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Head of Department
Document A relates to the purchase of a property, including a garden, in the Bulgurlu district of Uskudar by Shaykh Qutb al-'Arifin Mahmud Efendi ibn Fazlullah Efendi, from Grand Admiral Halil Pasha for 10,000 akçe. The manuscript was written by Mustafa Halil, the Qadi of Uskudar on 2nd Jumada al-Awwal 1025/18th May 1616.
Document B concerns an order that none should interfere with the property, including shops and ovens, left as waqf by Aziz Mahmud Efendi in Uskudar, now administered by a certain Fatima Hatun, reiterating these properties' tax exemption and the right to defend them by force. It is dated 13th Jumada al-Awwal 1103/1st February 1692, and has the tughra of Sultan Ahmed II at the top.
Shaykh Mahmud Efendi, known as Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi (1541-1628), was one of the most famous Ottoman saints and scholars, and is sometimes regarded as a patron saint of the Asian side of Istanbul. He was Shaykh to Sultan Ahmed I, and at the completion of its construction in that Sultan's reign, he read the first Friday prayer in the Blue Mosque. He died in Üsküdar, Istanbul and is buried next to his mosque.