Since the foundation of the Ottoman Empire, great care has been given to the construction of scientific and cultural institutions. These institutions are constructed in accordance with the purpose they represent with their physical conditions, architectural features and social facilities. The same sentiment has also been shown towards the construction of madrasas, which are at the top of the list amongst these scientific and cultural institutions. While the physical conditions of the madrasas were made ready; on the other hand, the infrastructure has been prepared to meet all the needs of the people involved in the educational activities. Almost all of these needs were fulfilled through waqfs (charity organisations). In addition to education, the waqfs have provided subsistence/iase, shelter/ibate and financial support to the students. The subsistence needs of the students were generally met by the imarets (soup kitchens) located around the madrasas. In addition, in the Ottoman society, where the support for the getting an education was traditionalized, the basic needs of subsistence were sent to the students from the houses near the madrasa. Since the second half of the 19th century, the decrease in the revenues of the waqfs had an impact on the support given to the students. This has restricted the madrasas in meeting the subsistence needs and many unable to provide any food. Therefore, the opportunity to benefit from the imarets were reduced to minimum levels for the madrasa students. Despite all this, from the point of view of Istanbul, until just after the 2nd constitutional period, all but two imarets were closed, and subsistence needs of students were largely met by means of imarets. However, when the problems encountered in the functioning of the imarets in the last periods of the Ottoman Empire could not be solved and the imarets started to function outside the establishment objectives, they were closed. Naturally, this new situation also affected the subsistence resources of the madrasa students.