History of Waqf Directorate

With the departure of the Ottoman Empire, numerous issues related to waqfs arose. To bring order to this situation, Austria-Hungary appointed the Land Waqf Commission in 1883, which managed waqf affairs. This marked the beginning of a unified waqf administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the primary task of conducting an inventory of all existing waqfs.

Later, in 1894, the Austro-Hungarian administration established the Land Waqf Directorate, a state institution where all authority rested in the hands of the government. Although the new waqf administration functioned, improved waqf assets, and carried out its designated duties, Muslims were dissatisfied with this administration as they had no participation in its work. Due to this dissatisfaction, Bosniaks initiated a movement in 1899 with the aim of securing autonomy in the administration of three key elements essential for preserving their identity: religious, waqf, and educational affairs. Austria-Hungary, following the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1909, met these demands by enacting the Statute for the Autonomous Administration of Islamic Religious and Waqf-Mearif Affairs. According to the provisions of this Statute, the governing body for waqfs was the Waqf-Mearif Assembly, which served as the supreme autonomous and supervisory authority for all waqfs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Assembly consisted of eight religiously educated members (the Reisu-l-Ulema, the Waqf-Mearif Director, and six trustees), along with 24 elected members from the public. The President of the Assembly was the Reisu-l-Ulema.

The new state entity that emerged after World War I was the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (SHS). Although the new state assumed obligations through international agreements, including guarantees for respecting the religious rights of Muslims, a series of measures were taken to expropriate numerous waqf properties, thereby weakening the religious and economic position of Muslims in the new state. The Kingdom of SHS enacted "Measures on Agrarian Reform," which, between 1918 and 1939, led to the confiscation of approximately four million dunums (dunum is 1000m2) of waqf land (4,000,000 dunums) and twelve and a half million dunums of bey land (12,500,000 dunums), totaling sixteen and a half million dunums (16,500,000 dunums) of confiscated land—both waqf and bey lands. In percentage terms, this amounted to 27.6% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's total land area.

A particularly severe attack on waqfs and religious community property occurred in the early decades of communist rule after World War II. In post-war Yugoslavia, the foundation of property ownership was forcibly altered by confiscating or restricting private ownership. The forced expropriation of waqf property was carried out through agrarian reform, nationalization, and expropriation of private property.

Through nationalization laws enacted in 1946, 1948, and 1958, state or social ownership became dominant in all economic sectors and real estate. The Law on Nationalization of Private Economic Enterprises of December 6, 1946, with amendments of December 29, 1948, served as the legal basis for expropriating waqf-owned mills, hotels, spas, and similar institutions. A significant blow to waqf property came with the Law on the Disposal of Apartments and Business Premises of February 17, 1945, and the Law on Nationalization of Rental Buildings and Construction Land of December 28, 1958. These laws had a severe impact since such properties constituted the majority of the waqf fund in urban areas. Under this law, the Islamic (religious) community was stripped of all residential and commercial buildings except those serving strictly defined religious functions (religious rituals, religious offices, and residences for religious officials).

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), through nationalization laws, confiscated all waqf property except mosques and properties serving strictly religious purposes, effectively eliminating the reasons for the existence of the Waqf Directorate. As a result, the 1959 Constitution of the Islamic Community no longer mentioned waqf as an institution or a source of income for the Islamic religious community, nor did it mention the Waqf Directorate, which had previously managed waqfs.

However, with the adoption of the new Constitution of the Islamic Community in 1969, the term "waqf" was reintroduced as part of the Islamic Community’s property definition. This was highly significant, as it indicated that new endowments had been made over the previous ten years, necessitating their recognition in the Constitution of the Islamic Community and other legal documents. This constitutional provision obligated the Islamic Community’s governing bodies, as custodians and users of waqf property, to remember the nationalized waqf properties and to continuously work on new endowments.

The reestablishment of the Waqf Directorate took 37 years, finally occurring once the necessary conditions were met—above all, political freedom following the cessation of aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Waqf Directorate, as one of the institutions of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resumed operations by decision of the Assembly of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 14, 1996 (No. 2486/96).

According to the 1998 Constitution of the Islamic Community, under Article 32, the Waqf Directorate manages waqf property in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since its reestablishment, the Waqf Directorate has focused primarily on the restitution and inventory of waqf property. In this regard, it organized roundtable discussions (1997), participated in the work of the Coordination Committee for the Return and Compensation of Usurped and Devastated Religious Community Property—comprising representatives of all religious communities and churches—and submitted a Memorandum for the Return and Compensation of Usurped Property to the highest levels of government (1997). It also organized a petition in support of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina advocating for natural restitution, collecting approximately 150,000 signatures, which were submitted to the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in 2000.

Additionally, the Waqf Directorate has consistently worked toward enacting a law on restitution (return of waqf property) and lobbying relevant institutions to prevent the adoption of negative legal solutions. As part of these efforts, the Waqf Directorate has participated in the drafting of property laws related to housing policy, which are closely tied to nationalized waqf real estate, particularly apartments. The Waqf Directorate is also actively involved in municipal decision-making processes concerning waqf properties and other regulatory matters at the local government level.

The Waqf Directorate is the leading force in Bosnia and Herzegovina in advocating for and taking measures to enact a restitution law while preventing the adoption of harmful legal regulations. However, the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is unfavorable for positive legal solutions. While neighboring countries have, for the most part, enacted restitution laws, Bosnia and Herzegovina has not, and lobbying for favorable legislation remains an uphill battle. Nonetheless, the Waqf Directorate continuously presses the governing authorities to adopt a restitution law and regularly holds meetings with government representatives.

Despite the fact that waqfs have not been returned and that many were destroyed during the aggression, the Waqf Directorate, in cooperation with muftiates and local Islamic councils, has worked to utilize existing capacities, restore as many waqfs as possible, and establish new waqfs in accordance with the needs of contemporary society.