Abstract:

It is seen that among those who played a leading role in establishing wagfs in the Ottoman Empire, which was defined as a wagf/foundation civilization, were the sultan’s wives and other dynastic women as well as sultans resposible for the administration of the state. In this context, it is quite significant that earliest known endowment charter belonging to the Ottoman period belongs to Orhan Gazi’s wife, Asporca Hatun. After this endowment, which was organized in 723/1323, the second earliest surviving Ottoman dynasty women’s endowment charter is that of Gülçiçek Hatun, the wife of Murad I. Gülçiçek Hatun stated in her endowment charter of 791/1389 that she had donated a comp-lex os structures consisting of a zawiyah, tomb, houses and kitchen. She requested that the remaining amount of the foundation’s revenues be given to those who come to these foundations as guests, neighbors, the poor who are here, the miskin, scholors, students and other deserving people as food and clthing. Her foundations, which have been in existence for many centuries, have undergone some changes over time, and it is stated that there is no one who stopped by the zawiyah while passing by so it was converted into a mosque in the 16 th century. In the 19th century, a madrasah started to serve within the foundation. There is no data on the continued existence of her imaret/soup kitchen. Therefore, her foundation has undergone great changes over time in terms of both their serving structures and their personnel. In this study, it will be tried to examine the Gülçiçek Hatun’s Endowment Charter the kinds of services which her foundations provided and their changes over time.