Timothy Power
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9789774165443
- eISBN:
- 9781617971372
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774165443.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This book examines the historical process traditionally referred to as the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam from the perspective of the Red Sea, a strategic waterway linking the Mediterranean to ...
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This book examines the historical process traditionally referred to as the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam from the perspective of the Red Sea, a strategic waterway linking the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and a distinct region incorporating Africa with Arabia. The transition from Byzantium to the Caliphate – a period which falls under the broad rubric Late Antiquity – is contextualized in the contestation of regional hegemony between Aksumite Ethiopia, Sassanian Iran, and the Islamic Hijaz. The economic stimulus associated with Arab colonization is then considered, including the foundation of ports and roads linking new metropolises and facilitating commercial expansion, particularly gold mining and the slave trade. Finally, the economic inheritance of the Fatimids and the formation of the commercial networks glimpsed in the Cairo Geniza is contextualized in the diffusion of the Abbasid ‘bourgeois revolution’ and resumption of the ‘India trade’ under the Tulunids and Ziyadids.Less
This book examines the historical process traditionally referred to as the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam from the perspective of the Red Sea, a strategic waterway linking the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and a distinct region incorporating Africa with Arabia. The transition from Byzantium to the Caliphate – a period which falls under the broad rubric Late Antiquity – is contextualized in the contestation of regional hegemony between Aksumite Ethiopia, Sassanian Iran, and the Islamic Hijaz. The economic stimulus associated with Arab colonization is then considered, including the foundation of ports and roads linking new metropolises and facilitating commercial expansion, particularly gold mining and the slave trade. Finally, the economic inheritance of the Fatimids and the formation of the commercial networks glimpsed in the Cairo Geniza is contextualized in the diffusion of the Abbasid ‘bourgeois revolution’ and resumption of the ‘India trade’ under the Tulunids and Ziyadids.
Timothy Power
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9789774165443
- eISBN:
- 9781617971372
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774165443.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter provides an interpretative discussion of the Red Sea during the ‘long’ Late Antiquity. It begins by examining the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the Red Sea, before going on to ...
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This chapter provides an interpretative discussion of the Red Sea during the ‘long’ Late Antiquity. It begins by examining the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the Red Sea, before going on to consider the Muslim conquests and the caliphate in the Red Sea, and then concluding with a consideration of the legacy of the ‘long’ Late Antiquity with particular reference to the creation of the world of the Cairo Geniza.Less
This chapter provides an interpretative discussion of the Red Sea during the ‘long’ Late Antiquity. It begins by examining the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the Red Sea, before going on to consider the Muslim conquests and the caliphate in the Red Sea, and then concluding with a consideration of the legacy of the ‘long’ Late Antiquity with particular reference to the creation of the world of the Cairo Geniza.
Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804785471
- eISBN:
- 9780804787161
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785471.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This book explores Jewish commercial partnerships in medieval Egypt, and reveals Jewish merchants to have used economic cooperation as a vehicle for cultural identity formation and maintenance. ...
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This book explores Jewish commercial partnerships in medieval Egypt, and reveals Jewish merchants to have used economic cooperation as a vehicle for cultural identity formation and maintenance. Through a detailed analysis of the legal documents of the Cairo Geniza, the book shows an affinity between Jewish law and the daily life of Jewish merchants filtered through the courts, which educated merchants about the norms of Jewish commercial law without necessarily demanding that the merchants transact their business according to those norms. However, a close reading of the actual documentary evidence shows that they have done so, and even shows how merchants’ choice to do so affirmed their Jewish identity in ways that cut across a number of different cultural domains. The idea that Jewish merchants might have had distinctive business practices reflecting their Jewish identity challenges the regnant wisdom of the “Princeton School” of Geniza scholars, who have used letters from Jewish merchants as a tool for describing the practice of the broad medieval Islamic marketplace. This book examines the historical practice of the Princeton School and questions the “identity” that scholars have understood to exist between the mercantile behavior of Jews and Muslims. The book proposes an alternative to this “identity” which accounts for the evidence from the legal documents of the Geniza and proposes a more complex relationship between Jewish and Muslim commercial behavior in the medieval Islamic world.Less
This book explores Jewish commercial partnerships in medieval Egypt, and reveals Jewish merchants to have used economic cooperation as a vehicle for cultural identity formation and maintenance. Through a detailed analysis of the legal documents of the Cairo Geniza, the book shows an affinity between Jewish law and the daily life of Jewish merchants filtered through the courts, which educated merchants about the norms of Jewish commercial law without necessarily demanding that the merchants transact their business according to those norms. However, a close reading of the actual documentary evidence shows that they have done so, and even shows how merchants’ choice to do so affirmed their Jewish identity in ways that cut across a number of different cultural domains. The idea that Jewish merchants might have had distinctive business practices reflecting their Jewish identity challenges the regnant wisdom of the “Princeton School” of Geniza scholars, who have used letters from Jewish merchants as a tool for describing the practice of the broad medieval Islamic marketplace. This book examines the historical practice of the Princeton School and questions the “identity” that scholars have understood to exist between the mercantile behavior of Jews and Muslims. The book proposes an alternative to this “identity” which accounts for the evidence from the legal documents of the Geniza and proposes a more complex relationship between Jewish and Muslim commercial behavior in the medieval Islamic world.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226471075
- eISBN:
- 9780226471099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226471099.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter reports the medieval Jewry in the orbit of Islam, with particular reference to legal status and social and cultural interaction. Judah Halevy and Moses Maimonides were two of the most ...
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This chapter reports the medieval Jewry in the orbit of Islam, with particular reference to legal status and social and cultural interaction. Judah Halevy and Moses Maimonides were two of the most celebrated Jewish figures of the Middle Ages, emerging from the shadows of hagiography. During the age of the Geniza, Jews played a vital role in the overall economy, particularly in international trade. Tolerant attitudes that reflected the unusual heterogeneity of Islamic Spain submitted to sharp religious sensibilities. There was a growing polarization between the threatened Muslims and their subjects, the Jews. The declining of the Middle Ages and the concurrent breakdown of order in the world of Islam noted a watershed in Jewish-Muslim relations. As a group, Jews originating from Arab lands knew the Arabs much more intimately than they did any other elements of Israel's Jewish population.Less
This chapter reports the medieval Jewry in the orbit of Islam, with particular reference to legal status and social and cultural interaction. Judah Halevy and Moses Maimonides were two of the most celebrated Jewish figures of the Middle Ages, emerging from the shadows of hagiography. During the age of the Geniza, Jews played a vital role in the overall economy, particularly in international trade. Tolerant attitudes that reflected the unusual heterogeneity of Islamic Spain submitted to sharp religious sensibilities. There was a growing polarization between the threatened Muslims and their subjects, the Jews. The declining of the Middle Ages and the concurrent breakdown of order in the world of Islam noted a watershed in Jewish-Muslim relations. As a group, Jews originating from Arab lands knew the Arabs much more intimately than they did any other elements of Israel's Jewish population.
Ruth Langer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479896950
- eISBN:
- 9781479825707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479896950.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
The Dead Sea Scrolls, Cairo Geniza, and critical study of rabbinic literature have contributed to our understanding of when and how fixed public worship developed within the Jewish community. The ...
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The Dead Sea Scrolls, Cairo Geniza, and critical study of rabbinic literature have contributed to our understanding of when and how fixed public worship developed within the Jewish community. The Dead Sea Scrolls show that prayer was practiced by at least some Jewish groups while the Second Temple still stood and that it drew heavily from biblical language, as can also be seen in the latest biblical books. However, Genizah documents demonstrate the persistence of liturgical diversity as late as the tenth century and, with critical study of rabbinic texts, raise questions about the acceptance of rabbinic authority.Less
The Dead Sea Scrolls, Cairo Geniza, and critical study of rabbinic literature have contributed to our understanding of when and how fixed public worship developed within the Jewish community. The Dead Sea Scrolls show that prayer was practiced by at least some Jewish groups while the Second Temple still stood and that it drew heavily from biblical language, as can also be seen in the latest biblical books. However, Genizah documents demonstrate the persistence of liturgical diversity as late as the tenth century and, with critical study of rabbinic texts, raise questions about the acceptance of rabbinic authority.
Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804785471
- eISBN:
- 9780804787161
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785471.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
The first chapter briefly discusses the historiography of mercantile cooperation of Jews in Islamic lands seen particularly through the documents of the Cairo Geniza. It then proceeds to show at ...
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The first chapter briefly discusses the historiography of mercantile cooperation of Jews in Islamic lands seen particularly through the documents of the Cairo Geniza. It then proceeds to show at greater length how a number of scholars, recently dubbed the “Princeton School,” have used detail from Geniza documents, which emerged from Jewish hands, to describe economic life in the medieval Islamic world as a whole. The chapter identifies the key assumption that has made it possible for these scholars to extrapolate from the Jewish Geniza documents to the Islamic world, namely that Jews and Muslims structured their mercantile arrangements in precisely the same manner. Finally, the chapter aims to reveal some of the motivating forces behind this assumption--specifically, its simplicity and utility, as well as its implication that economic life was not an area Jews might have used as a vehicle for the establishment and maintenance of communal boundaries.Less
The first chapter briefly discusses the historiography of mercantile cooperation of Jews in Islamic lands seen particularly through the documents of the Cairo Geniza. It then proceeds to show at greater length how a number of scholars, recently dubbed the “Princeton School,” have used detail from Geniza documents, which emerged from Jewish hands, to describe economic life in the medieval Islamic world as a whole. The chapter identifies the key assumption that has made it possible for these scholars to extrapolate from the Jewish Geniza documents to the Islamic world, namely that Jews and Muslims structured their mercantile arrangements in precisely the same manner. Finally, the chapter aims to reveal some of the motivating forces behind this assumption--specifically, its simplicity and utility, as well as its implication that economic life was not an area Jews might have used as a vehicle for the establishment and maintenance of communal boundaries.
Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804785471
- eISBN:
- 9780804787161
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785471.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
The fourth chapter traces out the implications of the second and third chapters for the organizing assumption of the Princeton School discussed in the first chapter. If Jewish merchants were educated ...
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The fourth chapter traces out the implications of the second and third chapters for the organizing assumption of the Princeton School discussed in the first chapter. If Jewish merchants were educated as to the norms of Jewish commercial law and indeed chose to structure their economic relationships according to those norms, then the documents of the Geniza cannot be directly used as a proxy to describe commercial cooperation among Muslim merchants. The chapter introduces an alternative model for extrapolating from the Geniza documents to the broader Muslim world which takes into consideration Islamic and Jewish law as well as the surviving documentary evidence of Muslims and Jews alike.Less
The fourth chapter traces out the implications of the second and third chapters for the organizing assumption of the Princeton School discussed in the first chapter. If Jewish merchants were educated as to the norms of Jewish commercial law and indeed chose to structure their economic relationships according to those norms, then the documents of the Geniza cannot be directly used as a proxy to describe commercial cooperation among Muslim merchants. The chapter introduces an alternative model for extrapolating from the Geniza documents to the broader Muslim world which takes into consideration Islamic and Jewish law as well as the surviving documentary evidence of Muslims and Jews alike.
Ron Harris
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198787204
- eISBN:
- 9780191829284
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198787204.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Not much is known about the organization of the trade between Egypt and India in Roman times. Roman law is obviously well documented in surviving texts of various sorts. Trade practices in the Indian ...
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Not much is known about the organization of the trade between Egypt and India in Roman times. Roman law is obviously well documented in surviving texts of various sorts. Trade practices in the Indian Ocean routes are sporadically known from surviving manuscripts. Actual organizational documents are practically unavailable with the rare exception of the Muziris Papyrus. The Papyrus, dated from the mid-second century CE, known also as the Vienna Papyrus, was first published in 1985. It deals with the finance and organization of trade on the route between Alexandria and Muziris in India. It adds a new dimension to our knowledge of the organizational practices of Eurasia trade in antiquity and is in fact the best source available up until the era of the Cairo Geniza, almost a millennium later. There is an ongoing debate about its nature in the papyrology literature. I will provide my own analysis of the papyrus based on legal history, economic analysis of law, and institutional economics theory. I will evaluate its nature as a loan or agency contract, as a standard form template, and as a forerunner of the sea loan and the commenda.Less
Not much is known about the organization of the trade between Egypt and India in Roman times. Roman law is obviously well documented in surviving texts of various sorts. Trade practices in the Indian Ocean routes are sporadically known from surviving manuscripts. Actual organizational documents are practically unavailable with the rare exception of the Muziris Papyrus. The Papyrus, dated from the mid-second century CE, known also as the Vienna Papyrus, was first published in 1985. It deals with the finance and organization of trade on the route between Alexandria and Muziris in India. It adds a new dimension to our knowledge of the organizational practices of Eurasia trade in antiquity and is in fact the best source available up until the era of the Cairo Geniza, almost a millennium later. There is an ongoing debate about its nature in the papyrology literature. I will provide my own analysis of the papyrus based on legal history, economic analysis of law, and institutional economics theory. I will evaluate its nature as a loan or agency contract, as a standard form template, and as a forerunner of the sea loan and the commenda.
Ruthy Gertwagen
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780973007381
- eISBN:
- 9781786944665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780973007381.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This chapter is a guide to the maritime historiography of Israel. Maritime history within Israeli academic publications is considered a relatively unexplored subject, and few publications exist in ...
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This chapter is a guide to the maritime historiography of Israel. Maritime history within Israeli academic publications is considered a relatively unexplored subject, and few publications exist in relation to it. This chapter places the sparse historiography within context, exploring Jewish maritime historiography; modern Israeli Shipping; and the historiography on maritime activity in Palestine, and the publications devoted to each.Less
This chapter is a guide to the maritime historiography of Israel. Maritime history within Israeli academic publications is considered a relatively unexplored subject, and few publications exist in relation to it. This chapter places the sparse historiography within context, exploring Jewish maritime historiography; modern Israeli Shipping; and the historiography on maritime activity in Palestine, and the publications devoted to each.
Roxani Eleni Margariti
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199379187
- eISBN:
- 9780199379224
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199379187.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History, History of Religion
The examination of coins and currencies used in the transoceanic trade of the western Indian Ocean reveals that the formative period between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries saw increased ...
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The examination of coins and currencies used in the transoceanic trade of the western Indian Ocean reveals that the formative period between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries saw increased monetization and the proliferation of coinages struck by a number of polities in the region. At the same time, merchants belonging to trans-regional networks imported money from outside the Indian Ocean, most notably from the Mediterranean, and assimilated it into interdenominational currency zones of the Indian Ocean littorals. Coined money facilitated cross-cultural exchanges, and expertise in handling diverse but shared instruments of trade, such as the multidenominational currency assemblages described in this chapter was part and parcel of merchant identity across physical distance and boundaries of identity.Less
The examination of coins and currencies used in the transoceanic trade of the western Indian Ocean reveals that the formative period between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries saw increased monetization and the proliferation of coinages struck by a number of polities in the region. At the same time, merchants belonging to trans-regional networks imported money from outside the Indian Ocean, most notably from the Mediterranean, and assimilated it into interdenominational currency zones of the Indian Ocean littorals. Coined money facilitated cross-cultural exchanges, and expertise in handling diverse but shared instruments of trade, such as the multidenominational currency assemblages described in this chapter was part and parcel of merchant identity across physical distance and boundaries of identity.
