ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a general history of the waqf institution to inform on its origins and evolution. In addition, it will replace the unadulterated paradigm of the “Sultanate of Women” with one in which the prominence of Ottoman imperial women in political and administrative activities is envisioned as a natural development, an expedient reaction to tackle and remedy the kinds of problems that began to visibly affect the Sublime Porte in this particular era of Ottoman history.
