试论公共施粥所在奥斯曼慈善救济中的作用

Ottoman Public Kitchens and Their Roles in the Network of Relief for the Poor

公共施粥所是奥斯曼人为践行伊斯兰教悠久的慈善救济理念而创制的新机构。这种机构以大型的皇室瓦克夫为核心,覆盖到几乎帝国所有的地区,在帝国各地的救助网络中起着重要的作用。本文通过探讨其具有鲜明时代特征的时空分布、类别、救助对象与方式、规模,揭示出该体制与帝国征服和建设步伐的动态关系,以及穆斯林统治精英如何将宗教义务和责任与缓解社会贫困问题、稳定等级秩序、加强政权合法化紧密结合起来的历史创举,并强调该体制对近代早期中东济贫近代化改革所产生的重要影响。

The public kitchen,which was created by the Ottomans as a new institution embodying the age-old ideas of Islamic charity and poor relief, played a key role in the network of the Ottoman poor relief. This institution, with its wide coverage throughout the empire, centered around the imperial Waqf. This article investigates its spatial distribution in different times, its categories, its beneficiaries, its means of relief and its scale, in order to reveal the changing relationship between the institution and the imperial conquest and construction, and the historical initiatives through which the Muslim elites combined the religious obligation and duties of charity with reduction of the gap between the rich and the poor,with the stabilization of social order and with the legitimization of the regime.This article holds that the institution exerted important influence upon the modernization of relief for the poor in the Middle East.