Colonial property law retroactively legalized forced seizures of waqf land

Evidence

Nearly half the land, as expected, was waqf, known to the Algerians as hubus (Fr. habous). Mostly by force, the French settlers gained control of a good deal of property in the waqf domain, causing the beneficiaries of the endowments to sue for the restoration of the sequestered property. In response, the French declared all property in the hands of the colons, whether acquired lawfully or not, to be lawfully owned by its colonial usurpers. And as if this was not enough arbitrary sovereign power, new laws of property came to displace those of Shariʿa, facilitating further the settlers’ commercial ambitions. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 235

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s prior work on sacred land, sacral kingship, and how regimes legitimize expropriation; also parallels modern sovereign-power analyses of eminent domain and settler colonial land grabs. — connects to: Colonial land appropriation was framed as consent with violence as alternative — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 300; Absentee Property Law of 1950 legally barred expelled Palestinians from reclaiming property — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1003; Vague statutory language enabled a park commission to seize land at will — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 804 (+3 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how large a share of Algerian land was waqf overall, and how the hubus institution’s function (charitable endowment) made its seizure especially destabilizing to community welfare.