ABSTRACT
To a very great extent, philanthropy and providing services for social welfare was in medieval Islam an individual rather than a governmental concern. There was much in medieval Muslim philanthropy and social service which was impressive and which elicits author's admiration. This chapter discusses the purely human aspects of Muslim charity. Perhaps the oldest and most widespread of such institutions was the mosque itself. Like the synagogue in Judaism, the mosque represents far more than a house of worship. The institutions discussed so far have all been religious ones. Turning aside from the great Muslim welfare institutions, the author likes to conclude with a few notes on individual acts of charity, not of the eccentric anecdotal variety of which several examples are cited by Mez, but on the practical — and all important — individual level.
