Waqf in Zaydī Yemen: Legal Theory, Codification, and Local Practice

Islamic foundations ( waqf, pl. awqāf) have been an integral part of Yemeni society both for managing private wealth and as a legal frame for charity and public infrastructure. This book focuses on four socially grounded fields of legal knowledge: fiqh, codification, individual waqf cases, and everyday waqf related knowledge. It combines textual analysis with ethnography seeking to understand how Islamic law is approached, used, produced and validated in selected topics of waqf law where the tensions are strong between ideals and pragmatic rules. The study analyses central Zaydī fiqh works such as the Sharḥ al-azhār-cluster, in addition to imamic decrees, fatwās, and waqf documents, mostly from Zaydī, Northern Yemen.