Endowing Property and Edifying Power in a Red Sea Port

The article discusses policies regarding waqf, a form of Muslim religious endowment, in the port city of Massawa in Eritrea. The author comments that waqf was often used as a way of circumventing Muslim succession laws to bequeath property to families. The expansion of Massawa due to its location near the Red Sea and the establishment of the Suez Canal led to the arrival of Hadhrami and Egyptian entrepreneurs in the city. The author discusses how entrepreneurs endowed urban property and attempted to gain control of waqf property to establish themselves in Massawa. Research by former Eritrean mufti Shaykh Ibrahim al-Mukhtar Ahmad 'Umar into waqf records is noted.