Islamic foundations (waqf, pl. awqaf) have been an integral part of Yemeni society both for managing private wealth and as a legal frame for charity and public infrastructure. This book focuses on four socially grounded fields of legal knowledge: fiqh, codification, individual waqf cases, and everyday waqf-related knowledge. It combines textual analysis with ethnography and seeks to understand how Islamic law is approached, used, produced, and validated in selected topics of waqf law where there are tensions between ideals and pragmatic rules. The study analyses central Zaydi fiqh works such as the Sharh al-azhar cluster, imamic decrees, fatwas, and waqf documents, mostly from Zaydi, northern Yemen.

Acknowledgements List of Figures Transliteration Personal Names and Imamic Titles Dates 1 Introduction 1 Waqf as Public Infrastructure and Welfare in Muslim Societies 2 Field, Scope, and Focus 3 Types of Data 4 Fieldwork 5 Archival Material 6 The Structure of the Book 2 Representing Validity in Islamic Law 1 Normative and Descriptive Models of Waqf 2 Academic Debates on Islamic Law 3 Arriving at an Analytical Framework 3 Central Waqf Administration 1 Types of Waqf in Yemen 2 Historical Overview of Centralized State Waqf Administration 3 Waqf Administration Under the Qasimi Dynasty (1045-1289/1636-1872) 4 The Waqf Administration of Imam Yahya and Imam Ahmad (1911-62) 5 The Ministry of Awqaf After the Revolution (1962-) 4 Main Texts of Zaydi Waqf Fiqh and Law 1 Zaydism 2 Zaydi Fiqh Texts and Authors 3 Zaydi Validated Fiqh, Imamic Decrees, Yemeni Codification and Laws 5 Family Waqf and Inheritance 1 Structure and Main Argument of the Chapter 2 The Arrival of al-Hadi and His Waqf-wasiya Model 3 The Fatwas of Imam al-Mansur 'Abdallah b. Hamza (561-614/1166-1217) 4 Instisar and Nur al-absar 5 The Views of Ibn al-Murtada (d. 840/1436) and Ibn Miftah (d. 877/1472) 6 The Fatwa Collection of Imam 'Izz al-Din (846-901/1442-95) 7 Ikhtiyarat of al-Mutawakkil Isma'il (ca. 1060/1650) 8 Al-Risala al-Mahdawiyya from 1188/1774 9 al-Shawkani's Views (1173-1250/1760-1834) 10 Imam Yahya's Decrees 11 Imam Ahmad's Decrees (r. 1948-62) 12 Republican Waqf Laws on the Matter 13 Exclusion of the Awlad al-Banat in Other Law Schools 6 The Tenant's Strong Hand 1 Property and Lease Law 2 The Genealogy and Trajectory of the Three-year Rule 3 The Three-year Rule in Zaydi Fiqh: A Chronological Presentation 4 The Three-year Rule in Modern Yemeni Codification 5 The Three-year Rule in Other Law Schools and Legal Traditions 6 Waqf Lease in Practice 7 Private Rights in Public Waqf 1 The Wasiya of Three Cisterns: Bayt al-Lahafa (2008): An Ethnographic Description 2 Four Waqf Documents of Public Sanaa Sabil-waqfs with Private Benefits 3 Theoretical Possibilities for Private Aspects of a Public Waqf 4 Questions Concerning the Right to Guardianship in Combined Waqfs 8 Pure Law, 'Urf, and Maslaha: Conclusions 1 Sources of Validity 2 Situating Legal Knowledge 3 The Potential in Waqf Bibliography Index