2.1. Types of assets

Milk or waqf assets recorded in the waqf-related deeds of Qijmās are listed in Table 1.Footnote ³⁴ There were 59 sets of assets altogether, 56 of which were ultimately turned into waqf properties. The number of sets of assets possessed or endowed as waqf by Qijmās himself was 51 of 59. The types of assets are classified as follows: 32 (54 per cent) were agricultural assets such as farmland and orchards; 20 (34 per cent) were urban real estate such as buildings; and seven (12 per cent) were other holdings such as sugar cane presses and a granary.

Table 1 Assets listed in the waqf deeds issued by Qijmās

*Assets endowed by Sultan Qāytbāy as waqfs for Qijmās.

Assets: abniyat al-ḥirfa = workshops, anshāb = trees, arḍ = land, arḍ al-mazraʿa = farmland, bināʾ = structure, biʾr = well, bustān = orchard, dār = house, furn = oven, ḥānūṭ = shop, ḥāṣil = storeroom, makān = building, maṭbakh = kitchen, miʿṣara (miʿṣara li-iʿtiṣār al-qaṣab al-sukkarī) = sugarcane press, nāḥiya = tax district, qiṭʿa = a piece of land, sāqiya = waterwheel, shūna = granary, df = dirham min al-fulūs (copper dirham), /m = per month.

Types: A = agricultural asset, B = urban real estate, C = other types.

Loc. = location: AJ = Abyār wa-Jazīrat Banī Naṣr, D = Daqahliyya, F = Fuwwa, Gh = Gharbiyya, J = Jīziyya, I = al-Iskandariyya, M = Manūfiyya, Sh = Sharqiyya, Q = al-Qāhira, Qal = Qalyūbiyya, ZD = Ẓāhir Dimyāṭ, ZI = Ẓāhir al-Iskandariyya, ZQ = Ẓāhir al-Qāhira.

K/H: K = kāmil (the whole asset), H = ḥiṣṣa (a portion of the asset).

Dates: day/month/year (Hijri calendar), ─ = unknown.

Means (Means of acquisition): bd = istibdāl, Bm = amlāk bayt al-māl, dn = dinar, sh = shirāʿ (purchase), new = newly built by Qijmās, ─ = unknown.

All the assets were located in Egypt although large-scale waqfs established by powerful figures often included assets located in Syria as well as Egypt.Footnote ³⁵ It is probable that Qijmās established other waqfs in Damascus after his installation as viceroy, the endowment deeds of which have not survived to the present, and which included several assets located in Syria. Indeed, Ibn Ṭūlūn states that when Qijmās died in Damascus in 892/1487, he left a large amount of property there; but his Egyptian properties were much larger than those in Damascus.Footnote ³⁶ Thus, we can be fairly certain that a higher proportion of his assets were located in Egypt.

Twenty-seven of 59 sets of assets (46 per cent) were located in urban areas: 19 in Cairo (11 in the walled Fatimid al-Qāhira, eight outside the walls); seven in Alexandria (five within the city walls, two outside the walls); and one in Damietta (outside the city walls). Thirty-one of 59 assets (53 per cent) were located in rural areas: nine in Daqahliyya, eight in Sharqiyya, six in Gharbiyya, two in Manūfiyya, one in Sharqiyya or Manūfiyya, one in Fuwwa, one in Abyār wa-Jazīrat Banī Naṣr, one in Qalyūbiyya, and two in Jīziyya (Giza). The location of the remaining one is unknown. All of his assets were located in Lower Egypt except for the two located in Jīziyya. The majority of his urban real estate was located in and around the capital city of Cairo (16 of 20). The majority of his agricultural assets were located in the three provinces of Daqahliyya, Sharqiyya, and Gharbiyya (23 of 32); but most of the farmland of his waqf were shares of nāḥiyas (village or tax district). Only two nāḥiyas were endowed en bloc, and the size of these nāḥiyas was comparatively small.Footnote ³⁷ Furthermore, according to Ibn al-Jīʿān's Tuḥfa, 13 nāḥiyas were assigned to the iqṭāʿ of Qijmās when he served at the post of amīr ākhūr kabīr;Footnote ³⁸ but these nāḥiyas were scattered all over Egypt and there is no relation between the locations of his iqṭāʿs and those of his waqf property. On the basis of examination of waqf deeds of the sultans Qāytbāy and Qānṣūh al-Ghawrī (r. 906–22/1501–16), Carl F. Petry suggests that they held Egyptian landed property in the form of “fractionalized shareholding”, meaning they held shares of nāḥiyas, the sites of which were randomly scattered, without accumulating contiguous blocks of landed properties.Footnote ³⁹ The pattern of Qijmās's landholdings also confirms this trend.

It is noteworthy that several sugar cane presses (miʿṣara) were included among his property. Five sugar cane presses were endowed by him as waqf, at least four of which were acquired after his installation as amīr ākhūr kabīr. It is known that the sugar-refining industry developed in Mamluk Egypt, and that sultans and amirs profited from the management of sugar refineries.Footnote ⁴⁰ Qijmās also followed the trend of the military ruling elite to hold sugar-related facilities as private sources of revenue.

2.2. Means of acquisition of assets

Of the 51 assets possessed or endowed by Qijmās himself, 30 were acquired through purchase (two of the 30 were purchased after their istibdāl, i.e. the exchange of one waqf-endowed property for another); but their prices are unknown in all except in six cases. Four of 51 were acquired through istibdāl. The means of acquisition of the remainder is unknown.

The dates of acquisition are recorded in the deeds in 40 cases. According to the dates, Qijmās acquired several assets per year from Shawwāl 880/February 1476, just after his promotion to the post of amīr ākhūr kabīr, to 885/1480, the year in which he was appointed viceroy of Damascus. This shows that as he advanced higher in the government he acquired more assets, probably due to his increasing financial power. Both the dates of acquisition and endowment are known in 32 cases. Fifteen of 32 were endowed as waqf within a year of their acquisition. Ten of the remainder were endowed within two years of acquisition. This shows that Qijmās acquired these assets with a view to endowing them as waqf.

Istibdāl is a means of exchanging property endowed as waqf for another private property. Through istibdāl, a deteriorated waqf property could be exchanged for another, profitable, property; hence it was critical for stabilizing waqf income and for retaining the waqf itself. However, in the Mamluk period, it was utilized by powerful figures as a means of privatizing waqf property.Footnote ⁴¹ On 22 Shaʿbān 873/7 March 1469, when he was a mere amir of ten, Qijmās purchased a building from a man, which had been a waqf property and which had been acquired by the man through istibdāl on the same day (no. 7 in Table 1). This proves that a relatively low-ranking amir could also acquire waqf property through istibdāl. The process of Qijmās's acquisition of the asset no. 19 in Table 1 is a more interesting example. On 28 Ṣafar 879/14 July 1474, a woman named Badriyya, the administrator (nāẓir) of the waqf for the tomb of her maternal grandfather Qadīd al-Qalamṭāʾī (d. 801/1398), an ex-viceroy of Alexandria, which was outside of the Rashīd gate (the Eastern gate of Alexandria), entrusted Qijmās, then viceroy of Alexandria, with the responsibility of the administratorship. Then, on 24 Rabīʿ I/8 August, Qijmās's agent (wakīl) al-Ṣārimī Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad Amīr ʿAlam appealed to the deputy judge of Alexandria for the istibdāl of ruined assets that consisted of a baker's oven (furn), a store (ḥānūt), and workshops (al-abniya al-ḥirfa), all of which were endowed as waqf properties for the tomb. After an investigation, the deputy judge confirmed that these assets were in ruin and gave permission for istibdāl, probably because he was compelled or bribed to do so. After two days, a man named Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Ṣafadī acquired these assets in exchange for payment of 1,200 copper dirhams to the waqf for the purchase of its alternative revenue source; thus the istibdāl of the assets was concluded. Then, on 1 Rabīʿ II/15 August, another agent of Qijmās purchased these assets from Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Ṣafadī for 4 dinars. Given that Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Ṣafadī resold these assets to Qijmās as soon as he acquired them, it is highly probable that Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Ṣafadī originally purchased them as unofficial proxy for Qijmās, with the aim of surrendering them to him. In other words, Qijmās performed istibdāl of the waqf assets based on his authority as proxy for the waqf administrator, and came to possess them as his private property in the end.Footnote ⁴²

In these two cases, a two-step procedure was followed: first, a third party acquired the waqf assets through istibdāl; then, Qijmās acquired them from him. It is likely that Qijmās followed such a complicated procedure to avoid criticism for the privatization of waqf property through istibdāl. We never notice such a process of acquisition without comparing the waqf deed with the istibdāl deed of the same asset – the survival of both deeds is very rare. It is important to acknowledge the possibility that even an asset described as having been acquired through “purchase” in the waqf deed could be a waqf asset that had been purchased through an istibdāl, which had originally been donated to another object.

There are four cases in which Qijmās carried out istibdāl himself and directly acquired other waqf property. The building in Cairo (no. 49 in Table 1) was originally designated as the waqf of a military man called Alṭunbughā. Through an agent, Qijmās acquired this by exchanging it with half of another building standing outside Zuwayla Gate, the southern gate of Cairo. A document detailing the transaction in which Qijmās purchased the exchanged property reveals that he acquired the half of the building outside Zuwayla Gate, which he used for the exchange, only twelve days prior to carrying out this istibdāl, suggesting that he purchased the property solely to exchange it with property no. 49.

The use of the waqf system as a means of securing and maintaining a private source of income became widespread during this period. Those in power often privatized state land (amlāk bayt al-māl) and iqṭāʿs through purchase or rental and turned them into waqfs with a view to preventing confiscation or passing the benefits on to their offspring.Footnote ⁴³ An example of Qijmās purchasing state land and turning it into a waqf is no. 21 in Table 1. He purchased a piece of land outside the Rashīd Gate of Alexandria through an agent of the wakīl bayt al-māl (agent of the state treasury) on 20 Rabīʿ II 879/3 September 1474. After developing the land as an orchard, Qijmās then had it designated as a waqf as a financial resource of a Friday mosque that he built on the adjacent land (WA, j676). As will be described below, he was engaged with the redevelopment of this quarter through waqf-based projects and the purchase of the state land served to secure both the land and a financial resource for the redevelopment. Only this case can be confirmed by documented evidence, but there are other records of similar transactions that do not make clear the seller of the land or the means of purchase, suggesting that more pieces of land could have been acquired from the state treasury in this way.

There were seven individuals who acted as Qijmās's agents when he acquired properties through purchase or istibdāl. It is noteworthy that among these individuals were two members of the ʿAbbasī family to whom Qijmās was very close: Tāj al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (WA, j676), the eldest of the three siblings, and ʿImād al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Razzāq (WA, j671), the youngest. ʿAbd al-Razzāq had the closest relationship with Qijmās and served as his private scribe from when Qijmās was khāzindār; he also taught the Quran to his mamluks. The middle brother, Muḥammand, got to know Qijmās through his involvement with the education of mamluks on behalf of his brother.Footnote ⁴⁴ This shows the ways in which Qijimās's private scribe and his family members worked towards the acquisition of assets on behalf of Qijmās.

In sum, the patterns of Qijmās's asset acquisitions and means of securing them are, on the whole, consistent with those of mamluks of that time.

3.1. The rank-and-file Mamluk period: waqf as a means of safeguarding assets

As mentioned above, Qijmās was a member of the Sultanic Mamluk corps for almost twenty years, times when they encountered difficult conditions including multiple plagues, political setbacks, and economic dissolution or late payment of salaries. On 11 Dhū al-Ḥijja 869/4 August 1465, under such circumstances, Qijmās set up his first waqf (I) (Table 2, supplementary material online).Footnote ⁴⁵ He designated two buildings in Cairo and a piece of agricultural land in a nāḥiha of al-Daqahliyya as a waqf and nominated himself while he was alive and his son, Muḥammand, born from his wife Āsiya, after his death, as beneficiaries. Furthermore, he stipulated that after Muḥammand's death, three-quarters of the waqf income be given to his descendants on the male line (awlād al-ẓuhūr) and the other quarter be given to his two mamluks, Barsbāy and Dawlatbāy. Finally, when no beneficiaries remained, he stipulated that half the income be given to the Quran reciters (qurrāʾ; sing. qāriʾ) and their shaykh at the Azhar mosque and the other half to the poor (fuqarāʾ) of Medina.

“The self-benefitting waqf”, in which the founder himself benefits directly from the waqf, does not represent a major change in terms of the reality of property ownership compared to the pre-waqf period; the founder could designate his private property as a waqf but still manage it as the administrator and receive income from it as the beneficiary.Footnote ⁴⁶ The way Qijmās's first waqf was set up – after the death of the founder, descendants and slaves freed by the founder (ʿutaqāʾ, sing. ʿatīq) were supposed to benefit from it, so that when the blood relation ceased, it would be used for charity – followed the typical “family waqf” format. In other words, by designating properties he owned as a waqf, Qijmās managed to keep them as sources of income, but prevented them from being confiscated in the event of political setbacks or sudden death. In addition, the waqf was established in such a way as to prevent it from being divided up by multiple inheritors after the founder's [Qijmās] death and to ensure that the surviving son, and, after his death, the descendants on the male line, as well as Qijmās's mamluks, would draw income from it. This suggests that his first aim in establishing a waqf was to secure assets for himself; and the second aim was to provide benefits to his son and mamluks after his death. As discussed earlier, the Sultanic Mamluk corps of this period was plagued by late salary payments, and, as a consequence, securing other sources of income became critical for survival. Confiscation of assets was also rife. During the plague epidemic of 864/1459–60, the julbāns were keen on acquiring iqṭāʿs belonging to military personnel who had fallen victim to the disease. Those who visited the pharmacy or who did not leave their houses were suspected of having contracted the plague and in particular qarānīṣ, awlād al-nās (sons of the amirs and mamluks) and ḥalqa troopers, who were in vulnerable positions, were robbed of their iqṭāʿs even before their deaths were confirmed.Footnote ⁴⁷ Under such circumstances, owning properties that promised a relatively stable level of income in the form of waqf was an appropriate method to secure and maintain assets.

This document tells us that Qijmās, at about 35–40 years of age, had married and had a son. The document also tells us that his wife was the daughter of al-Nāṣirī Muḥammad ibn Arghūn al-Qarmī. Qijmās's father-in-law, must have been a walad al-nās because his father had a Turkish name. However, no further details are given about his father, Arghūn, which suggests that he was not a powerful amir. The document shows that Qijmās, a rank-and-file mamluk, married the granddaughter of an unknown mamluk who was “appropriate” for his status.

Al-Nāṣirī al-Qarmī established his own waqf (II) after Qijmās set up his first (Table 3, supplementary material online). Because the document is damaged, the description of this waqf asset is missing. However, it designates al-Nāṣirī’s daughter, Qijmās's wife Āsiya, as the beneficiary and after her death, her two sons, Muḥammad as mentioned above and ʿAbd al-Qādir, as well as any children who might be born after them and their descendants, as the beneficiaries. This confirms that Qijmās and Āsiya had another son. One of the notable features of this waqf is that the founder was not designated as the direct beneficiary but his daughter and her children; and it also designates his son-in-law, Qijmās, as the administrator, who was usually the founder himself. This shows that his waqf was a means of transferring certain assets to his daughter and grandchildren before his death. One of the reasons why the mamluks actively established waqfs was that, while they occupied a powerful position in the government as “one-generation” military elite, their children and descendants were left in an inferior position.Footnote ⁴⁸ We can see that both Qijmās and his father-in-law were very careful about leaving assets to their children/grandchildren in the form of waqfs.

3.2. The amir of ten period (up to 875/1470): the construction of the tomb and preparations for death

When Ẓāhirī amirs won the power struggle after the death of Khushqadam in 872/1467, Qijmās was promoted to the amir of ten at around 40 years of age. When Qāytbāy, with whom he had a close friendship, acceded to the throne in Rajab 872/January 1468, after the short reigns of Yalbāy and Timurbughā, further opportunities emerged for Qijmās. However, apart from this personal luck, the Mamluk Sultanate of the time was in an unprecedented crisis situation due to intensifying tensions with the outside world and domestic problems internally. Two attempted attacks on the Dulkadir in 872/1467–68 ended in failure, but marked a threat to the security of the Mamluk Sultanate in northern Syria. The deployment of troops and financing of the invasion, as well as the rebuilding of state finances in order to carry out military activities, were urgently needed. In addition, rebellions by the Bedouins occurred frequently in Egypt, and amirs were sent to various provinces to quell such uprisings.Footnote ⁴⁹ Against this background, a large-scale plague hit Egypt from Jumādā II 873/December 1468 to Shawwāl 873/May 1469, for the first time in nine years. It is said that the epidemic claimed as many as 5,000 victims per day at its peak.Footnote ⁵⁰

Under these circumstances, Qijmās modified the setting of the aforementioned waqf (I) and, by adding three sets of agrarian property as sources of income, a new waqf (III) was established (Table 4, supplementary material online).Footnote ⁵¹ The new waqf had ten orphans, a muʾaddib (maktab teacher), ten sufi Quran reciters, and others as beneficiaries; and, after Qijmās and his descendants died out, those who would perform ṣalāt for them were designated as the beneficiaries. The waqf also stipulated that when Qijmās died, a qayyim (guard) and a cook should prepare food to be placed in the place where Qijmās would be buried. What remained from the waqf income after spending on these “good deeds” was to be directed to Qijmās himself while he was alive and, after his death, the surplus was to be spent on his descendants, the slaves freed by him, and the poor of Mecca and Medina, in this order. His new waqf aimed first and foremost at carrying out charitable activities; and it was now clear that he had become very aware of his own death and of the need for preparing for the afterlife.

Why did he dissolve the waqf to secure income for himself and his children and establish a new waqf? One must examine the changes in expression used to refer to his children in the document. As seen above, in waqfs I and II, his sons were individually named as the beneficiaries; but in waqf III, individual names were removed and an abstract expression “his children (awlāduhu)”, a standard term used in many waqf deeds, was used instead. As discussed, the epidemic of the time claimed many victims among the amirs and notables (aʿyān), and particularly hit were mamluks and their young children. Sultan Qāytbāy lost his young first son and a daughter.Footnote ⁵² Moreover, Qijmās had no surviving children when he died.Footnote ⁵³ Taking this all into consideration, it is not far-fetched to conclude that his two sons fell victim to the plague, and that by the time waqf III was set up, they had passed away. In other words, the establishment of the new waqf reflected changes in his view of life and death after losing his children. This, of course, remains mere speculation, but it is reasonable to assume that a heightened sense of his own mortality and a desire to do good deeds for the afterlife was behind the modification of the waqf.

At the stage of waqf III, the place of burial and good deeds was stipulated simply as “a place that the founder specifies”, but this condition was modified soon after. Qijmās designated his newly built tomb (turba) in al-Ṣaḥrāʾ, a burial quarter in suburban Cairo, as a waqf (IV) on 16 Muḥarram 874/26 July 1469 (Table 5, supplementary material online). At this time, together with his own waqfs (I and III), the waqf (II) belonging to al-Nāṣirī Muḥammad al-Qarmī, his father-in-law, was modified and added to waqf IV, which led to an increase in the waqf assets. Furthermore, on 15 Ṣafar/24 August, he added two properties to his waqf (V) (Table 6, supplementary material online). According to these waqfs, five reciters of the Quran were to be placed at the tomb, and on every Friday, the Two Feasts (ʿĪḍayn), and ʿĀshūrāʾ (the 10th Day of Muḥarram), bread and meals were to be provided to the poor. A cistern (ṣihrīj) was also established for public use. The waqf stipulated that his wife, Āsiya, would receive 500 copper dirhams a month and that an annual donation of 10,000 copper dirhams would be made to the poor of Mecca and Medina. What was left after these expenses was to be divided between Qijmās himself (and after his death, his descendants), and the slaves freed by him and their descendants at the ratio of 2 to 1.

At this time, Qijmās made changes to all of the waqfs that he and his father-in-law had established, and they were re-established as a waqf to his own tomb. According to Adam Sabra, in the Egypt of the 860s/1490s, the “tomb waqf”, which combined maintenance of the tomb of the founder and provision of meals to the poor, spread rapidly.Footnote ⁵⁴ This functioned not only to secure the burial place of the founder, but also to continue amassing good deeds for the last judgement by having the Quran recital on the founder's behalf and prayers to God performed after the founder's death, and by continuing to practise good deeds through the provision of meals. The years 873/1468–69, when he was engaged in the construction of his tomb, were times not only of the aforementioned plague, but also of several attempted attacks on the Dulkadir and efforts to quell the Bedouins’ rebellions. It can be assumed that a situation in which fear of death, whether by disease or in battle, was brought to the fore affected Qijmās with regard to the building of his tomb and the complete overhaul of the waqfs that accompanied the former. It is not clear, however, whether he was involved in these military campaigns. According to Sabra, the “tomb waqf” was often established by low-ranking mamluks as well as the awlād al-nās and women related to military personnel who did not have the financial means to build larger facilities such as the Friday mosques or madrasas.Footnote ⁵⁵ It is fitting that Qijmās, who had just been promoted to amir of ten, chose the “tomb waqf” form, which was appropriate to his status as well as the fashion of that time, when he set up a waqf for charity.

It is estimated that charitable acts at this tomb began from 23 Muḥarram 875/22 July 1470 when he established another waqf (VI) for its staff (Table 7, supplementary material online). Qijmās added a portion of a nāḥiya as a waqf asset. In addition, he appointed nine named sufi Quran reciters and their shaykh to perform services at the tomb, and stipulated the contents of their activities including recitation of the Quran after the Fajr Prayer. He also appointed a person to act as farrāsh (janitor), waqqād (lamp-lighter), and muzammalātī (man in charge of the distribution of water), and another to be in charge of waqf accounts to keep the operations running. This was the time when prices in Cairo shot up due to the lack of Nile flooding, which led to food shortages (from Rajab 874/January 1470 to the following year). Muḥarram 875/July 1470, when Qijmās established this waqf, was when food prices reached their peak and it is said that people survived by eating bread made of corn and millet instead of wheat.Footnote ⁵⁶ Rulers often performed prayers and alms giving in times of crisis, asking for forgiveness from God; and these performances often took place in al-Ṣaḥrāʾ.Footnote ⁵⁷ Although on a much smaller scale, Qijmās's charitable activities at his tomb can be seen as bearing a similar meaning.

These findings show that the religious and charitable reasons, motivated by the founder's personal and social circumstances, moved him to establish the “tomb waqf”. However, at the same time, we should not overlook the financial aspect of the waqf. Making a rough, tentative calculation of the income from four landed assets of the waqf (4, 5, 8, and 9 in Table 1) based on the information derived from Tuḥfa, and comparing it with the sums designated in the waqf deed to spend on charitable purposes, only 10 per cent of the revenues earned from the four waqf properties was to be spent on the above-specified purposes.Footnote ⁵⁸ According to the waqf stipulation, the remainder was to be divided between Qijmās and his mamluks in a ratio of 2:1. Thus, Qijmās was expected to earn about 467,000 copper dirhams per year, which approximately equaled the salaries of 19 sultanic mamluks.Footnote ⁵⁹ Furthermore, if we assume that the number of his mamluks was ten because Qijmās held the rank of amir of ten at that time, each of his mamluks was expected to earn an amount that approximately equalled the salary of a sultanic mamluk. This estimation will remain speculative, but it seems reasonable to suppose that this “tomb waqf” functioned as a private source of revenue for Qijmās and his mamluks, the flow of money of which was cleverly hidden from view.Footnote ⁶⁰

3.3. The viceroy of Alexandria period (up to 880/1457): promoting public interests

Qijmās was appointed viceroy of Alexandria on 25 Rajab 875/17 January 1471, and accordingly he left Cairo for the port city. The first waqf he established upon appointment was on 13 Dhū al-Ḥijja 876/22 May 1472, in which four pieces of agricultural land in Lower Egypt were made into a waqf with Qijmās as the beneficiary (waqf VII) (Table 8, supplementary material online). These properties were all purchased on 18 Ramaḍān 875/10 March 1471, soon after his appointment. The income was directly allocated to himself and it was stipulated that, after his death, the income was to be added to the tomb waqf (IV) established earlier; thus it is clear that this waqf was set up for the purpose of securing income for himself while he was alive. When the reign of Qāytbāy was finally stabilized and he was promoted to a middle-ranking position as viceroy of Alexandria, it was natural for him to start working on acquiring and securing private assets through the waqf system. At this time, paying cash to the sultan at the time of one's appointment and paying bribes to the notables in order to facilitate favourable appointments was widely practised.Footnote ⁶¹ Although our sources do not show Qijmās having obtained public office by this means, the situation suggests that he could not afford to neglect the procurement of stable sources of income apart from iqṭāʿ so as to secure his status and prepare for future promotion.

At the same time, he was actively engaged in waqf projects to promote public interest while he was in office in Alexandria. On 19 Shaʿbān 879/29 December 1474, he built a new Friday mosque (jāmiʿ) outside Rashīd Gate, the east gate of Alexandria, and other facilities such as a convent (zāwiya) and ablution basin (mīḍaʾa) next to the mosque, which were all made a waqf (VIII) (Table 9, supplementary material online). Al-Sakhāwī reports that Qijmās built these institutions for the security of travellers arriving at the gate after sunset and having to spend the night there, and that people benefitted enormously from the construction of these facilities.Footnote ⁶² Qijmās also designated a financial source in the waqf to provide bread to the poor at the mosque; later, he further developed this meal provision service by building a kitchen and warehouse in the Viceregal Palace (Dār al-Saʿāda). He established another waqf (IX) to provide bread, water, and soup (dashīsha) to the poor who visit the mosque and the Mausoleum (maqām) of Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh al-Barq outside Baḥr Gate, the north gate of Alexandria (Table 10, supplementary material online). Although this waqf deed does not survive, he also rebuilt the Ṣawārī mosque outside Sadra Gate (the south gate of the city), built a convent (ribāṭ) outside Baḥr Gate, and built a number of public fountains (asbila; sing. sabīl).Footnote ⁶³ Constructing these religious institutions and implementing public projects was an important duty for the ruler; and, as viceroy, Qijmās promoted public interests in Alexandria through these waqf projects. The number of building projects that Qijmās initiated while in office far exceeded the record of his predecessors. This is probably because he held the rank of amir of a hundred, which was a higher rank than that normally held by the viceroy, and because he had the financial means to carry out large-scale waqf projects. In fact, the waqf projects VIII and IX were carried out after his promotion to amir of a hundred.

The Friday mosque Qijmās built outside Rashīd Gate had an adjacent tomb. It was then decided that a former sultan, al-Ẓāhir Timurbughā, who had passed away shortly after the completion of the mosque on 8 Dhū al-Ḥijja 879/15 April 1475, was to be buried there. Timurbughā was expelled from Cairo after his dethronement in 872/1468. He spent the remainder of his life first in Damietta and then in Alexandria. Qijmās buried him in the courtyard (ḥawsh) next to the mosque, built a dome (qubba), and emplaced Quran reciters.Footnote ⁶⁴ It is not clear whether he originally intended this tomb for his own use. However, given that he had already secured his own tomb in Cairo and that Timurbughā had been invalided for months, it is also possible that the tomb was intended for Timurbughā from the beginning. Both Qijmās and Timurbughā were from the same al-Ẓāhiriyya and they were not distant from each other. As discussed earlier, Qijmās once accompanied a pilgrimage to Mecca when he was a rank-and-file mamluk; on this occasion, he was an attendant of Timurbughā (who served twice as an amīr al-ḥājj).Footnote ⁶⁵ In addition, when Timurbughā was brought down by a rebellion within two months of his accession to the sultanate, Qijmās was one of ten or so amirs who stayed loyal to him until the end.Footnote ⁶⁶ We can see Qijmās's sympathies towards his former colleague and ruler, whose last years were spent in the city of his appointment, in the tomb for Timurbughā attached to his mosque.

3.4. The amīr ākhūr kabīr period (up to 886/1481): securing assets and construction of a monumental institutions

In Jumādā I 880/September 1475, Qijmās was appointed amīr ākhūr kabīr and returned to Cairo. However, because his successor, Qānim Qushayr, the viceroy of Alexandria, died suddenly, he resumed his previous positon in addition to this new one, and returned to Alexandria.Footnote ⁶⁷ Qijmās now occupied an important position and was one of the most powerful figures in the government; he designated a total of 14 properties – including agricultural lands, urban properties and sugar cane presses – to a waqf with himself as the beneficiary on 18 Shaʿbān 881/6 December 1476 (waqf X) (Table 11, supplementary material online). The fact that almost all of these waqf properties (Nos 29–30, 35–39 in Table 1) had been obtained after his promotion to the amir of a hundred suggests that he intended to expand his private sources of income after his promotion to amīr ākhūr kabīr and to secure his private assets through the waqf system and, further, that the promotion enabled him to establish a large-scale “self-benefitting waqf”. Incidentally, there was a plague in Egypt and Syria from 881/1476 to 882/1477, the first time in eight years. It was reported that in Upper Egypt dead bodies were abandoned without being washed or buried, and that some small villages saw their populations wiped out. The epidemic inflicted serious damage on Cairo, including 2,000 deaths among Qāytbāy's mushtarawāt.Footnote ⁶⁸ It can be speculated that Qijmās managed to acquire a large number of properties one after another during the epidemic because it was relatively easy to acquire the assets of owners who fell victim to plague. However, the records in the waqf deed regarding how a property was acquired do not show much difference from those of other periods.Footnote ⁶⁹

Qijmās was released from the position of viceroy of Alexandria in Dhū al-Qaʿda 882/February 1478, and returned to Cairo. On 19 Shawwāl 883/13 January 1479, he established yet another waqf (XI) (Table 12, supplementary material online). The new waqf had four newly acquired properties as its source of income and was intended to expand the activities of his tomb and to institute new charitable activities for sufis training at Azhar mosque, to pay for the maintenance and personnel costs at the convent (zāwiya) of Shaykh Mūsā, and to provide for Quran reciters in Mecca and Medina. What is notable in this waqf is the date on which it was established. Qijmās set off to Mecca as the amīr al-ḥājj in 883/1479, and the waqf was established just prior to his departure from Cairo.Footnote ⁷⁰ That he set up a waqf focusing on charitable activities in this period suggests that his piety and motivation to carry out good deeds were heightened as he faced the important religious event of pilgrimage to Mecca.

Upon his return from Mecca in Muḥarram 884/March–April 1479, Qijmās started a project to build a religious complex called Qijmāsiyya Madrasa, a huge Friday mosque-madrasa with a tomb and sabīl-kuttāb attached, in al-Darb al-Aḥmar quarter outside Zuwayla Gate, the south gate of Cairo (waqf XII) (Table 13, supplementary material online).Footnote ⁷¹ Al-Darb al-Aḥmar was the “umbilical cord” that linked the walled Fatimid al-Qāhira, the centre of commercial and religious activity, to the Citadel, the seat of government, and formed the last stretch of the sultan's processional route.Footnote ⁷² The date is missing from this waqf deed, but according to the inscriptions found in the surviving building, it was completed in Ramaḍān 885/November 1480 or Muḥarram 886/March 1481.Footnote ⁷³ Details of the stipulation of the institution's activities are missing from the deed, but al-Sakhāwī states that Qijmās appointed a law lecturer (mutaṣaddir) and a reciter of the Hadith of Bukhārī to this as well as redesignating the site of activities for the sufis named in the aforementioned waqf (XI), who were conducting rituals at Azhar mosque, to this place.Footnote ⁷⁴ Moreover, we can find in sources that this facility had a sufi shaykh/professor (mudarris) of Shafiʿi jurisprudence, a Hanafi professor, an imam, a preacher (khaṭīb), and a librarian (khāzin al-kutub).Footnote ⁷⁵ If we consider the location and high standards of architectural and decorative techniques of the facility, it is not far-fetched to say this was a building, which Qijmās – who had by this point become one of the most powerful figures of the Sultanate in name and practice – constructed to show his power and prestige as well as to leave his name in history. From a broader, political point of view, through the building of such a large-scale religious monument, he was merely playing his role as a member of the ruling elite (either consciously or unconsciously), and demonstrating the Mamluk Sultanate's authority and the “legitimacy of rule”.Footnote ⁷⁶

However, his time in Cairo as the amīr ākhūr kabīr turned out to be short: In Shawwāl 885/December 1480, Qijmās was suddenly appointed the viceroy of Damascus thanks to another amir refusing to take office. At this time, while Qijmāsiyya Madrasa had been established as a waqf, its activities had not yet started. With the right to deliver the Friday sermon (khuṭba) as a Friday mosque granted by the sultan, the first Friday sermon was delivered in this institution on Friday, 1 Muḥarram 886/2 March 1481.Footnote ⁷⁷ On the 15th and 29th of the same month/17 and 31 March, Qijmās successively added five properties in total to the madrasa's source of income and designated them as waqfs (XIII and XIV) (Table 14, supplementary material online). These took place fifteen days before and the day before he left Cairo to take up the position of viceroy of Damascus,Footnote ⁷⁸ suggesting that his appointment as viceroy of Damascus and subsequent move was an unexpected change for Qijmās, which also served to demonstrate the depth of his commitment and attachment to this institution. Moreover, after six years, on his deathbed Qijmās sent a letter from Damascus to the sultan to be allowed to return to Cairo to be buried at the tomb attached to the madrasa; however, his wish was not realized.Footnote ⁷⁹ This episode shows that he was more attached to Cairo and this madrasa than to his last post, Damascus.

3.5. The viceroy of Damascus period (up to 892/1487): the last large-scale waqf projects

Qijmās, now the viceroy of Damascus, arrived in the Syrian city on 1 Rabīʿ I 886/30 April 1481. It appears that he maintained his link to Cairo throughout his life as seen in the fact that he purchased an urban property in Cairo on 13 Rajab/7 September after his transfer to Damascus (asset nos 51 and 52 in Table 1), and that he ordered the construction of a Quran reading stand to be fitted in Qijmāsiyya Madrasa in Cairo in 887/1482.Footnote ⁸⁰ As his service as viceroy of Damascus lasted more than six years, the focus of the acquisition of assets and waqf projects shifted geographically to his new home. While construction of Qijmāsiyya Madrasa in Cairo was completed with the minarets and dome undecorated,Footnote ⁸¹ he actively pursued waqf projects in Damascus. On 29 Shawal 890/8 November 1485, Qijmās built a public bath (ḥammām) and caravanserai near the Viceregal Palace (Dār al-Saʿāda) in the centre of Damascus.Footnote ⁸² In the following month, a madrasa (just like the aforementioned madrasa in Cairo, this one was also named Qijmāsiyya after him), which was being built next to these two facilities and the Viceregal Palace, was completed, and the public bath and caravanserai were made a waqf as the source of income for the madrasa. Ibn Ṭawq, who visited the facilities just after their completion, reports that there was a lot of water in the public bath and dashīsha soup (porridge) was served in the madrasa.Footnote ⁸³ The madrasa functioned as a khanqah as well, and sufi mujāwirūn could stay there. A local mufti, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ramaḍān, was appointed the first sufi shaykh. Additionally, 40 Quran reciters were also emplaced.Footnote ⁸⁴ In the middle of Dhū al-Qaʿda/November–December, work began to build a tomb and a Dār al-Quran attached to the madrasa.Footnote ⁸⁵

Needless to say, these building projects were part of Qijmās's policy to promote public interests in Damascus. Also, since the quarters in which these buildings were situated were run down, it can further be seen as an urban redevelopment project. Looking closely at the periods in which these construction projects were pursued and the buildings completed, another dimension emerges. As viceroy of Damascus, Qijmās joined the campaign against the coalition of the Dulkadir and the Ottomans in Shaʿbān 888/September 1483, in response to the heightened tensions in northern Syria and Anatolia. The Mamluk side lost the first battle and suffered massive causalities; but in the battle fought near Malatya in Ramaḍān 889/September 1484, they inflicted a deadly blow to the enemy and won the battle.Footnote ⁸⁶ Qijmās returned to Damascus in triumph on 1 Muḥarram 890/18 January 1485, and staged a victory parade.Footnote ⁸⁷ However, the situation was not yet stabilized and the Mamluk army advanced as far as Aleppo between Rabīʿ II/April and Shawwāl/October of the same year;Footnote ⁸⁸ and, after a brief return to Damascus, Qijmās rejoined the campaign from Dhū al-Ḥijja 890/December 1485 to Jumādā I 891/May 1486, and destroyed the fortification in Adana.Footnote ⁸⁹ The completion of the madrasa coincided with his second return to Damascus. It can be assumed that the madrasa, which opened when Qijmās returned to Damascus in the midst of the military campaigns, had a role in demonstrating the government's and his own prestige, which was closely linked to the celebration of victory. Qijmās was, after all, buried in the tomb attached to this madrasa in Damascus,Footnote ⁹⁰ not in the tomb in al-ṢaḥrāʾFootnote ⁹¹ or tomb attached to the madrasa in Cairo.Footnote ⁹² The madrasa and tomb continued to exist together with the name of Qijmās as a monument to the Mamluk Sultanate.

4.1. Relationship with Sultan Qāytbāy

Qāytbāy is known as the sultan who founded a large number of religious and public institutions throughout Egypt, Syria, and the Hijaz and established an astonishing amount of property as waqfs for them. Qijmās's inclination to establish waqfs may have been affected by the sultan. Moreover, the close relationship between Qijmās and Qāytbāy can be seen in their waqfs. In his first waqf (I), established when he was a rank-and-file mamluk, Qijmās designated himself as the administrator while he was alive, and after his death, Qāytbāy, who was one of the amirs of a hundred at that time. After Qāytbāy's death, the role was to be performed by the most suitable person among Qijmās's descendants. It was common practice for the founder to nominate his/her descendants as the waqf administrator; but in this case, he gave priority to Qāytbāy over his own kin. Because it was a widespread practice at that time to nominate a high-ranking military official as a sole administrator or joint administrator with one's own descendants,Footnote ⁹³ it can be deduced that Qijmās expected a smooth running of the waqf with the backing of Qāytbāy, the amir of a hundred. Still, while Qāytbāy was then one of the notables of al-Ẓāhiriyya, the consensus was that he ranked fifth after Bardbak, who served as the viceroy of Aleppo and Damascus, and Timurbughā, the future sultan.Footnote ⁹⁴ This suggests that Qijmās did not nominate Qāytbāy as the administrator to succeed him simply because he was a powerful colleague but also because he had already established an intimate personal relationship with Qāytbāy. In addition, in al-Nāṣirī Muḥammad ibn Arghūn al-Qarmī’s waqf which was established afterwards, Qāytbāy was nominated as the administrator after Qijmas's death and the slaves freed by Qāytbāy were included among the beneficiaries of the waqf (II). This implies that the relationship between the two extended to their respective families.

However, when Qijmās later changed these two waqfs to a waqf for his own tomb (Waqf IV), Qāytbāy's name was removed from the stipulation about the administrator. This is probably because by then Qāytbāy had acceded to the throne, and it was felt inappropriate for a low-ranking amir of ten such as Qijmās to nominate a sultan as the administrator of a private waqf. When Qijmās was promoted to the amīr ākhūr kabīr and became one of the notables of the Sultanate, he again nominated Qāytbāy as the administrator of his waqf after his death (Waqf XI).

The relationship between the two can also be read from Qijmās's role in Qāytbāy's waqfs. When Qāytbāy built a zāwiya in Siryāqūs in the suburb of Cairo and designated it as a waqf on 25 Shawwāl 874/27 April 1470, he appointed Qijmās, who was at that time an unknown amir of ten, as the administrator of the waqf.Footnote ⁹⁵ When Qāytbāy established another waqf for a madrasa he built in Jerusalem on 17 Rabīʿ II 877/21 September 1472, Qijmās, who then held the rank of amir of forty and the position of Viceroy of Alexandria, was designated as administrator after Qāytbāy's death; he was listed third in line after the two other appointed administrators including Qāytbāy's private dawādār, Jānibak.Footnote ⁹⁶ When Qāytbāy built a complex with a Friday mosque, tomb, and sabīl-kuttāb in the Ṣaḥrāʾ quarter of Cairo and established it as a waqf on 24 and 28 Jumādā II 879/5 and 9 October 1474, he nominated, as the administrator after his death, the two most powerful notables of the government, Uzbak min Ṭuṭukh, the atābak al-ʿasākir, and Yashbak min Mahdī, the dawādār kābīr;Footnote ⁹⁷ they were followed by Timurāz al-Shamsī al-ʿAzīzī, the raʾs nawbat al-nuwab (head of the guards), who was a son of Qāytbāy's sister,Footnote ⁹⁸ and then Qijmās, who, although holding the rank of amir of a hundred, did not have a powerful position at fourth in the line.Footnote ⁹⁹ This suggests that Qāytbāy did not make nominations simply based on government hierarchies, but also took his personal relationships into account.

Moreover, Qāytbāy established three waqfs for Qijmās (Table 15, supplementary material online). He first established six pieces of agricultural land as a waqf on 22 Shaʿbān 877/12 January 1474, and designated Qijmās and his descendants as the beneficiaries (waqf XV). It is clear that the waqf was established for Qijmās's benefit, and since it was established about two months after Qijmās's promotion to amir of a hundred, we may choose to see this as Qāytbāy's blessings for Qijmās's promotion. On 19 Shawwāl 883/15 November 1478, he set up a new piece of agricultural land as a waqf and designated Qijmās and his descendants as the beneficiaries (waqf XVI). This waqf was set up at the same time that Qijmās, who was about to leave Cairo as the amīr al-ḥājj having completed his term as the viceroy of Alexandria, established his own waqf as discussed above. It is clear that this waqf too was established for the benefit of Qijmās and that it was probably a special bonus for setting off to Mecca as the amīr al-ḥājj or as a special reward for his long service as the viceroy of Alexandria. When Qijmās built Qijmāsiyya Madrasa in al-Darb al-Aḥmar of Cairo and established a waqf the following year, Qāytbāy also designated two pieces of land as waqf properties of the madrasa to be added to its sources of income (waqf XVII). This shows that Qāytbāy supported this construction, a waqf project into which Qijmās put great effort, by adding waqf properties.

There were a total of eight properties established as waqfs by Qāytbāy for the benefit of Qijmās (nos 52–59 in Table 1), and all of them were agricultural and former state lands (amlāk bayt al-māl). The waqf deeds do not clarify whether these lands were originally part of the governmental domain from which the government collected the land tax (kharāj) or of the iqṭāʿ lands assigned to military personnel. However, one of the eight properties, Nāḥiyat Minyat ʿAzzūn in al-Daqahliyya (58 in Table 1), is recorded in Tuḥfa as Qijmās's iqṭāʿ;Footnote ¹⁰⁰ also, the two pieces of land in Jīziyya (59) are described in the waqf deed as “[the two pieces of land] known by the name of Qijmās”, which suggests that it was part of his iqṭāʿ. In other words, when Qāytbāy established a waqf for Qijmās, he chose lands that were already in Qijmās's hands as an iqṭāʿ and, with his authority as sultan, he designated it as a waqf property. When Qijmās established a Friday mosque as the viceroy of Alexandria (waqf VIII), 2,000 copper dirhams per month from khums tax imposed on foreign merchants in Alexandria was allocated for the mosque (22 in Table 1). The waqf deed proves that this was authorized by Qāytbāy in writing. Since the total sum of the expenditure stated in the waqf deed to pay for charitable purposes, including salaries for the staff of the institution, was 1,950 copper dirhams per month, the “grant-in-aid” was enough to cover all the expenses. Thus Qāytbāy used the waqf system as a means of rewarding his favourite subordinate, and in so doing, he used his status as sultan to turn the state properties over to these waqfs.

4.2. The descendants and emancipated slaves

Qijmās designated his descendants as the beneficiaries in most of the waqfs he established. It is also stipulated in each waqf, regardless of the order of appointment, that the most qualified descendant be appointed as the waqf administrator. This was a widely practised waqf stipulation of the time but, as mentioned above, his children did not survive to be administrators or beneficiaries. In this regard, the stipulations about the descendants with regard to waqfs did not have any real implication and they were included for the possibility of a child being born and raised in the future. What is more telling was the stipulation on the emancipated slaves. Designating slaves freed by the founder as just below or equal to his/her descendants as beneficiaries or administrators carried a special meaning in the Mamluk era. That is, because the amirs in the Mamluk Sultanate were obliged to raise and feed a certain number of mamluks according to their rank, many mamluks who were freed by the amirs were designated as the beneficiary or administrator in the waqfs established by the amirs. In the stipulation of the waqf Qijmās established when he was a rank-and-file mamluk, “his two mamluks, Barsbāy and Dawlatbāy” are mentioned as the beneficiary and administrator, suggesting that Qijmās only had these two mamluks at the time. Qijmās was promoted to the amir of ten, of forty and of a hundred afterwards, which must mean that the number of mamluks under his control increased. Consequently, the stipulations about the emancipated slaves in the waqf deed came to take the form of “his emancipated slaves (ʿutaqāʾuhu)”. What is interesting is that waqf XI names “Shādbak Khāzindār, his emancipated slave (ʿaṭīquhu)” as the administrator if there is no suitable candidate among Qijmās's descendants after his death. When Qijmās was later appointed the viceroy of Damascus, Shādbak Khāzindār went to Damascus as the mutasallim (deputy) before Qijmās, carried out the handover, and was responsible for administration until Qijmās's arrival.Footnote ¹⁰¹ He also served Qijmās as his private dawādār until he was killed in action in Jumādā I 889/May–June 1484.Footnote ¹⁰² A private dawādār is the most important position among the private staff of a notable. Qijmās added the name of Shādbak Khāzindār, the mamluk he trusted most, as a candidate for administratorship when he established the waqf.

As already noted, Qijmās died without surviving children. Consequently, his mamluks must have received sufficient benefit from their master's waqfs. Qijmās's mamluks were actively involved with affairs of Damascus even after his death and it can be speculated that this was possible because they had a stable source of income as beneficiaries of their master's waqfs. There is no firm evidence of this but it can be hypothesized to explain their active involvement in Damascene society.