappointed heirs opposing property divisions which
they asserted, deprived them of their legal share of an estate. Another impo
tant type of document is the registration of deceased people's estates. W
necessary, the scribes briefly summarized the deceased owners' terms th
influenced how their property was divided up.
The redistribution of one's possessions after death was a matter
concern in Ottoman Salonica. It did not preoccupy only the well-to-
apparently men and women from all socio-economic strata were distur
by its consequences. It is worth noting that the sicil corpus does not inclu
all the cases in which proprietors chose to transfer their assets: there was
obligation to go to the kadi's court in order to proclaim and register a wil
a gift; the only requirement was that two trustworthy witnesses be pres
when the legal act was performed. Consequently, it is futile to attemp
quantify the wills and bequests made during the period; the sicil represe
only a part of the total. On the other hand, the number of endowment de

musulman contemporain xtx'-xx' sidcles):fonctions sociales, econonmiques et politiques (Istanbul, 1994),

22; Richard van Leeuwen, 'The maronite Waqf of Dayr Sayyidat Barihi in Mount Lebanon during the 18
Century', in Randi Deguilhem (ed.) Le waqf dans l'espace islamique: outil de pouvoir socio-polit
(Damascus, 1995), 259-75. Gerber provides information about Jewish endowments in the sixteenth
seventeenth centuries. He emphasises that the phenomenon totally disappears in the middle of the seve
teenth-century. Furthermore, most of these endowments were founded by Karaite Jews. Gerber suggests
the Karaites were inclined to use the ?eriat court in comparison with the Rabbinical Jews as a reflectio
the limited scope of civil law in the Karaite creed. Yet, as the establishment of Islamic vaktfby Jews is d
mented in the Responsa literature, Gerber concludes that conceivably this institution existed among the O
man Jews in Istanbul until the seventeenth-century and should be regarded as an example of their interac
with the surrounding society. See Haim Gerber, 'The Jews and the Wakf in the Ottoman Empire', Sefin
(new series) vol. 2:17 (1983), 105-31 [in Hebrew].
(2 1) See, for example, the following injunction that forbade any interference with the agents of the Gree
monasteries in Jerusalem engaged in collecting alms (cem-i tasadduk) from the local Christians on behalf
poor monks: sicil 70\26, 23 Cemaziyel'ahir 1159 [13.7.1746].
(22) The omission of the Jews, an important religious group that consisted of at least a third of the t
population of Salonica in the period under review, is a consequence of, and a testimony to, their succes
handling their own affairs and disputes without the need, or compulsion of taking recourse to the ?eriat cour
Consequently, Jewish matrimony issues are almost totally absent from the Salonican sicil. For some insi
into the Ottoman Jews' attitudes towards death, gleaned from inscriptions on tombs, see Mina Rozen,
Life Cycle and the Significance of Old Age during the Ottoman Period', in D. Porat, M. Rozen and A. Sh
pira (eds.), Daniel Capri Jubilee Volume (Tel-Aviv, 1996), 109-75.

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 EYAL GINIO

is much easier to assess, as founders were usually requested to register

in court. Even in this last case, however, I cannot be sure of possessi
the data on new endowments because in Ottoman Salonica it was not com-
pulsory to register all endowments in court, although it was evidently the
prevailing norm. Such a conclusion can be gleaned from a verdict - issued
by a local kadi - that sanctioned the validity of a certain endowment even
though its founder did not register it in court. (23)
Furthermore, we cannot establish with certitude whether property
owners' decisions were the fruit of their own initiatives or a result of pres-
sure. Take, for example, the claim submitted by 'Aige bint Hacci Mehmet
against her mother, Hadica. The plaintiff asked the court to nullify a gift she
had previously officially given to her mother, claiming that she had done so
under duress: following the conclusion of her marriage contract, the daugh-
ter wanted to join her new husband, but the mother locked her in the house
until she agreed to grant her mother, as a gift, all the assets she had inheri-
ted from her deceased father. (24)
Finally, it is important to note that all deeds were written in a rigid judi-
cial jargon that omitted any trace of a property owner's own words. An
extreme example is found in a will, registered in court, of an Armenian mer-
chant from Tbilisi, made while on his deathbed. (21") He ostensibly declared
in the first person that when he dies (the scribe used the pejorative verb miird
etmek, which in Ottoman usage referred to animals and non-Muslims alike),
a third of his estate should be used to throw his putrid carcass (leg) into a
hole in the ground (hak). (26) The registered language in the records was that
of the scribes, reflecting the official discourse that predominated in the city.
However, since there was no obligation to modify the mode of division of
property in court, we can deduce that in most cases the initiative and the
motivation were those of the property owner, a conscious and active resolu-
tion that reflected his own assumptions and beliefs, conceivably evolved
from more general social conceptions.

Dying and the body

Death was omnipresent in Ottoman Salonica, an element of daily life:

one's final breath was usually drawn at home, within the bosom of one's
family. Indeed, it was rare that a person died away from home; generally

(23) Sicil 57\33. 1 Receb 1152 [4.10.1739].

(24) Sicil 29\40, 1-10 Muharem 1129 [16.12-25.12.1716].
(25) On the significance of the judicial term 'death-sickness' (nmaraz-i mevt), see Hiroyuki Yanagihashi,
'The Doctrinal Development of "Marad AI-Mawt" in the Formative Period of Islamic Law', Islamic Law
and Society 5:3 (1998), 326-58.
(26) Sicil 47\40, 8 Rebiiilevvel 1145 [30.8.1732]. James Redhouse mentions in his Turkish and English
Lexicon that the term hdk designates inter alia 'a grave'. However, in the Salonican sicil it was exclusively
used for non-Muslims.

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 DEALING WITH DEATH

speaking, only foreigners and soldiers met their final destiny in the lo
(han), with sometimes only the innkeeper or their creditors present
deathbeds. (27) The number of people who died in hospital was almost
The marginal position of hospital institutions is reflected in the seve
century traveller Evliya Celebi's remark that the considerable Musli
lation of Salonica did not enjoy the services of a hospital; they had to b
fied with two small rooms (hiicre), adjacent to two different mosq
managed by two vakif endowments, where the ill-fated destitute spe
last days. In contrast, the Christians, according to ;elebi, had a large an
equipped hospital (bimarhane) adjacent to the Metropolitan church. (2
The familiarity with death can be further gleaned from the ceme
central position in Salonica: tombs of Muslim holy men were sc
around the city; some of them were elaborate edifices, constructe
mosque buildings or courtyards and maintained by the state and/o
various endowments; others were found in private cellars. The
shrines played a considerable role in the lives of the Salonicans; they
as gathering places for popular celebrations, as well as places where
vidual could ask for a remedy or advice. (30) The central burial gro
the different religious groups were scattered outside the city walls.
open space situated adjacent to, but outside, the crowded city, they s
sometimes illegally - as an area for peddling and idle strolling. (31)
Death was 'tamed' - using Aries' term; it was familiar and always
(2) Its occurrence embodied a persistent threat to the living, espec
lethal diseases repeatedly devastated the city. Death's most menacin
was the plague. (33)Salonica was decimated by the plague severa
during the eighteenth-century, as is well documented in the account
several foreign consuls who resided in the city, in travelogues and
Jewish Responsa literature. (3) However, the sicil provides us with m
(27) See the following examples (all of them were foreigners): sicil 15\26, 2 Zilkade 1117 [
16\36, evasit-i Rebiiilahir 1119 [20.7.-29.7.1707]; 25\65, 21 Saban 1127 [21.8.1715]; 34\85, 5
[20.3.1725]; 47\40, 8 Rebitilevvel 1145 [29.8.1732]; 58\53, 17 Receb 1153 [8.10.1740]; 83\71, 1
1166 [19.5.1753].
(28) See, as a rare example, the registration of the following estate: Stileyman, a sipahi from M
hospitalised in the tabibhane (hospice) of Camii-i 'Atik neighbourhood after his health deteriorat
tually he died there without leaving any known heir. Sicil 34\54, 2 Saban 1136 [26.4.1724].
(29) Evliya 4elebi, Evliva (elebi Siyahetndmesi (Istanbul, 1928), vol. 8, 164.
(30) Evliya (elebi, Evliva (elebi Siyahetndmesi, vol. 8, 168-9; Lucy M. J. Garnett, Mysticism an
in Turkey (New York, 1912), 76-77, 138; F.W. Hasluck, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans
Margret M. Hasluck, New York, 1973 [1929]), vol. 1, 263-66.
(31) Sicil 15\140, 1-10 Ramazan 1118 [7.12-16.12.1706]; sicil 18\134, 3 Rebiiilahir 1121 [12
See also Godefrey Goodwin, 'Gardens of the Dead in Ottoman Times', Muqarnas 5 (1988), 61-9
(32) On the 'tamed' death, see Philipe Aries, Western Attitudes towards Death from the Midd
the Present (trans. by Patricia M. Ranum, Baltimore and London, 1974), 1-25.
(33) On the plague in the Ottoman Empire, see Michael W. Dols, 'The Second Plague Pandem
Recurrences in the Middle East: 1347-1894', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the O
(1979). 162-89; Daniel Panzac, La peste dans l'empire ottoman 1700-1850 (Louvain, 1985).
(34) Joseph Nehama, Histoire des Israe'lites de Salonique, tome 6 (Salonica, 1978), 191-96; P
peste, 58-77, 195-227.

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 EYAL GINIO

few references to these natural calamities. In fact, the registration of decease

people's estates, gleaned from the sicil, serves as this corpus' only testimon
to these ravaging disasters. The impact of plagues can be observed in the occa-
sional sudden increase in these records, as local residents succumbed one afte
the other. Volume 60 of the sicil, which covers the registration of estates bet
ween 1153-1154 [1740-1741], epitomises this phenomenon, with records indi
cating that virtually all the members of certain families - often from the crow
ded neighbourhood of Akqe Mescid - died sequentially during this terrible
year. A scribe registered, for example, the items left by Emhanf bint Mehmet
when she perished she was survived by an adult daughter (Hadica), three
minor daughters (Rabi'a, 'Aige, and Fatima), and a brother; the scribe note
that Rabi'a died before the estate was divided among the heirs. (35) Two day
later the scribe registered the estate that belonged to the oldest daughter,
Hadica, who had died, leaving behind a husband, two sisters and an uncle
Before her estate could be divided, however, the scribe noted that the two

other sisters - first 'Aide and then Fatima - succumbed as well; the only remai-
ning heirs were Hadica's husband and the uncle. (36)
Natural disasters were formally explained in the sicil documents as God'
decrees (bi-kaza-i allah taalda): the authorities could try to ease the suffering
but they could not prevent such catastrophes. (37) The set phrase, bi-kaza-
allah taald, seemingly alludes to the authorities' submissive indifference to
what was portrayed as God-sanctioned calamity - a subject that researcher
have addressed in the past. (3") However, the sicil documents also disclose
details of the authorities' attempts to alleviate suffering, especially in case
of drought or extreme cold. The measures included authorising private per-
sons to purchase wheat for devastated areas, usually directed exclusively to
Istanbul. The relief operation was conducted by private initiative. ("39) Othe
measures included a temporary easement of taxes and other burdens, such a
the need to provide animals to the state, and price control during a tempo
rary dearth in basic staples. (40) The foreign consuls' reports also refer to the
(35) Sicil 60\55, 26 Muharrem 1154 [13.4.1741].
(36) Sicil 60\54, 28 Muharrem 1154 [15.4.1741]).
(37) Compare with Ronald C. Jennings, 'The Locust Problem in Cyprus', Bulletin of the School of Orien-
tal and African Studies 51:2 (1988), 279-313; idem, 'Plague in Trabzon and Reactions to It, According t
Local Judicial Registers', in Heath W. Lowry and D. Quataert (eds.), Humanist and Scholar - Essays i
Honor of Andreas Tietze (Istanbul, 1993), 87-111.
(38) For a critique of such an approach, see Giles Veinstein, 'Sur les sauterelles A Chypre, en Thrace et
en Macedoinie A l'dpoque ottomane', in Ingeborg Baldauf, Suraiya Faroqhi and Rudolf Vesely (eds.).
Armagan: Festschrift fiir Andreas Tietze (Prague, 1994). 211-26.
(36) See, for example, the registration in the sicil of the assistance procedures used in order to bring relief
to the island of Sakiz (Chios), hit by drought and starvation during the final months of 1749. The islanders
nominated an agent, Mustafa Aga, who petitioned the Sublime Port for authorization to purchase wheat o
behalf of the islanders. After obtaining the sultanic permission, he hired, with his own funds, some boat
owners from Chios. He arrived with them in Salonica, purchased the wheat, loaded it on the boats and sen
it to Chios. The local administration's task was merely to register the names of the boat-owners and the quan
tity and weight of the wheat. The records are dispersed in the files of volume 75.
(40) Sicil 16\160, 5 Zilkade 1120 [16.1.1709]: 21\8, 1 Muharrem 1124 [9.2.1712]; 78\12, 23 Zilhicce
1163 [13.11.1750].

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 DEALING WITH DEATH

authorities soliciting from the various creeds prayers in public, such a

crying for rain, but there is no reference to this in the sicil. (4')
Interestingly, I did not find any mention in the sicil documents of sim
assistance measures extended to the population during times of plague. T
seeming disparity when dealing with deadly calamities probably results
from the state's concern and commitment to regularly provide its subjec
with food and to protect them against hunger. While droughts and fro
threatened the fulfilment of this state obligation, the plague, though let
did not necessarily present this kind of threat. Fighting hunger could
achieved through the state's efforts, but the authorities were totally pow
less in the face of the plague. Consequently, coping with plague remain
the responsibility of the individual.
The fact that death was considered to be God's decree, to be accepted
without struggle, is reflected in the rarity of documents that show an
attempt to seek medical assistance. Among hundreds of deceased p
ple's estates, I found only occasional records of debts to physicians
others for medical treatment. (42) There are also only a small number
contracts indicating that the services of a doctor were hired. (43) Neve
theless, it should be noted that the medical assistance available to most
Salonicans must have been quite poor. (") The estate of an itinerant Gre
physician (tebib) included the following medical items: an enema (hukn
alati), some unspecified drugs (eczalar) and a book 'relating to Chri
tians', as the scribe defined it. This physician also traded in assorted orn
ments (tecemmiildt). (45) The most widespread medical care referen
pertained to eye infections - for example, salving an eye with seeds
cassia absus (qepmizek teyin olunur oti). (46) The only surgery, mention
several times in Salonica records, was for the treatment of hernias (ya
fetk). In these cases patients used to come to court to declare, in the pr
sence of their doctors, that if they died on the operating table their phy
(41) See a report of the French consul in Salonica wherein it is mentioned that Muslims, Christians
Jews were ordered to say a public prayer for rain. In this case, at least, their prayers were not in vain, as sud
denly a pouring rain flowed down for several days. See Correspondances des consulsfranqais de Saloniqu
(1686-1762) Archives Nationales (Paris) - Affaires Etrangeres, B', 998 (9 June 1738).
(42) See the following examples: sicil 5\37, 1 Rebiiilevvel 1110 [6.9.1698]; 34\74, 6 Cemaziel'evv
1137 [21.1.1725]; 45\67, 8 Rebiiilevvel 1145 [29.8.1732]; 47\30, 18 Zilkade 1144 [13.5.1732].
(43) Islamic law requires the concluding of a rental agreement between the patient and the physician;
agreement must include the offer of a payment and the acceptance of that payment. See as examples s
51\l, 28 Muharrem 1148 [20.6.1735]; 58\63, 20 Ramazan 1163 [12.8.1750]. On the contractual relation
between physician and patient in Islamic law, see Yaakov Meron, 'Elements of Moslem Forensic Medicin
in S. S. Kottek and L. Garcia-Ballester (eds.), Medicine and Medical Ethics in Medieval and Early Mod
Spain - an Intercultural Approach (Jerusalem, 1996), 252-4.
(44) In the sixteenth century, Salonica benefited from the immigration of Jewish physicians from W
tern Europe following the expulsion of the Jews. On the medicine in that period and its subsequent decl
see Joshua O. Leibowitz, 'On the History of Jewish Physicians in Saloniki', Sefunot 11 (The Book of Gre
Jewry -1), 341-51 [in Hebrew].
(45) Sicil 53\115, 5 Muharrem 1150 [5.5.1737]. This document is partly damaged by water spots, p
venting the reading of a few items.
(46) Sicil 106\5, 12 Rebiuilevvel 1178 [9.9.1764].

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 EYAL GINIO

cians would be exonerated from any potential damage claims by the

heirs. (47)
We can assume that many Salonicans sought help through other means of
healing. (48) Ottoman Jewish sources allude to sick Jews receiving chiefly
moral-psychological aid; the medical sphere was mostly disregarded. (49)
Nehama mentions various methods of healing that relied on popular beliefs
rather than medicine. Eighteenth-century Salonican Jews, he says, used
amulets, solicited faldjis (in Modern Turkish: falct - 'a fortune-teller') and
even consulted dervishes. According to Nehama, the prevailing attitude was
that the curing process was based on supernatural interference: 'une gueri-
son n'est jamais naturelle. Elle est due a quelque charme, a un miracle, 'a la
misericorde divine.' ("s) Some of the healing terms mentioned by Nehama
were derived from Turkish. Consequently, we can conjecture that Muslims
used them as well. (")
Another remarkable testimony is the relatively frequent mention in the
registration of Muslims' estates of en 'am-i verif, a small booklet that was put
in an inside pocket and served as an amulet. (52) The Christians' attitude was
similar; in the Orthodox Balkan 'mentality' - using Kitromilides' term - the
supernatural was omnipresent in daily life. Believers were occupied with the
quest for miraculous Divine intervention as a cure for all their problems.
Communicating with the Virgin and the Saints through dreams, votive offe-
rings, and special acts of worship, and other appeals to God, were major
concerns for the ordinary believer during the eighteenth-century. (5")
In the parlance of the sicil, death was understood as a result of God's edict
- 'if I die according to God's decree...' (54) was the standard opening for-
mula for a will. Therefore, fighting death was considered virtually futile, and
even unimportant when compared to the struggle to improve one's lot in the
afterlife. While the attitude toward death accepted it as inevitable, and thus

(47) Sicil 6\78, 16 Saban 1111 [6.2.1700]; 6\81, 24 Saban 1111 [14.2.1700]; 6\120, 8 Zilkade 1111
[28.4.1700]. Physicians were not the only professionals who handled medical problems in the city; the sicil
provides evidence of oculists (kahhal) who treated eye diseases (sicil 63\21, 10 Saban 1154 [29.1.1742]); bar-
bers (berber) performed the ritual circumcision and treated eye-illness as well (sicil 18\114, 2 Safer 1121
[13.4.1709]). On the various medical professions in the Ottoman empire, and their training, see Nil Sari,
'Educating the Ottoman Physician', Tip Tarihi Arattrmalart - History of Medicine Studies 2 (1988), 40-63.
(48) See, as a possibly similar case, the healing methods used in eighteenth-century Ottoman Tunis:
Nancy E. Gallagher, Medicine and Power in Tunisia, 1780-1900 (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), 7-13.
(49) Yaron Ben-Naeh, 'Jewish Confraternities in the Ottoman Empire in the 17th and 18th Centuries',
Zion 63:3 (1998), 290 [in Hebrew].
(50) Nehama, Histoire des Israelites, 364-6.
(51) On the use of Turkish words and expressions in Judeo-Spanish (also known today as Ladino), the
language used by the Sephardim who were the overwhelming majority in the Jewish community in Salonica,
see Tracy K. Harris, Death of a Language - the History of Judeo-Spanish (Newark, 1994), 109-18.
(52) Meropi Anastassiadou, 'Livres et "bibliothbques" dans les inventaires aprbs ddcts de Salonique au
xix' sibcle', Revue du monde musulman et de la miditerrande 87-88 (1999), 115-6.
(53) Paschalis M. Kitromilides, "'Balkan Mentality": History, Legend, Imagination', Nations and Natio-
nalism 2:2 (1996), 163-91.
(54) Eger ben bi-emr-i Allah taald fevt olursam. See, for example, sicil5\59, 6 Ramazan 1110 [8.3.1699].

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 DEALING WITH DEATH

one acceded to God's decree, the hereafter was awesome and feared, and
one did his best to secure one's post-mortem future. This priority
echoed in the court discourse: scribes praised the person who founded
endowment as 'one who relinquishes the needs of this humble world, a
who responds to God's call for heaven.' (")
Such anxieties were heightened for people who felt that death was imm
nent. This included the sick and the elderly, and also those who embar
on long journeys that took them away from home and family. Joining a com
mercial caravan, making the pilgrimage to Mecca or heading for a milita
front - all were considered as perilous journeys that might result in a sud
death. (56) The records also show another threatening 'journey' that mad
person, such as Mehmet Efendi Bucakzade, distribute his property inte
vivos among his heirs. He declared before the court, while he was of sou
mind and body, that he bequeathed all his property to his minor daught
It was proven in court that he subsequently lost his mind. ("7)
As well as contemplating death, the dying person was also concerned that
have an appropriate burial. This required washing, swathing and arranging t
corpse on a bier, and covering it in shrouds (techiz ve tekfin). (58) The avera
Salonican could count on his family's obligation to perform that duty;
expenses of preparing the corpse for burial were levied on the deceased's est
before it was divided among the heirs. Others, less fortunate, could rely to s
extent on the generosity of neighbourhood and guild endowments that provi
indigent members with such services. Much more difficult was the lot of th
who died without any heirs, or far from their families. In principle, it was
duty of the public treasury (beytiilmal) (5") to arrange their burial and to sec
the necessary funds from their estates in order to fulfil that duty. However, it
quite clear from the documents that many childless people were reluctan
count on this option. The reason seems to be clear enough - the public treasu
was overly eager to economise in the funeral expenses. (6) Instead, childl

(55) Matalib-i diinvadan feragat eden ve Allah yad'u ild dari'sseldm nidasine icabet eyleyip. See
63\38, 12 Rebiiilahir 1142 [4.11.1729].
(56) See, as examples, sicil 6\48, 20 Cemaziel'evvel 1111 [13.11.1699]; 34\11, 2 Saban 11
[18.5.1722]; 57\35, 1 Receb 1152 [4.10.1739]; 68\35, 18 Cemaziyel'ahir 1156 [9.8.1743].
(57) Sicil 68\130, 29 Rebiiilevvel 1160 [10.4.1747]. On insanity in Islamic law, see Michael W. D
Majnin: the Madman in Medieval Islamic Society (edited by Dianna E. Immisch. Oxford, 1992), 434-5
(58) On the Muslim funeral obligations and customs, see A.S. Tritton, 'Muslim Funeral Customs', Bul
letin of the School of Oriental Studies 9:3 (1938), 653-61; Ibn Abfi ad-Dunyt, Kitdb Al-Mawt wa-Kitdb a
Qubar (reconstructed with an introduction by Leah Kinberg, Haifa, 1993).
(59) According to the Hanafi school, the public treasury receives the estates of deceased people when
heirs are known to exist and those estates are not claimed. In case of uncertainty, the official who admi
ters the public treasury holds the estate in trust for a period of time. Only after a specific period did it beca
the full property of the treasury. The public treasury also takes a part of the estate (a half or a quarter)
the deceased person leaves only a spouse behind. See 'Bayt al-mil - the Ottoman State', El' [Bernard Lew
(60) See, for example, volume 34, which is dedicated exclusively to the registration of estates. The amo
of funeral expenses varied from 400 akge to 30,000 akge. The public treasury contributed only 500 akle on
rage for this purpose. However, it is worth noting that the public treasury handled the funeral expenses of the
tary poor; more affluent solitary people used the will in order to ensure a more dignified burial.

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 EYAL GINIO

people - and to a lesser extent parents of minors -used their legal right to mak
a will, for up to one-third of their total estate, for burial expenses. When th
felt that death was near, they arranged their own funerals, determining the ritu
details as they saw fit. Salonican testators nominated pious men as the exec
tors of their wills; foreigners, when apparently bereft of any local connection
opted to name their fellow travellers to fulfil this role.
The arrangement of a decent burial was the main purpose of wills in Otto
man Salonica: this was a legal mechanism used mainly by childless people
or foreigners who wished to have a proper funeral. The erection of a tomb
tone was rarely mentioned in these wills, and only by the very rich. (61) Ear-
marking a donation for pious purposes was sometimes added in these wills
but as a secondary stipulation that was to be carried out only following th
payment of all burial expenses. (62) Thus, for example, the public treasury
was declared the exclusive heir to the estate of Hadica bint Hacci Ahmet
who died without any known heirs. The scribe noted that she had nominat
the Seyyid Ibrahim to execute her will and that a third of the estate was
be used to cover her burial costs. (63) Hacci Silleyman Aga, a wealthy sla
dealer from Diyarbakir who fell ill in Salonica, bequeathed a third of his
estate for his grander-than-usual funeral. He ordered that the money be spen
on readying his corpse for burial. He also stipulated that some of the mone
be distributed to those who prayed at his funeral, that food be doled out
the poor who were present, and that a tombstone be constructed upon the
burial site. Any money left after the funeral expenses, he ordered, should
serve for financing - apparently for poor people - the obligatory pilgrimag
to Mecca and for building a mausoleum on the burial site of a holy man, t
be chosen by his trustee. (64)

The Spirit and the Hereafter

The future of the spirit was another major concern of many Salonicans
They believed that they could influence their destiny through pious deeds
Such a belief can be found in many religious cultures. Le Goff describes t
motivation for making a will in medieval Europe as hoping to obtain a pas
sport to heaven ('passeport pour le ciel') (65); Johnson emphasises the givin
of charity in contemporary American society as a pious act endorsed by th
deep belief that compensation will come in the afterlife, for 'there is no fr

(61) On the function of the epitaph in Ottoman burial practice, see Nicolas Vatin, 'Le r61e de l'6crit dan
les steles fundraires ottomans'. Turcica 27 (1995), 55-63; Hans-Peter Laqueur, Hiive'l-Baki: istanbul'd
Osmanli Mezarliklart ve Mezar Tavlart (trans. By Selahattin Dilidiizgfin, Istanbul, 1997).
(62) See, as examples, sicil 4\140, 28 Muharrem 1109 [16.8.1697]; 5\59, 6 Ramazan 1110 [8.3.1699]
15\26, 21 Zilkade 1117 [7.3.1706]; 60\8 15 Saban 1153 [5.11.1740].
(63) Sicil 34\24, 7 Cemaziyel'evvel 1135 [13.2.1723].
(64) Sicil 16\36, evahir-i Rebiuilahir 1119 [21.7-30.7.1707].
(65) Jacques Le Goff, La civilisation de l'occident midiival (Paris, 1964), 240.

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 DEALING WITH DEATH

ride to heaven.' (6) In Islam there is a concrete conception of the afte

and of one's ability to receive rewards there (fabulous palaces, beautif
women, closeness to God, a state of ease and luxury, protection from to
and pain) for pious acts performed during one's mortal lifetime. (67)
thermore, by performing pious deeds on behalf of the dead, praying for t
and visiting their graves, the living believer is able to celebrate the d
ease their suffering and help improve their lot in the hereafter. (68)
The pious endowment, the vakif, as well as manumission, were consid
in Ottoman Salonica as the primary tools to improve one's fate. (69) A relig
formula from the hadith, quoted by all manumitting masters in Ottoman
nica - conceivably in line with the court's initiative and custom - echoe
deep belief in eternal recompense. The hadith reminded Muslims that w
ver frees a Muslim slave, God will save his limbs from the fire of he
recompense for the limbs of his manumitted slave. (7) Such was, for exam
the Seyh Mehmet Efendi's explanation for the manumission of his Ru
slave, converted to Islam, Sipari? bin 'Abdiilmanam. ("7) All endowment d
were likewise adorned with verses praising the foundation of pious end
ments and promising great recompense in the hereafter. (72)
Indeed, the sicil documents show that the quest for a better future for
soul was the main motivation to found an endowment in Ottoman Salonica.
Forty-five founders, out of a total of sixty-two, were explicitly guided by
such a goal. They named religious men or family members as beneficiaries
and asked that they read specified verses from the Koran on certain occa-
sions, the reward for which was to go to the founder's spirit (ruh). (73) Not
coincidentally, the verses chosen were those that exalted God and declared
his uniqueness. This reflects the deep belief in a direct and specific correla-
tion between the recognizing God's oneness and being rewarded in the
hereafter. (74) By establishing a perpetual charitable endowment, the Saloni-
(66) David B. Johnson, 'The Charity Market: Theory and Practice', in The Economics of Charity -
Essays on the Comparative Economics and Ethics of Giving and Selling, with Applications to Blood, The Ins-
titute of Economic Affairs (ed.) (London, 1973), 92.
(67) See Jane Idleman Smith and YvoneYazbeck Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death (New
York, 1981).
(68) See Jane I. Smith, 'Reflections on Aspects of Immorality in Islam', The Harvard Theological
Review 70 (1977). 85-98; idem, 'Concourse between the Living and the Dead in Islamic Eschatological Lite-
rature', History of Religions 19:3 (1980), 229-32; Leah Kinberg, 'Interaction between this World and the
Afterworld in Early Islamic Tradition', Oriens 29-30 (1986), 298-307.
(69) For similar conclusions, see Bahaeddin Yediyildiz, Institution du vaqf au xvtl siecle en Turquie -
Etude socio-historique (Ankara, 1985). 38-41; Abraham Marcus, The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity.
Aleppo in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1989), 274-6.
(70) For the hadith, see The Translation of the Meaning of Sahih Al-Bukhari - Arabic - English (ed.
Muhammad Muhsin, Lahore, 1974), vol. 3, 413.
(71) 'Amalan bimd qdlahu al-nabi al-mukhtdr man a taqa raqaba mu'mina a'taqa allah bikull 'uidw
minhd 'udwan min al-ndr mahlndan itak edip. See sicil 1\10, 2 Zilkade 1105 [25.6.1694].
(72) See, for example, sicil 58\105, 15 Rebiiilahir 1154 [29.6.1741].
(73) On the term 'spirit' (ruh), see Smith and Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death, 17-21.
(74) Those who earn a place in heaven are often called 'the people who affirm God's oneness (ahl al-
tawhid)'. See Smith, 'Reflections on Aspects', 86.

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 EYAL GINIO

can founders hoped that they would gain eternal recompense as well. They
believed that, in so doing, they secured an explicit contract with future gene-
rations according to which the living were supposed to assist the dead wit
prayers in return for allowances of money and food.
Some of the founders opted to share the hoped-for recompense with pre
vious generations by prescribing that additional verses be read for their sp
rits as well. Designating the dead among the beneficiaries of prayers is a
reflection of one's ability and duty to assist them by sharing with them th
expected recompense. It additionally emphasises the continuous presence of
the dead in the minds of the living. In this manner the founders gathered
together the dead, the living, and the unborn in an eternal bond. Accordin
gly, they disclosed their desire to sustain reciprocal ties of intercession, sol
darity, and support between past, present and future generations. (7") The
founders of relatively small endowments included their parents or dead
spouses in their stipulations; the founders of larger endowments included th
eminent Muslims of past generations - the founders of Sufi orders, the fir
caliphs, and the Prophet. A few women founders designated Fatima, the Pro
phet's daughter, and 'Aide, his beloved wife, among those who woul
receive the expected recompense - the only gender-based difference in the
determination of entitlement that I was able to identify in Ottoman Salonica. (7
In all these cases, a clear correlation existed between the size of the found
tion and the founder's ability to include and connect prestigious persons t
his endowment.

Worldly Recompense: Gaining Prestige and Determining the

Future of Those Left Behind

As noted above, the sinister apprehension that death was near did no
essentially exempt the Salonican from his earthly concerns and aspiratio
An Islamic hadith, quoted by the Salonican scribes, reminded the living t
only almsgiving, fruitful knowledge and sons who would pray for the
souls, would survive after their demise. (77) Many heeded these appeals.
sicil documents show that proprietors chose to use the endowment and t
gift as a mechanism to allay their earthly anxieties and while enhance th
(75) For a discussion on the similar place of the dead in Western Europe, see Bruce Gordon and Pete
Marshall, 'Introduction: Placing the Dead in Late Medieval and Early Modem Europe', in Bruce Gordon a
Peter Marshall (eds.), The Place of the Dead - Death and Remembrance in Late Medieval and Early Moder
Europe (Cambridge, 2000), 1-16.
(76) Only in one case did a male founder - the Mufti of Salonica - designate the spirit of Fatima am
the various beneficiaries of the reading of Koranic verses. Yet, it is interesting to note that he stipulated
it would be his wife who would read the verses on behalf of Fatima. See sicil 63\38, 12 Rebitilahir 1142
[4.11.1729].
(77) Idhid mdta ibn adam inqata 'a 'amaluhu illd min thulth [sic!] sadaka jdriyya wa-'ilm ndfi' wo-wa
sflih vad'Ci lahu See, for example, sicil 63\38, 12 Rebiiilahir 1142 [4.11.1729]. For the hadith, see Al-Ddr
Sunan Al-Ddrimi (Beirut, 1987), vol. 1, 148.

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 DEALING WITH DEATH

worldly reputation. Establishing a pious endowment obliged the found

relinquish his full ownership rights in the asset. Although the Hanafi s
- the legal school adopted by the Ottoman state - enables a founder to
himself as the first beneficiary, the waiving of full ownership was, wi
doubt, a major obstacle that deterred most ordinary Salonicans from f
ding endowments. Yet, those who could afford this received a spiritua
worldly recompense during their lifetime. The endowment deed itse
serve as one example: no other document in the sicil - not even sulta
edicts - were written in such length and detail, adorned with Arabic v
from the Koran and the hadith, as were endowment deeds. The endow
deed instilled a sense of the fragility and temporality of life in this worl
it also extolled the founder's qualities and soothed his anxieties by elab
ting on his anticipated recompense in the world beyond.
Furthermore, a correlation existed between the social status of the f
der, the value of the endowed estate and the length and number of th
cified verses, as well as the identity of those who served as eye-witn
(#iihud-i hall) (78) at court to the process of endowment foundation. (79
'discrimination' is rather exceptional when compared to other legal a
notary deeds found in the sicil of Salonica, where the rigidity and unifor
of the language and terminology were a distinguishing feature. The
rate form of the endowment deed reflects the honorary position that fou
would enjoy in their communities.
To which 'communities' did the donors choose to direct and disp
their generosity? The selection of beneficiaries indicated the foun
notions about deserving targets for their munificence. We can assume
their choices stemmed from life-long attachment and affiliation to
various individuals, groups, and institutions. Consequently, we can sup
that the beneficiaries were people or institutions whom the founders w
to support and who would respond with gratitude and esteem. Table 1 s
the beneficiaries designated by sixty-two Salonicans who establis
endowments during the period under review. Since in some cases foun
designated more than one beneficiary for their endowments, the total
ber of beneficiaries exceeds the number of the founders. It is also worth
noting that the general poor were designated as the final and perpetual bene-
ficiaries, in line to receive only after the demise of all former beneficiaries
to family endowments. ("0)

(78) On the eye-witnesses, who testify by their presence to the validity of the legal process, see Claude
Cahen, 'A propos des shuhfid', Studia Islamica 31 (1970), 71-9.
(79) Compare, for example, the endowment deed written for the city governor (sicil 75\9, 28 ?aban 1162
[12.8.1749]) with another established by an 'ordinary' woman, Rabi'a bint Ahmet Hatfin (sicil 65\57,
20 Sevval 1156 [7.12.1743]).
(80) For other Ottoman cities, compare with Ruth Roded, 'Great Mosques, Zawiyas and Neighborhood
Mosques: Popular Beneficiaries of Waqf Endowments in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Aleppo', Jour-
nal of the American Oriental Society 60 (1990), 32-8.

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 EYAL GINIO

Table no.1: Designation of beneficiaries to new endowments

established in Salonica (1694-1768)

Sufi neighbourhood guild/neighbourhood the poor of the poor of

lodges mosques endowments Salonica the holy cities
28 30 9 19 4

One signific
designating
lodge (zaviy
financial me
tions; lodges
was seen as a
lodge and its
men and the
Only a few f
tions or to n
food for the
interest to t
nance of pub
in the area o
endowment
other ways o
is the establi
ket. The new
prosperity. S

(81) The beneficia

MevlinA.
(82) On food in the dervish lodge and its symbolic and social tasks, see Ayla Algar, 'Food in the Life of
the Tekke', in Raymond Lifchez (ed.), The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Stfism in Ottoman Turkey
(Berkeley, 1992), 296-303. Some details regarding the distributed food in a religious establishment in Otto-
man Salonica can be gleaned from an endowment deed written for the mufti of Salonica, Abdullah Efendi.
He established a madrasa and stipulated that the students who resided there receive vahni (meat stew with
onions) pildv (boiled rice) every evening. The meal was prepared from sheep meat, bread, rice, clarified but-
ter, onions and spices. See sicil 63\38, 12 Rebiiilahir 1142 [4.11.1729].
(83) See, as examples, the following indications of guilds endowments: the cloth market (bedestan) mer-
chants' guild (sicil 13\5, 1 Muharrem 1115 [17.5.1703]); the cauldron makers (29\208, 2 Receb 1132
[10.5.1720]); the silk manufactures (13\66, 1 Muharrem 1115 [17.5.1703]); knife manufactures (60\61, 1
Safer 1154 [17.4.1741]). On the Ottoman guilds, see Suraiya Faroqhi, 'The Fieldglass and the Magnifying
Lens: Studies of Ottoman Crafts and Craftsmen', Journal of European Economic History 20:1 (1991), 29-
57. I found only one testamentary endowment that was designated in favour of the residents of a neighbou-
rhood: see sicil 108\41, 19 Safer 1180 [26.7.1766]. For mention of neighbourhood endowments in financial
accounts, see sicil 13\61, 1 Muharrem 1115 [17.5.1703]; 13\62, 1 Muharrem 1114 [28.5.1702]; 50\20,
13 Cemaziyel'evvel 1146 [21.10.1733]. On the neighbourhood as a special grouping in Ottoman cities, see
Marcus, The Middle East, 314-328; Tal Shuval, La ville d'Alger vers la fin du XVIIe si&cle. Population et
cadre urbain (Paris, 1998), 199-214.

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 DEALING WITH DEATH

ted the guild's importance. The merchants subsequently founded several

endowments to cover maintenance costs and to provide salaries for the reli-
gious personnel employed by the 'guild's mosque'. The founders designated
future members of the guild to administer the endowment, thereby making
permanent the connection between the mosque and the guild. (4")
Also significant in the above table is the absence of major religious ins-
titutions attracting a large portion of the founders' benevolence. Even the
city's great mosques, headed by the Kasimiyye mosque (the Byzantine St.
Demetrious basilica), had to rely on charity offered by residents of the sur-
rounding neighbourhood. From this point of view they actually functioned
as neighbourhood mosques. (85) This phenomenon points to the fact that in
Ottoman Salonica the notion of a central mosque, symbolising the city as
a whole, was not fundamental. Likewise, the selection of beneficiaries
underscores the modest scope of charity performed by the Salonican reli-
gious, administrative and economic elite. Their choice did not extend
beyond local religious and social institutions; the Imperial foundations, as
well as the holy places of Islam, were beyond their aspirations and calcu-
lations - only a few founders designated beneficiaries from outside the
city, such as the poor of Mecca and Medina, Islam's two pre-eminent holy
places. (') At the local level, however, founding an endowment empowe-
red a person within the community and was a display of wealth, piety and
generosity. This gave him, in his lifetime, increased social prominence and
the respect and gratitude of the pious men who served in the neighbou-
rhood mosque or zaviye.
Another motivation for founding an endowment was to circumvent the
rigid inheritance rules. It should be emphasised that such a motivation was
secondary in Ottoman Salonica - only fourteen founders out of the sixty-two
mentioned above set up endowments and designated entitlement among
their heirs in a mode different than that prescribed by the inheritance
rules. (87) Furthermore, among the founders who opted to alter their estate's
mode of division by establishing an endowment, many were childless.
Others were manumitted slaves or former slave-owners. Their common

(84) On the merchants' guild in the Egyptian Market, see my article 'Unutulmu? Bir Osmanh Balkan
Eliti: Misir'daki Miisilman Tiiccarler', OsmaniL (Ankara, 1999), vol. 3, 498-503.
(85) The three endowment-deeds issued on behalf of this mosque in the first half of the eighteenth-cen-
tury were made by residents at the mosque neighbourhood: see sicil 18\281, 1 Rebifilahir 1122 [30.5.1710];
18\283, 10 Rebiiilahir 1122 [8.6.1710]; 63\38, 12 RebiUilahir 1142 [4.11.1729].
(86) It is worth noting that only members of the higher administrative echelon designated such benefi-

ciaries. Thus, serving as a rare example, the Sayyid Nu'man Papa, the governor of Salonica, allocated entit-
lement to the poor of Medina following the death of all of his descendants and the descendants of his manu-
mitted slaves. See sicil 75\9, 28 Saban 1162 [12.8.1749].
(87) Compare with Ferchiou and Layish for different conclusions on contemporary Islamic societies in
which family endowments were used as a legal tool to circumvent the yer'i rules of inheritance: Sophie Fer-
chiou, 'Le systhme Habus en Tunisie: logique de trasmission et iddologie agnatique', in Marceau Gast (ed.),
Hiriter en pays musulman: Habus, lait vivant, Manyahuli (Paris, 1987), 57-74; Aharon Layish, 'The Family
Waqf and the Shar'i Law of Succession in Modern Times', Islamic Law and Society 4:3 (1997), 352-88.

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 EYAL GINIO

motive was to include beneficiaries who otherwise were not entitled to inhe-
rit from their assets, or to deprive non-kin heirs.
As in other societies, there were proprietors who wished to discriminate
between their heirs. Many of them used the legal mechanism of gift giving
inter vivos to circumvent the inheritance rules. Islamic law enables the indivi-
dual to freely allocate his assets as a gift to certain chosen heirs, or even to
beneficiaries not considered legal heirs. Nevertheless, giving a gift has its own
drawbacks, as most people are reluctant to part with their property during their
lifetimes without receiving any guarantee of appropriate recompense - in this
world or in the next. Furthermore, to make the gift valid, the proprietor had to
transfer the asset or property immediately to the beneficiary upon making the
declaration; nor could he revoke the gift at a later time. Still, giving a gift inter
vivos in Ottoman Salonica was not unusual. One apparent reason was that
some proprietors granted the gift to one or more of their minor children. In this
case only, the former proprietor continued to hold the asset on behalf of the
recipient. (") This custom can explain the legal claims of children, when they
came of age, against their fathers. These claims cited the fathers' refusal to
transfer to now-adult children assets given as a gift while they were still
minors. Similar claims were submitted by children whose fathers sold such
assets to a third party, without their child's consent, acting as if the assets was
still in their possession. (89)
What were the motives for bypassing the compulsory inheritance rules
through establishing a family endowment and gift giving? The documents
reveal a range of reasons and arguments. One reason could be a hostile
relationship with an heir. In one example, a nomadic Vlach shepherd gave
as a gift all his modest property to his four sons; the fifth, Stephen, recei-
ved no share, as he was a stubborn and rebellious son, at least in his
father's eyes. (9) Some people chose to divide their assets among their
children to avoid a joint partnership. (91) Others opted to bequeath all their
possessions to only one son, while compensating their other heirs in some
other way - for example, by giving kitchen tools to daughters - or
to totally deprive would-be heirs from their share of the estate. (92)
Yet others used the above-mentioned legal avenues to deprive relatives
outside the immediate family, or non-kin heirs (e.g. the Muslim public
(88) See the following examples: sicil 29\145, 10 Rebiuilevvel 1131 [31.1.1719]; 45\72, 15 Rebiilahir
1145 [5.10.1732]; 57\27, 3 Cemaziel'evvel 1152 [8.8.1739]; 57\102, 26 Safer 1153 [22.5.1740]; 72\32,
24 Safer 1161 [24.2.1748]; 72\74, 8 Zilhicce 1160 [11.12.1747]. On the gift to minors, see Powers, 'The Isla-
mic Inheritance System', 20-21; idem, 'The Art of the Judicial Opinion: on Tawlij in Fifteenth-Century
Tunis', Islamic Law and Society 5:3 (1998). 381; Lucy Carroll, 'Definition and Interpretation of Muslim Law
in South Asia: The Case of Gift to Minor', Islamic Law and Society 4:1 (1994). 86-9.
(89) See, as an example, sicil 57\57, 24 Sevval 1152 [24.1.1740].
(90) Sicil 33\111, 14 Rebitilahir 1136 [11.1.1724].
(91) See the following cases: sicil 6\3, 20 Zilkade 1110 [20.5.1699]; 6\3b, 20 Zilkade 1110 [20.5.1699].
(92) See, as examples, the following cases: sicil 19\139, Zilkade 1124 [30.11-29.12.1712]; 34\40, 20
Rebiuilevvel 1136 [18.12.1723]; 45\72, 25 Rebiulahir 1145 [15.9.1732]; 86\3, 17 Zilkade 1167
[4.11.1754].

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 DEALING WITH DEATH

treasury, (93) or the former owners of manumitted slaves) ("9) of their sh

or at least to diminish that share. (") Some named as beneficiaries app
rent household members who did not have a blood relationship with t
proprietor and thus were not entitled to be his legal heirs. Among su
beneficiaries we can find a stepson (rebib), a son-in law (damad), a son
law's mother and manumitted slaves. (96)
Consequently, these records demonstrate - more than anything else -
Salonicans' ability to draw on and to exploit the legal rules to achieve t
various desired goals.

Conclusion

In many modern, secular societies death means the final and total
Living in the shadow of death entails fear of dying, fear of the manner of
and fear of death itself. (7) In Muslim Salonica - as in many other relig
societies ('8) - the physical death of the body was not considered the ter
tion of life, but merely a menacing and potentially harmful stage that det
the dying man from his loved ones and separated his spirit from his body.
also meant the metamorphosis from this world into the next, until the da
resurrection when all mankind would finally be returned to God and judge
their individual deeds. The transitory physical event of death was regar
almost insignificant when compared with the eternity of the world bey
Consequently, Salonicans dedicated much of their efforts to improving
eternal lot. They believed that by performing pious deeds they were creati
opportunity to better their destiny before God. Such a consideration gu
many Salonicans when they declared in court their wishes regarding their
perty. For those who would die without leaving children, or far from thei
ones, making a will ensured a proper funeral; manumission and establishin
endowment were used to improve their lot in the afterlife.

(93) See the following examples: sicil 6\30, 20 Rebiiilevvel 1111 [15.9.1699]; 6\30b, 20 Rebiii
1111 [15.9.1699]; 6\31, 20 Rebiiilevvel 1111 [15.9.1699].
(94) See the following examples sicil 4\26, 12 Rebiiilevvel 1108 [10.10.1696]; 6\112, 20 Sevva
[10.4.1700]; 60\52, 26 Muharrem 1154 [13.4.1741]. On the inheritance rights of a former master o
manumitted slave's estate, see Coulson, Succession, 10.
(95) See, for example, the wish of some property owners to bequeath to their daughters on the e
of their sisters: sicil 4\132, 11-20 Sevval 1108 [4.5.-13.5.1697]: 57\5, 25 Rebitilevvel 1152 [2.7.1739
25 Rebiiilevvel 1152 [2.7.1739]; 57\26, 3 Cemaziel'evvel 1152 [8.8.1739]; 71\29, 15 Zilhicce 1160
[18.12.1747]. The Islamic rules of inheritance give priority in inheritance to the inner family circle, provided
that the proprietor has at least one son. In such cases, the son excludes his father's brothers and sisters, who
thus lose their shares of the estate. However, if the proprietor leaves only daughters, his brothers and sisters
take a share of his estate. See Coulson, Succession, 67.
(96) Sicil 18\281, 1 Rebitilahir 1122 [30.4.1710]; 75\9, 28 Saban 1162 [13.8.1749]; 81\81, 26 Muharrem
1165 [15.12.1751].
(97) Morgan, 'Law, Ethics and Death: Silence', xi.
(98) See, for example, the perceptions of death in Christian Europe in the High Middle Ages: Aaron
Gurevich, Historical Anthropology of the Middle Ages (edited by Jana Howlett, Cambridge, 1992). 65-89.

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 EYAL GINIO

Yet, when contemplating death Salonicans were not indifferent t

worldly recompense and to the division of their property among their de
cendants. From this aspect, the option of creating endowments and giving
gifts gave them some feeling of control. They used these legal mechanism
to affect the future of their heirs and of their property long after their ow
deaths. The designation of beneficiaries demonstrates the religious an
social establishments most cherished by Salonicans: the local mosque, the
dervish lodge, the guild and the neighbourhood were seen as worthy and
trusted institutions, giving to which could enhance the donor's reputation
within his community and safeguard his memory. The donors' preferen
for local beneficiaries for their endowments indicates the relatively mode
scope of charity in an Ottoman provincial city.
What can this perception of death tell us about the mental world of Mus
lims in eighteenth-century Salonica? First, it clearly demonstrates the sign
ficance and the dominance of religious belief in daily life. This, as noted ea
lier, is true for other societies as well, but the distinctiveness of the
Salonican case stems from the ability of Muslims in all times to use religious
law to fulfil their post-mortem ends. While Islamic law and tradition arti-
culate the general meaning of death and the afterlife, they do not dictate set
burial customs, modes to attain posthumous memory, or other issues that
pertain to death. Nor do they restrict the beneficiaries one may name when
establishing a pious endowment, making a will, or bequeathing a gift. Isla-
mic law does not impose upon its followers rigid guidelines when contem-
plating these issues; rather, it offers them a range of legal avenues to deal
with them. Their choices reflect local and current customs and practices.
This paper demonstrates that some Salonicans chose these legal options
to attain their personal needs, in line with their perceptions and understan-
dings of death and its consequences. In other words, eighteenth-century
Salonicans did not wait passively for death, but rather wished - and labou-
red - to gain some measure of control and influence over what counted most
in their eyes. The sicil records show that it was not their final, earthly
moments that concerned them but, first, the eternity that followed and,
second, the fate of those they were to leave behind.

Eyal Ginio,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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