Challenging conventional assumptions, the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume argue that premodern Muslim societies had diverse and changing varieties of public spheres, constructed according to premises different from those of Western societies. The public sphere, conceptualized as a separate and autonomous sphere between the official and private, is used to shed new light on familiar topics in Islamic history, such as the role of the sharia (Islamic religious law), the ulama' (Islamic scholars), schools of law, Sufi brotherhoods, the Islamic endowment institution, and the...

This study depicts the history of the waqf endowments in Algiers dedicated to the poor of Mecca and Medina over the last 170 years of Ottoman rule. It is one of the first studies of a major public foundation based on its own registers.
Its main themes are: the foundation's growth, its benefactors, the evolution of its patrimony, its administration, managerial policies and functions in the town.
The author discusses the history of the foundation within two contexts - that of the Islamic endowment institution and that of the history of Algiers - and offers new insights into the...