Abstract
Waqf deeds constitute important primary sources for examining patterns of property ownership, asset allocation, and women’s participation in the religious and social life of local communities. Although previous scholarship has addressed various legal, economic, and religious dimensions of women’s waqf, the waqf practices of women in Amol and Babol during the First Pahlavi period remain underexplored, particularly through the systematic analysis of waqf deeds. This study aims to elucidate patterns of women’s waqf practices in the two cities and to examine the relationship between the types of endowed properties and local economic conditions and patterns of property ownership. It also investigates similarities and differences in the purposes of these endowments. The study employs content analysis of seven women’s waqf deeds dated between 1305 and 1319 SH. The findings indicate that women endowed various types of property, including agricultural land, residential properties, gardens, rural properties, and commercial premises. Agricultural land, gardens, and residential properties are more prominent in the Amol deeds, whereas the Babol deeds document not only agricultural land but also shops and other commercial premises. By contrast, the purposes of the endowments in both cities were largely similar, focusing primarily on mourning ceremonies and religious observances associated with Imam Husayn, including taʿziyeh performances, rowzeh-khani (religious lamentation recitations), and the provision of food for mourners. The principal difference between the two cities therefore lay not in the religious orientation of the women who established these endowments, but in the types of property they endowed and the economic resources available to support their intended purposes. The evidence suggests that women’s waqf practices constituted a form of religious and social participation shaped by local patterns of property ownership and resource allocation.
Introduction
Waqf deeds are valuable primary sources for the study of social history because they provide documentary evidence of property ownership, asset allocation, and participation in religious and social life. In addition to identifying the properties endowed and specifying how their revenues were to be used, these documents can reveal the nature of the assets available to endowers and the priorities that shaped their allocation. In the case of women, waqf deeds offer an opportunity to examine their ownership of property, their capacity to dispose of assets through endowment, and their participation in the religious and social affairs of their local communities.
Although previous studies have examined the legal, economic, and religious dimensions of women’s waqf, documentary evidence concerning women’s waqf practices in Amol and Babol during the First Pahlavi period remains insufficiently explored. This study examines women’s waqf practices in the two cities and investigates whether differences in their local economic conditions and patterns of property ownership were reflected in the types of properties they endowed. It also compares the purposes specified in the deeds to determine whether differences in the composition of endowed properties corresponded to differences in the religious and social objectives pursued by the endowers. The study thus distinguishes between the purposes of waqf and the material resources through which those purposes were supported.
Materials and Methods
The study employs content analysis as its research method. Its documentary corpus consists of seven waqf deeds established by women in Amol and Babol and dated between 1305 and 1319 SH. The deeds were selected on the basis of their attribution to female endowers and the availability of sufficient information concerning the endowed properties, waqf purposes, allocation of revenues, and conditions stipulated by the endowers.
The deeds were analyzed with particular attention to the type and composition of raqabat (properties endowed as waqf), the basis of ownership, the purposes of the endowments, the allocation of their revenues, and the conditions specified in the documents. The findings from Amol and Babol were then compared to identify similarities and differences in the composition of the endowed properties and the purposes of waqf. To interpret these findings, the study draws on Max Weber’s theory of social action, particularly the distinction between value-rational action and instrumentally rational action. This theoretical framework is used to examine the relationship between the religious purposes of waqf and the selection of material resources through which those purposes were pursued.
Results
The waqf deeds show that the women under study endowed a diverse range of assets, including agricultural land, residential properties, gardens, rural properties, shares in jointly owned properties, and shops. In several cases, the deeds also provide information about the basis of ownership, indicating that some endowed properties were privately owned or inherited by the female endowers. The documents therefore provide evidence of women’s property ownership and their use of personal or inherited assets to establish waqf endowments.
A comparison of the two cities reveals a distinct difference in the composition of raqabat. In Amol, agricultural land, gardens, trees, and residential properties constitute the principal categories of endowed property. In Babol, by contrast, agricultural properties appear alongside shops and other commercial premises. One of the Babol deeds, for example, concerns the endowment of an entire dyeing shop. This difference can be examined in relation to the economic structures and patterns of property ownership in the two local settings. The composition of the endowed properties appears to have been associated with the types of assets available to the women rather than with fundamentally different religious purposes.
The purposes recorded in the deeds display considerably greater similarity. All seven documents, either explicitly or implicitly, provide for mourning ceremonies commemorating Imam Husayn, taʿziyeh performances, rowzeh-khani, or the provision of food for mourners. Only the waqf deed of Karbalāʾiyya Kulthum combines such religious purposes with provisions for the poor, a mosque, a bridge, and other religious or public uses. Within the documentary corpus examined here, this deed is therefore exceptional. The dominant pattern was the allocation of waqf revenues to support and sustain religious observances associated with the commemoration of Imam Husayn.
Discussion and Conclusion
The findings indicate that women’s waqf practices in Amol and Babol cannot be understood solely as acts of personal devotion or as economically motivated transactions. The predominance of purposes associated with mourning Imam Husayn and related religious observances points to the importance of religious values in decisions to establish waqf. At the same time, the selection of properties for endowment was closely connected to the assets available to the endowers and to the economic circumstances of their respective localities.
The principal distinction between Amol and Babol therefore lay not in the religious orientation of women’s waqf purposes but in the material resources through which those purposes were pursued. The prominence of agricultural land, gardens, and residential properties in the Amol deeds, together with the presence of shops alongside agricultural properties in Babol, suggests that differences in local economic structures and patterns of property ownership shaped the composition of the raqabat. Women in both cities appear to have pursued broadly similar religious objectives while drawing on different forms of property to provide continuing financial support for those objectives.
Viewed through Weber’s theory of social action, the findings suggest an interaction between the value-rational and instrumentally rational dimensions of waqf practices. The religious purposes expressed in the deeds reflected the values that gave meaning to the act of endowment, while the selection of particular properties provided the material means through which those purposes could be sustained. In this respect, waqf emerges from the documents as a form of religious and social participation through which women expressed their religious commitments by endowing property and establishing continuing sources of revenue. Within the limits of the seven deeds examined, women’s waqf practices thus reveal an intersection of religious values, property ownership, and local economic conditions during the First Pahlavi period