Charity in Islamic Societies

Amy Singer is Associate Professor, Ottoman History, in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Her recent publications include Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials (Cambridge University Press, 1994), Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Imperial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem (2002), Middle East Historiographies (ed., 2006) and Feeding People, Feeding Power: Imarets in the Ottoman Empire (ed., 2007).

• Introduction; 1. Pray and pay alms; 2. Even half a date; 3. The upper hand; 4. The poor and the needy; 5. The mixed economy of charity; Conclusion: reorienting charity.

'Weaving many anecdotes and personal experiences into her narrative, in addition to careful textual readings, Singer captures the psychological subtleties that characterise nearly all aspects of charitable giving and demonstrates how these have manifested themselves throughout history. As a consequence, her book has a freshness and relevancy that is not always found in scholarly works.' Haaretz, Israeli Daily Newspaper