Abstract:

One of the most important institutions of Islamic religion that organizes social and economic life within a community is the foundations. It is possible to find the traces of this institution in every geography in which Islam is located. From the smallest villages and tombs, to the greatest cities, the foundations founded by the founders of various foundations appear to work on different topics and to change and influence the city, the region, which they have established through these activities. The first time we got the landscape of Aydin Güzelhisar city center in the Ottoman administration of the XIX century. In the period until the beginning of the century, we will try to show with this work how the foundation institution, including the center, has changed thanks to the foundations established in the city, while a settlement unit closely connected to the rural area, has become an administrative unit with commercial structures over time. While doing this, we will also benefit from the Ottoman archives in which the foundations, founders and foundation revenues are recorded established in the Aydın Güzelhisar center. Our study aims to show how the various foundations established in the same city in different periods, with the different founders, which continued or ended their existence throughout the history, changed the structure and nature of the city.

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