ABSTRACT
Of all the departments of state, that of Awqaf was the first to become fully emancipated from British control and advice. This was inevitable, for the maintenance of the pious foundations is a function that is best left to Muslims, in a Muslim country. It has been claimed that the British, when they occupied the country, did much to make good the neglect that was evident in mosque and garden, but this Turkish neglect was general and not confined to Awqaf. One real difficulty was that the retreating Turks took away or destroyed most of the official records, but in the case of Awqaf these were replaced more easily than was the case in some other departments of state. The British occupied Baghdad in 1917 and in the first year the Awqaf revenues were Rs. 3,000,000. Within three years the figure was nearly Rs. 17,000,000. The Iraqis thus took over a more efficient Awqaf service than had been known for generations. By 1921 the British executive had become merely advisory and from 1929 there was no British official at all in the Department.
