City University of New York graduate student, Nada Moumtaz, with the guidance of Dr. David Harvey, will undertake anthropological research on pre-capitalist Islamic forms of property that co-exist with capitalist, market economies. The focus of her research will be the waqf, a charitable endowment dedicated to a pious purpose forever. As such, the waqf is inalienable property, that is, property that cannot be transferred from one person to another through sale or other means. The waqf was once common in the Muslim World, but discarded in the 20th century because it was considered pre-modern. Recently, however, the waqf has been undergoing a revival. The researcher will be investigating this phenomenon, through a case study of the past and present of the waqf in Lebannon, asking how religious regimes of value intersect with the market economy, and what purpose is served by having both.
Because the waqf is grounded in a long tradition in Islamic Law surrounding charitable property donations, the researcher must contextualize contemporary meanings and practices in relation to that tradition. For this purpose, data are being gathered through archival collections of foundation documents, leases, exchanges, and accountings of waqf in nineteenth century Ottoman Beirut, now located in Ottoman archives, shari'a (Islamic) court records, family archives, private libraries of religious scholars, and newspapers. Research on contemporary waqf practices will be carried out using ethnographic methods, interviewing donors, architects, and government representatives concerned with waqfs, and following the trajectory of new waqfs currently being constructed. The historical and contemporary materials will then be analzyed both quantitatively and qualitatively, to document changes in waqf practices and in the how people understand such key concepts as market, value, and property.
The research is important because it contributes to the theoretical understanding of the varieties of contemporary capitalism and the different regimes of value that can exist within capitalism. As capitalism spreads in the world and generates new challenges, micro-level understandings of its development in particular local contexts have increasing relevance. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.
