This paper analyzes the family (ahli) waqf as a contested site of sovereignty between the Ottoman and Egyptian governments during the period of indirect British colonial rule in Egypt. I compare different approaches of the Egyptian General Administration of Waqf and the Office of the Seyhülislam in Istanbul to the family as a site of capital accumulation. In the face of colonial encroachments on systems of land tenure and cash crop production, legal and economic experts in Egypt and the Ottoman Empire argued with each other in court over the extent of patriarchal authority enjoyed by the overseer (nazir) of the endowment. Looking at several court cases involving ahli waqfs belonging to members of the Khedival family, I underline how this debate was gendered. The concentration of waqf capital in the hands of male members of the family was accompanied by the dispossession of female members through the Custodial Court (Majlis al-Hasbi). I present different visions that were endorsed by Egyptian and Ottoman commentators of the waqf as an economic unit that was shielded from colonial encroachments, while at the same time underlining how the latter produced unanticipated outcomes in the shape of waqf.