OTTOMAN CASH WAQFS: AN ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SYSTEM 2019 Summer 91 ARTICLE ABSTRACT Te institutions of “waqfs,” that is foundations, stand before us as an intermediate option between collectivist and individualistic societies. Tese foundations provide for societal and individual needs in many areas including religion, education, fnance, health, and infrastructure. One of the most important forms is the cash waqf, which acts as both a charity and fnancial intermediary and has evolved to become an option to today’s conventional lending mechanism. Waqfs have historically solved the most important fnancial needs of the period by considering the sensitivities of the society. Tis study will discuss the potential solutions that the cash waqfs can bring to the problems that modern-day societies are currently experiencing in fnance. Ottoman Cash Waqfs: An Alternative Financial System MEHMET BULUT * and CEM KORKUT ** Introduction I n our global world, the economic problems caused by the modern economic mind do not only afect the country where the crisis emerges. As the rate of integration in the global fnancial system increases, the rate of impact from crises also increases. Unfortunately, countries do not have alternatives to being in the global fnancial world. If they want to trade or take part in international organizations, it is imperative to be integrated into the network. Terefore, if a country wants to exist in the system, it has to bear all the negativities including fnancial crises. Financial crises have many causes but perhaps the two most important reasons are the huge gap between the real money circulating on the market and the money that is considered as circulating, and the interest rate ideology which causes wealth to accumulate within certain peoples and groups. Tese funda- mental problems are still obstacles to improving monetary distribution but de- spite this, institutions and states are not engaged in a “real” efort to tackle the fnancial problems caused by the system. Te result is that capital owners have DOI: 10.25253/99.2018EV.07 * İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Turkey ** Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Turkey Insight Turkey Vol. 21 / No. 3 / 2019, pp. 91-111