Disconnected Accountabilities: Institutionalizing Islamic Giving in Nablus (Palestine)

Author(s): Emanuel Schäublin
Journal Title: Journal of Muslim Philanthropy & Civil Society
Publisher(s): Indiana University Press
Publication Year: 2020
Publication Place: Bloomington, United States

Zakat, the obligation to look after people in need by giving them a share of the wealth flowing through society, is recognized in the Islamic tradition as both a personal pious action and an institutional practice formalized by legal regimes. This dual character provides zakat with considerable malleability. In this article, CSS researcher Emanuel Schaublin focuses on the trajectory of the “zakat committee” of Nablus since the 1970s, and analyzes the different social and legal mechanisms that hold zakat committees in Palestine accountable.

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