EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 61 
The greater part of the lands in Egypt, is to be confidered as 
divided between the Government, and the religious bodies who 
perform the fervice of the mofques, who have obtained poflef- 
fion of what they now hold by the munificence of princes and 
rich men, or by the meafures taken by individuals for the 
benefit of their pofterity. The property of the mofques is 
called ivakf^ a term fignifying, in its technical acceptation, the 
appropriation of a thing in fuch a way, that the proprietor's 
right in it fhall continue, but the profit belong to fome charitable 
eftabUfhment. 
From the right which the Government claims to inherit- 
ances, and the ruinous fines paid on readmiffion, thofe who 
have landed property frequently make this appropriation to the 
mofque, and their lands become part of the wakf of that 
eftablifhment. The Government then has no farther claim on 
them. But the appropriator takes care, at the fame time, that 
his next heir, or if a minor, truftees on his behalf, under the 
name of MutwalU^ fhall receive the rents, and fo on, as long as 
any heirs remain in the family. The individual continues in 
the fecure receipt of his income, paying however annually a 
fmall proportion of it to the adminiftrators of the mofque. 
It will hence be obferved, that in Egypt, a large proportion 
of the tenants and cultivators hold either of the Government, 
or the procurators of the mofques. To the perfonal eafe of the 
cultivator, and the general good of the whole, it is of little 
confequence which. For there is one circumftance common to 
them 
