ENCYCLOPEDIA MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC PART 32

TAWHIDI, AL-, ABU HAYYAN

  Abu Hayyan ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-‘Abbas alTawhidi was an essayist, philosopher and one of the greatest masters of the Arabic style. According to sources, his name (Tawhidi) probably derives from the variety of date (tawhid) that his father traded.

  Al-Tawhidi was probably born in Iraq or Fars sometime between AH 310/922 CE and AH 320/932 CE, and he died in Shiraz (Iran) in 414/1023. It is not known whether he was of Arab or Iranian descent or what his mother tongue was, but he did not understand Persian. He spent his childhood in Baghdad, which was rife with clashes between the Sunnite and the Shi‘i populations; despite this, it offered an intellectually rich life. In Baghdad, he studied grammar, law, the Qur’an, hadith (the traditions of the Prophet), mathematics, rhetoric, theology, and Sufism. AlTawhidi was familiar with Ismaili doctrines and Greek philosophy, both of which were in vogue in the intellectual circles of the time. One of his masters was in fact the Christian philosopher and theologian Yahya ibn ‘Adi, follower of the famous al-Farabi and translator and commentator of Aristotle, whose lectures he attended in 361/971.

  In 350/961, al-Tawhidi decided to dedicate himself to literature and began writing Insights and Treasures, which took him fifteen years to complete. This first, rather modest work is an anthology of anecdotes and aphorisms. The didactic aim and its sometimes serious, sometimes humorous style are typical of the adab literature of which al-Jahiz was a master. Al-Tawhidi, nspired by the latter’s writings, adopts his style and later dedicates In Praise of Jahiz to him. For a living, he worked as a copyist, a job that was fairly common among men of learning without private means. The influence of this activity is reflected in On Penmanship,which talks about different handwriting techniques and tools of the trade and contains the aphorisms and sayings of famous copyists and scribes.

  Al-Tawhidi, like many of his colleagues, spent much of his life in search of a patron. For this reason, he twice set out to find his fortune in Rayy (southern Iran), but he did not meet with success. He first presented himself to the Buyid vizier Abu ’l-Fadl ibn al-‘Amid and later to his son, Abu ’l-Fath, who died soon after. In 367/ CE, his successor, the vizier alSahib ibn ‘Abbad, who was also a refined man of letters, hired al-Tawhidi as a copyist. Unsuited to life at court and frustrated by his lack of intellectual success, al-Tawhidi reacts badly to the continuous humiliation that his employer inflicted on him; three years later he lost his job. He got his revenge by writing The Characters of the Two Viziers (al-Sahib ibn al-‘Abbad and Abu ’l-Fadl ibn al-‘Amid), a virulent pamphlet that is stylistically brilliant despite its often obscene tone and that portrays al-Sahib ibn ‘Abbad in a very bad light.

  On his return to Baghdad, al-Tawhidi was taken under the wing of Abu ’l-Wafa’ al-Muhandis, the mathematician, politician, and man of science, who introduced him to Ibn Sa‘dan, a high-ranking civil servant. With him, al-Tawhidi finally found an intellectual equal who can offer him the type of intellectual relationship he had been looking for. He dedicated Of  Friendship and Friendsto him; this is an anthology of poems, prose, aphorisms, and sayings about friendship which took him thirty years to write. This encounter marks the beginning of a period of intense intellectual activity. Al-Tawhidi became a close friend of the logician Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani al-Mantiq, another philosopher formed at the school of al-Farabi and by whom al-Tawhidi was greatly influenced. The debates held under the guidance of al-Sijistani and Yahya ibn ‘Adi in the circle of intellectuals that alTawhidi frequents are reproduced inConversations, which contains 106 conversations about religious, philosophical, ethical, factual, and literary topics. This work is a precious record of the discussions between men of learning of different beliefs and origins, and it is also the main extant source of al-Sijistani’s thoughts.

  When, in 373/983, Ibn Sa‘dan became vizier to the Buyid Prince Samsam al-Dawla, al-Tawhidi remained at his court and took part in his cultural evenings. Here, the vizier presented a wide range of philological, philosophical, and literary topics that alTawhidi discussed, often reflecting Abu Sulayman alSijistani’s viewpoint. This inspired Delight and Entertainment,which is a detailed record of these evenings compiled at al-Muhandis’ request. The work is a mine of information about intellectual life in Baghdad during the tenth century, especially with regard to the thoughts of the most important philosophers of that period. Searching [Questions] and Compendious [Answers]is of similar documentary value and was written together with the Persian philosopher-historian Miskawayh; it is a collection of questions put forward by al-Tawhidi about matters of philosophy, natural science, ethics, and linguistics, and it contains detailed answers given by Miskawayh. After Ibn Sa‘dan’s death (374/984), al-Tawhidi seeks refuge in Shiraz (central Iran) at the home of the vizier of the Buyid prince, Samsam al-Dawla. Little is known about the later years of al-Tawhidi’s life other than that he burns his life works in the throes of a spiritual crisis or perhaps as a result of disappointment in the poor consideration of his writings during the preceding twenty years.

  He is undoubtedly a master of style: his crystalline, elegant prose deliberately imitates that of his great predecessor and model, al-Jahiz. His encyclopedic knowledge is reflected in the layout of a brief treatise entitled Of the Branches of Knowledge,which deals analytically with the different sciences. Al-Tawhidi does not seem to have followed a specific doctrine, although he showed very obvious sympathy toward Sufism. This is particularly evident in Divine Intimations,which was written when he was older and contains homilies, prayers, and some technical references to the doctrine. A follower of the Shafiite school of Islamic law, he was opposed to Mu‘tazilism and Shi‘ism, but he never explicitly belonged to any theological school of thought. His varied and sometimes controversial beliefs led many Muslims to view him suspiciously: Ibn al-Jawzi (twelfth century) says that al-Tawhidi is an example of zandaqa (heresy), and his contemporaries probably ignored him for this reason. This was something that much surprised the biographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (thirteenth century), who describes him as ‘‘the philosopher of cultured men and a man of culture among philosophers.’’ During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, scholars rediscovered him and appreciated the variety of his works, the wide range of his interests, and his love of literary activities, which al-Tawhidi saw as having a noble function. Al-Tawhidi’s double personality (polyhedric intellectual and refined man of letters on the one hand, hypochondriac and pessimistic on the other) is reflected in the opinions of the scholars: if some consider him to be a worthy representative of humanism, endowed with great intellectual honesty, others consider him to be a disappointed and intellectually embittered courtier as a result of his failure at climbing the social ladder.

Further Reading

Berge´, Marc. Pour un Humanisme Ve´cu: Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi. Damascus, 1979.

———. ‘‘Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi’’. InThe Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres, ed. J. Ashtiany et al., 112–24. Cambridge, 1990.

Keilani, Ibrahim.Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi(in French). Beirut, 195z0.

Kraemer, Joel.Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam, 212–22. Leiden, 1986.

———.Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam. Leiden, 1986

TIMURIDS

  The Timurids were a dynasty of Central Asian nomadic origin that dominated the Middle East and Central Asia in the AH eighth/fourteenth CE and ninth/fifteenth centuries. The founder, Timur Leng, was a Chagatai Turk of the Barlas tribe in the region of Kish, Western Turkestan. The significant period of his career began in 771/1370, when he embarked on a series of campaigns in Transoxiana that involved the Chagatai khanate in Eastern Turkestan, the Blue Horde, and the Golden Horde. In 782/1380–1301, he began his conquests in Persia, subduing the local dynasties that had assumed power after the disintegration of the Il Khanate, including the Sarbadars in northwestern Khurasan, the Karts in Herat, the Muzzafarids in central and southern Persia, and the Jalayarids centered on Baghdad. He also campaigned against the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and defeated the Ottoman sultan Bayazid Ilderim at the battle of Ankara in 804/1402.

  Timur’s conquests brought about the removal of large numbers of artists and artisans to his capital, Samarqand, as a workforce to embellish and enrich his court. The lavish results of this are perhaps most vividly portrayed in the account by the Spanish ambassador, Clavijo, who visited Samarqand and Timur’s palace at Aq Sarai in 1404–1406. Timur’s legitimacy was established on two bases, apart from conquest and his control of the Chagatai tribes, by his marriage to a Chingissid princess that gave him the concomitant title of guregen (royal son-in-law [of the puppet Chingissid khan he installed in Samarqand]) and by his claim to be the true protector and upholder of Islam. It was on this basis that his campaigns in Persia, Iraq, Syria, and Anatolia were justified in contemporary accounts. He made effective use of the Chagatai nomads and their traditional military skills in his campaigns, and initially the areas that resisted him suffered considerably. Like Chingiz Khan, he punished any opposition or rebellion ruthlessly and speedily. For instance, virtually all of the Muzzafarids were executed when one of them, Shah Mansur, attempted to re-establish independent rule. Direct Timurid control of conquered territories in Persia and Khurasan was based on installing military governors (usually Timurid princes) along with garrisons of Chagatai soldiery in various cities and provinces. At the time of his death in 807/1405, Timur was embarking on the conquest of China.

  After Timur’s death, a series of conflicts broke out between his sons and grandsons that ended with the victory of his son Shah Rukh. The latter did not attempt any fresh conquests and indeed during the war of succession certain peripheral territories, such as those in the Caucasus, were lost. However, the heartlands of the empire remained untouched, and Shah Rukh consolidated his control of the regions of Persia (most of what is now Afghanistan and Central Asia) from his capital in Herat, with a series of Timurid princes and Chagatai khans as governors of the various provinces; the most important of these was his son, Ulugh Beg, who was the ruler of Transoxania throughout his father’s reign. Both of these rulers were patrons of the arts, architecture, and literature, and Ulugh Beg was an able mathematician who drew up mathematical tables and built an observatory in Samarqand; likewise, Shah Rukh’s wife, Gauhar Shad, who in particular created religious foundations, built the great mosque in Mashad, northern Persia, one of the surviving monuments of the Timurid age. Iskandar b. Umar Shaikh, who ruled Fars and was eventually imprisoned and blinded for his rebellious activities in 816/1413, was a notable patron of painting and the arts of the book. The development of historical writing under the Timurids is one of the most important intellectual aspects of the period. For example, Hafiz Abru employed different approaches to the history of the age. First, he wrote the continuation (zayl) of the World History of Rashid al-Din Tabib, then a series of provincial histories and dynastic studies, and finally theMajma,a general history of which the last section, the Zubdat al-Tawarikh, presents a dynastic history of the Timurids, all comprising a unique achievement of sophisticated and detailed historical literature. Current knowledge about the political history of the period is based on these and other works, such as Sharaf al-Din ‘Ali Yazdi’s biography of Timur, the Zafarnama, theMatla ‘al-Sa‘dain of ‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Samarqandi, and the works of Mir Khwand and Khwand Amir.

  Shah Rukh died on campaign in Western Persia in 850/1447 and once again conflict broke out between the Timurid princes. Other powers in the region, such as the Turkoman confederacies in Azarbaijan, also became involved in the struggle with the result that the empire was further fragmented and diminished. Timurid rule in the west was effectively ended, and, by the late fifteenth century, Transoxania had succumbed to the advances of the Uzbek Muhammad Shaibani. However, in Khurasan, the Timurid capital Herat enjoyed what was to be a final efflorescence under Sultan Husain Baiqara as a center of learning and the arts. When Shah Ismail Safavi captured the city in 916/1510, the artists of the royal ateliers were transported west to serve the Safavid court, thus perpetuating the artistic traditions that had been developed under the Timurids.

Further Reading

Barthold, W.Ulugh Beg.InFour studies on the History of Central Asia, transl. V. and T. Minorsky. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1958.

Jackson, Peter, and L. Lockhart, eds.Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6, The Timurids and Safavids. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Lentz, Thomas W., and Glenn D. Lowry.Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Country Museum of Art; Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1989.

Manz, Beatrice.The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Thackston, W.M., ed. and transl.A Century of Princes. Sources on Timurid History and Art. Cambridge, Mass: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 1989.

TITLES

  The sudden introduction of the nascent Arab Islamic community to older, more complex societal structures contained in the Sasanian and Byzantine empires of the Irano-Mediterreanean world had a profound effect on Islamic political taxonomies. Ostensibly an egalitarian sociopolitical community that eschewed privilege and rank, the politically naive Muslim umma would undergo considerable transformations as it intermingled with Syriac, Berber, Byzantine, Persian, Turkic, Indian, and Mongol traditions. By the height of the medieval period, Islamic civilization had embraced hierarchy and social stratification, and with this is seen the emergence of a rich panoply of official titles in use by different Islamic states, from Andalusia to India.

Arabic Titles

  The oldest and most important of the Arabic political titles was khalifa (caliph), which came into use after the death of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Initially, khalifa was understood as successor, or deputy, and the comportment of the first four caliphs the Rightly Guided ones (Abu Bakr ra, ‘Umar ra, ’Uthman ra, and ‘Ali ra)—suggests that they did not interpret this title as anything other than this. However, the beleaguered Umayyad dynasty subtly altered this title to confer a sense of ‘‘God’s Caliph’’ (khalifat Allah) while also openly circulating their status as amir al-mu’minin (Commander of the Faithful). The perception ofkhalifa to signify divine regent on earth was aggrandized by the ’Abbasids as they sought to diminish rival claims from the Shi‘is and their veneration of the imams (see Caliphate and Imamate). Likewise, the title of amir dates back to the earliest days of Islamic expansion, originally denoting an all-inclusive office (imarat) with military and bureaucratic duties. With time, the amir was devolved of most administrative responsibilities and was expected to function solely in a military capacity. This title would develop a sense of sovereignty when ’Abbasid caliphs began conferring amir ships on the various upstart dynasts appearing on the periphery during the tenth and eleventh centuries CE; however, by the thirteenth century, amir had lost its sense of political preeminence. Another important Arabic title that emerged in the medieval period was sultan,which denoted power or dominion, and it would be the Seljuk dynasty (1038–1194) which embracedsultan enthusiastically. Contemporary political theorists and scholars often in the pay of the Seljuks themselves understood this to be the most prestigious title possible for a non-caliphal Muslim ruler. Timur would use this Arabo-Islamic title in conjunction with the Turkish khanas well as amir gurgan (son-in-law), the latter referring to his diplomatic marriage to the Mongol Chingizid line. By the time of the Ottomans’ zenith during the sixteenth century, sultan denoted absolute political independence, but Salim the Grim dispelled any ambiguity when he decided to appropriate the title of khalifa after conquering the holy cities of Mecca and Medina during the early sixteenth century. Likewise, after Mehmed II defeated the Byzantine Greek Palaeologi and assumed control of Constantinople in 1453, qaysar (Caesar) was added to the ever-expanding list of Ottoman appellations. The other Arabic title of note, malik (king), was not especially popular among the Arabs during the early centuries, but it would gain currency under the Buyids (932–1062) in western Iran and the Samanids (819–1005) in Transoxiana. The adoption of this particular Arabic title is not surprising considering these dynasties’ location and their familiarity with ancient pre-Islamic notions of absolute kingship.

  Persian Titles

  The most enduring and important Persian title—shah (king)—dates back to the Achaemenian and Sasanian periods, as does another related title, shahanshah (king of kings). These titles were not appropriated by the Arab caliphs during their initial invasions of the seventh century, but the incorporation of Persian bureaucrats in the ’Abbasid administration and the proximity of Baghdad to former centers of pre-Islamic government allowed for the revival of this title by the Buyid dynasty, specifically Adud al-Daula (d. 983) in his khutba and on his minted coins.Sultan, however, was the title of choice during the Turkic and Mongol eras, butshahwould enjoy renewed importance in the courts of the Timurids, Safavids, Mughals, and Ottomans. A hybrid term—padishah (emperor) was the principal sovereign title for the Timurid Mughal dynasty in India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The other principal Persian title which emerged during the fifteenth century was mirza, which was derived from amir-zada (son of an amir). This was the appellative term for royal members of the Timurid household (e.g., Shah Rukh Mirza, Mirza Baysanqur), and this practice was continued  by the Aq Qoyunlus, Safavids, Mughals, as well as local independent dynasties such as the Kar Kiyas in Lahijan. Interestingly, however,mirzawas also conferred by Safavid shahs during the sixteenth century on high-ranking Persian viziers (e.g., Mirza Shah Husain Isfahani, Mirza ’Ata Allah Isfahani).

Turkish Titles

  The ascendancy of  Turco-Mongol political culture during the late medieval period saw an infusion of Turkic titles into Islamic political nomenclature. The most significant of these was khan, introduced by th Qarakhanid dynasty (992–1211) and continued by Seljuk and Khwarazmian rulers.Khan was also a key titular feature in the Mongol political tradition, and it was appended to the names of those direct descendants of Chingiz Khan who were in control of an ulus (appanage), whereas a derived title of khaqan referred to the Great Khan based in Qara Qorum. Khaqan would continue to denote imperial sovereignty in the Timurid, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal traditions, where as khan would lose much of its distinction and was only awarded to Turkic military men of intermediate status.Pasha,which is more than likely derived from the Persian padishah,was a title of considerable political prestige with the Seljuks and their Ottoman successors. Akin to the Safavid understanding of the title mirza, pashasin the Ottoman empire were either military provincial governors or palatial viziers. Lastly, the titlebeg—derived from the Turkish ba¨g and comparable to the Arabic title of amir—was introduced by the Qarakhanids and enjoyed healthyrepresentation in the Seljuk empire. Other titular derivations—beglerbeg and atabeg—would be used consistently throughout the medieval period until the end of the Ottoman and Safavid empires.

Further Reading

Ando, Shiro.Timuridische Emire Nach dem Mu’izz alAnsab: Untersuchung zur Stammesaristokratie Zentralasiens im 14. um 15. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1992.

Ashtiany, Julia, ed.’Abbasid Belles Lettres. Cambridge, 1990.

al-Azmeh, Aziz.Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in Muslim, Christian, and Pagan Polities. London, 1997.

Black, Antony.The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present. New York, 2001.

Bosworth, C.E. ‘‘The Titulature of the Early Ghaznavids.’’ Oriens15 (1962): 210–33.

Lambton, A.K.S.Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia: Aspects of Administrative, Economic and Social History, 11th–14th Century. Albany, 1988.

———.State and Government in Medieval Islam. Oxford, 1981.

———.Theory and Practice in Medieavel Persian Government. London, 1980.

Lewis, Bernard.The Political Language of Islam. Chicago, 1988.

Madelung, Wilferd. ‘‘The Assumption of the Title Shahanshahby the Buyids and the Reign of Daylam (Dawlat al-Daylam).’’ Journal of Near Eastern Studies 28 (1969): 84–108.

Mottahedeh, Roy.Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society. London, 2001.

Richter-Bernburg, L. ‘‘Amir-Malik-Shahanshah: Adud al-Dawla’s Titulature Re-examined.’’ Iran 18 (1980): 83–102.

Ro¨hrborn, K.M.Provinzen und Zentralgewalt Persiens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1966.

Rosenthal, Franz.Political Thought in Medieval Islam. Cambridge, 1968.

Siddiqui, A.H.Caliphate and Sultanate in Medieval Persia. Karachi, 1969.

Woods, John.The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire, new and revised ed. Salt Lake City, 1999.

TRADE, AFRICAN

  With the possible exception of North Africa, the adoption of Islam in Africa was largely as a result of trade networks. For convenience, the Islamic trade network in Africa may be divided into four regions: North Africa, West Africa, The Nile/Red Sea Corridor, and East Africa. Each of these is characterized by certain physical features and possesses a degree of cultural homogeneity expressed either in terms of language, ethnic composition, or historical ties. However, this division should not obscure the fact that there was a large volume of inter-regional trade and also a significant amount of trade with the nonMuslim world, particularly in pagan Africa, medieval Europe, China, and India.

  Physically, North Africa may be defined as that part of Africa between the Mediterranean and the Atlas mountains and that contains a mixed Arabic and Berber population. In many ways, the trade network of North Africa continues the pattern established when the region was under Roman rule, with trans-Saharan caravan routes connecting it to West Africa and sea routes linking it into a wider Mediterranean network. As with much of Africa, the trade was dominated by precious metals, particularly gold from West Africa. For example, the power of the fatimids (tenth and eleventh centuries) was based on the wealth derived from the trade in gold with sub-Saharan Africa, and its conquest of Egypt would have been inconceivable without this financial base. The trade of North Africa was also linked, via Egypt, to the Middle East, particularly during the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods, when both regions formed part of a unified political entity. An interesting example of this long-distance trade can be seen in the Mosque of Qayrawan, where polychrome luster tiles made in Baghdad are incorporated into the decoration of the Great Mosque. Historical accounts indicate that marble for the mihrab and teakwood for the minbar were also imported from Baghdad at this time. Although it may be certain that the luster tiles were made in Baghdad, both the teakwood and the marble came from further afield, perhaps from India or Turkey.

  For the purposes of this discussion, West Africa may be described as that part of sub-Saharan Africa dominated by the Niger and Senegal rivers and extending northward into the Sahel. The trade of West Africa was always dominated by trans-Saharan caravan routes leading to North Africa, and there is no substantial evidence for sea-borne Atlantic trade. Although it is possible that there may have been a certain amount of Roman trade with West Africa, it is likely to have been small as compared with the volume of trade during the medieval Islamic period. The principal commodity was gold from the Bambuk, Bure, and Akan areas of the rainforest. The gold trade is thought to have provided the impetus toward the development of cities and the formation of states (e.g., Ghana, Mali). The other major commodity was salt from the central Sahara, which enabled the Tuareg to exchange salt for gold, which could more easily be sent by caravan to North Africa. Other important commodities include goods such as hippopotamus teeth, which were imported to Europe via Ifriqiyya and used as ivory in Sicily.

  The Nile/Red Sea Corridor links Egypt and the Mediterranean with sub-Saharan Africa, Arabia, and the Indian Ocean. The trade networks of this area are of great antiquity and precede the advent of Islam by many centuries. Despite frequent assertions concerning the difficulty of navigating from north to south in the Red Sea, it is clear that at least some trade was carried on in this way, particularly from Egypt to Yemen. One frequently used trade route involved transporting goods by boat up the Nile and then transferring them to camel caravans, which would cross the desert to one of the Red Sea ports from where they could be shipped elsewhere.

  The coming of Islam had major implications for the economy and trade of this region. In the first place, the institution of the Hajj meant that thousands of African pilgrims would annually cross via the Red Sea to Arabia. In addition, the increased importance of Mecca and Medina meant that there was an increased demand for food and other commodities in the Hijaz, which could be supplied from Egypt and other parts of Africa. However, one major difference between this  region and other parts of Africa is the presence of Christianity, which acted as a block to the southern extension of the Muslim overland trade networks.

  In many ways, the trade of East Africa can be seen as an extension of the Red Sea trade network, although there are significant differences. Whereas the Red Sea is located in the heart of the Islamic world, the Muslim presence in East Africa is restricted to a narrow band of coast and small islands along the coast from Mogadishu in Somalia to Sofala in Mozambique. Also, the East African coast shares a common Swahili culture, which, although Muslim, is distinct from the predominantly Arabic culture of the Red Sea region.

  Although Roman ceramics have been identified from as far south as Zanzibar, it is evident that the high point of East African maritime trade was during the Islamic period. East Africa’s trade with the Islamic world was not restricted to Egypt and the Red Sea, and there were direct connections with Oman in southeast Arabia as well as more distant places such as Iraq via the Persian/Arabian Gulf and the Muslim communities of India via the Indian Ocean. As with West Africa, one of the principal trading commodities was gold, which came from the region of Zimbabwe in southern Africa. The gold trade contributed to the growth of Muslim trading cities such as Kilwa in southern Tanzania as well as inland non-Muslim settlements like Zimbabwe. Slaves were another highly valued commodity, and it is known that large numbers of East African slaves were imported to work in the marshes of southern Iraq during the ‘Abbasid period (eighth and ninth centuries). Other precious export commodities included elephant ivory and spices such as cloves. Imports to East Africa included ceramics from Mesopotamia, Iran (Makran), India (Gujarat), and China. In some cases, these ceramics would be set into the fabric of a building, probably indicating prestige and contacts with long-distance trade.

Further Reading

A good insight into the workings of Islamic trade in Africa is given in the writings of Ibn Battuta, who traveled extensively throughout Africa. Horton, M.Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1996.

Insol, T.The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge, 2004.

Lunde, P., and A. Porter, eds.Trade and Travel in the Red Sea Region. Oxford, UK: BAR International Series 1269, 2004.

  TRADE, INDIAN OCEAN

  The Indian Ocean during the medieval centuries became drawn into the sphere of Islamic civilization, generating a dynamic economic zone, expanding the faith far beyond its Arab homeland, and consequently producing a tremendous variety of cultural forms. The extension of Islam across the Indian Ocean was a product of commerce and conversion rather than conquest. Some have argued that this area represented a nonhierarchical world system before the fifteenth-century penetration of Europeans into the ocean. The Indian Ocean is commonly thought of as a route between east and west, complementing the transcontinental Silk Road north of the Himalayas. However, routes south along the East African coast and penetrating into Southeast Asia were equally important for long-distance trade and the spread of Islam’s religion and cultures. These regions, which encompassed tremendous cultural diversity, nevertheless obtained their unity from constant economic and cultural contact.

  The basis for that unity is the monsoon weather system that governs virtually the entire ocean. The seasonal monsoon winds (monsoon is derived from the Arabic mawsim,which means season) enabled mariners to travel long distances more efficiently with relatively simple maritime technology. The regularity of the winds also facilitated extensive contact between people of different cultures, because sailors often had to wait in distant ports for the monsoon to shift and carry them homeward. Unity is also evident in the ship technology used there until well past the arrival of European vessels. Although there were a great variety of crafts—as indicated in the description of the fourteenth-century traveler Ibn Battuta—Indian Ocean vessels all shared the characteristic that they were constructed without iron nails, because this metal was unavailable in sufficient quantities; instead, ship planking was ‘‘sewn’’ or ‘‘stitched’’ together with coconut coir rope and caulked with palm shavings, and the hulls were greased with castor or shark oils. These ships carried a large variety of goods, the markets for which bound the ocean’s littorals in numerous economic relationships. A few of the commodities of Indian Ocean trade were the following: from southern and eastern Asia, silk, ceramics, sandalwood, black pepper, and other spices; from western Asia, horses, textiles, metal goods, frankincense, and products from the Mediterranean; from eastern Africa, ivory, gold, timber, and slaves. More significantly, beyond these basic features of material life, by the end of the medieval period Islam had touched virtually all of the Indian Ocean’s shores. In recent years, researchers have started to investigate more intensively the role of Islam and Muslims in the complex world of the Indian Ocean; although many questions remain unanswered, the broad outlines of medieval Islamic civilization in the Indian Ocean are clear.

  Historical sources about the medieval Indian Ocean are varied and include geographies, travelers’ accounts, anecdotes and tales, navigational handbooks, and occasional references found in chronicle and documentary sources. Much evidence is in Arabic, but there also exist sources in the languages of the other imperial actors in Indian Ocean history, from Persia to India to China. Conceptions of the Indian Ocean are indicated by the variety of names used to identify the ocean and its parts. In Arabic, it was called both the Great Sea and the Sea of India, whereas in Persian it was called the Green Sea and in Chinese the Western Ocean. The view from the Indian subcontinent bifurcated the ocean into the Sea of Lar (the Arabian Sea) and the Sea of Harkal/Harikela, or, from tenth-century CE evidence in Bengal, the Sea of Vanga. In the Arabic geographical literature, the ocean was also identified with other adjacent lands it was known variously as the Sea of Persia, the Sea of East Africa, and the Sea of Ethiopia, reflecting perhaps Arab scholarship’s greater familiarity with the western half of the ocean. Further afield, as one would expect, the medieval Arabic conception becomes increasingly vague. To the east, the Indian Ocean merged with the Sea of China, which included what is now called the South China Sea as well as the waters on both sides of insular southeast Asia; beyond the Sea of China as well as to the far south the ocean merged into the Surrounding Ocean, also known as the Green Sea or the Sea of Darkness.

  The spread of Islam and developments in medieval Indian Ocean commerce are processes that are difficult to separate. The initial Muslim penetration of the Indian Ocean world was through the expansion of the newly found Islamic empire into Yemen and Oman in the seventh century and Sind in the early eighth century. From these footholds, however, commerce, immigration, and missionary activity became the primary means of the spread of Islam and its resultant cultural forms and the basis for relationships across the Indian Ocean. The impact of the Islamic empire (whose capitals in Damascus and then, starting in the eighth century, Baghdad fueled demand for luxury goods) on the Indian Ocean was matched by the expansion of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (608–907), which generated a burst of commercial activity across the ocean. During the earliest Islamic centuries, the Arabic sources give the impression of direct trade by Muslim Arab and Persian merchants from such ports as Siraf on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast and Sohar on the Arabian Peninsula’s coast, with south and east Asia ports, most notably Canton (Khanfu), which was known for its large community of foreign traders, including Muslims, who constituted a large enough presence to have pillaged the city in 758. Arabic chronicle sources refer to ‘‘the Chinese ships’’ in Muslim harbors, probably referring to ships with Chinese merchandise. Routes across the ocean are documented as early as the ninth century by the geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih and as late as the fifteenth century in the much more thorough navigational handbook of Ibn Majid, which provided detailed nautical instructions for all the major sectors of the ocean. During the ninth century, the route eastward from such ports as Siraf to the eastern terminus in Canton included stops in Muscat or Sohar (in modern Oman), Daybul (near modern Karachi), and Calicut or Quilon/Kulam Malay on the Malabar (southwestern) coast of India. From here the ships would round the subcontinent and Sri Lanka and head directly across the Bay of Bengal, stopping at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands before passing through the Strait of Malacca (Melaka) into the South China Sea and on to Canton. Alternatively, vessels might sail from Malabar to al-Ma’bar (‘‘the Crossing Place’’), corresponding roughly with India’s Coromandel (southeastern) coast, either proceeding northward to Bengal or eastward across the Bay of Bengal.

  The evidence for this trade is most vividly apparent in the Chinese stoneware and porcelain that litter archaeological sites on the coast of east Africa (e.g., Sofala, Kilwa, Mogadishu) as well as the sites mentioned above in Arabia and Southeast Asia. This transoceanic pattern shifted slightly in 879, when a Chinese rebel general captured Canton and expelled members of the foreign merchant community; the Muslims then established themselves in the HinduBuddhist kingdom of Srivijaya in Sumatra. Despite the activity of Muslim merchants in eastern Asian trade, southern and southeastern Asian Buddhists and Hindus probably dominated the carrying trade in the eastern half of the Indian Ocean during the first Islamic centuries. However, Muslim seamen were the primary carriers of long-distance trade in the western half of the ocean, operating between the coasts of Arabia, Africa, and, especially in the eleventh century, the growing number of Muslim settlements on the western coast of India.

  The activity of southwest Asian Muslims in the Far East continued until roughly the tenth and eleventh centuries, when trading patterns became oriented around emporia clustered in three interlinking regions: on the coasts of Southwest Asia and East Africa, on the Gujarat and Malabar coasts of west India, and in Southeast Asia’s Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, which formed the edge of an eastern zone of trade north across the South China Sea. This pattern shift may have been encouraged by the entry of the Chinese into Indian Ocean trade when the Sung Dynasty (960–1279) started to promote commerce and established direct trading relations with Sri Lanka. By the following century, Chinese ships dominated the trade of the eastern Indian Ocean. At roughly the same time, the Fatimid Dynasty (in Cairo, 969–1171) established its capital in Cairo and began to sponsor commercial activity in the Red Sea and western Indian Ocean; consequently, Cairo and neighboring Fustat became a dynamic emporium serving as a link between the two trading worlds of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, a role the metropolis continued to hold through the medieval period. The role of Egypt in long-distance trade is vividly documented in the Judeo-Arabic Geniza letters, found in Fustat, which provide numerous details about commerce that extended from the western Mediterranean to India. It is also during this time that the Karimi merchants are first mentioned; these are a poorly defined group of merchants that played a prominent role in the long-distance trade of luxury goods until they seemed to dwindle in importance during the fifteenth century.

  Also, starting in the eleventh century, Sunni and Ismaili Muslim communities began to flourish in coastal western India, often in the context of Hindu states, and from here these populations spread to East Africa and to Southeast Asia. Concerning the latter, the Khoja (derived from Persian; ‘‘master’’) community of western India is known to have established extensive commercial contact with East Africa. At about this time, such East African trading centers as Malindi, Mombasa, and Zanzibar became prominent. However, the links were by no means exclusively economic. Until the mid-sixteenth century, the leader of the Ismaili Bohra (derived from Gujarati; ‘‘trader’’) community, also of western India, resided in Yemen; members of the community traveled there on a regular basis for pilgrimage, directed their tithes there, and appealed to the leader for adjudication. Contacts were also established eastward so that, by the thirteenth century, Muslims dominated commercial activity in the eastern Indian Ocean. Although Arab and Persian merchants had been the first Muslims to establish contact with East and Southeast Asia, Indian and Southeast Asian Muslim merchants and missionaries spread Islam into insular Southeast Asia and the Philippines. The establishment of the systems of trading emporia culminated in the fifteenth century with the rise of the Malacca (Melaka) on the coast of the Malayan peninsula from an obscure fishing village to a dynamic commercial emporium. The success of the Sultanate of Malacca (c. 1403–1511) has been associated with the alliance of its Hindu Javanese founder with the neighboring Muslim sultan of Pasai and his subsequent conversion to Islam as well as the growing commercial activity of the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). During the first decades of the fifteenth century, the Ming authorities also undertook a series of commercial expeditions, led by a Chinese Muslim named Cheng Ho, across the Indian Ocean to Calicut and then to Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, and a small detachment are said to have ventured as far as Mecca. Although of renowned size—Chinese junks could have as many as four decks and crews of a thousand—this was a foray of ultimately limited impact, because no permanent trading relations were established.

  The economic relationships of Asia and the Indian Ocean have been characterized as a net of interlinking systems or, alternatively, as a unitary world system, particularly during the century after about 1250, when the Mongols imposed economic unity across the Asian land mass that may have been integrated into the Indian Ocean system. Political power is central to the notion of a world system, and, in the history of the medieval Indian Ocean, further investigation is needed into the role of states in transoceanic connections. However, it is uncontested that Islam brought to the Indian Ocean cultural hegemony, reinforcing its geographical and economic unity. The impact of Islam established during the medieval period is manifest in the modern world, from Mindanao to Zanzibar. However, this hegemony was far from a uniform and static phenomenon; rather, it engendered the cultural diversity of manifold types of Islam and the syntheses that these created with indigenous cultures.

Further Reading

Abu-Lughod, Janet.Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250–1350. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Adas, Michael, ed.Islamic and European Expansion: The Forging of a Global Order. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.

Chaudhuri, K.N.Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Parkin, David, and Ruth Barnes, eds.Ships and the Development of Maritime Technology in the Indian Ocean. London: Routledge Curzon, 2002.

Ray, Himanshu Prabha, and Jean-Franc¸ois Salles, eds. Tradition and Archaeology: Early Maritime Contacts in the Indian Ocean. New Delhi: Manohar, 1996.

Risso, Patricia.Merchants and Faith: Muslim Commerce and Culture in the Indian Ocean. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995.

Tibbetts, G.R., ed. and transl.Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean before the Coming of the Portuguese, Oriental Translation Fund, New Series, vol. XLII. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1981.

Wink, Andre.Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, 3 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1990, 1997, 2004.

TRADE, MEDITERRANEAN

  During the first century of Muslim domination in the eastern, southern, and western parts of the Mediterranean, freedom of navigation and overseas commerce continued despite the wars and naval raids between Muslims and Christian countries. The Islamic military expansions in the Middle Sea were, however, not destructive and did not create an abrupt change in the material culture of the occupied countries. Instead, cultural continuity remained discernible in various life aspects for centuries despite gradual Arabization and Islamization processes. Non-Muslim subject populations retained their own socioeconomic and judicial institutions. There is no evidence to prove that the Arabs in the seventh or eighth centuries CE desired to reduce the maritime commerce in the Mediterranean to their territorial domain only. However, to what extent early Muslim merchants were involved in the Mediterranean trade remains vague. All that can be said is that, on the eve of the Islamic expansions, shipping in the Mediterranean regions was primarily controlled by the church, state, rich merchants, and middle-class entrepreneurs, including Jews. For example, the commercial ships of the church of Alexandria sailed eastward to India and Ceylon and westward to Marseilles at the time when the Byzantines still preserved maritime supremacy over the Mediterranean, and the commerce of the Mediterranean world was largely in the hands of Syrians and Egyptians. The patriarch of the church hired sailors, maintained a commercial fleet and a dockyard, and regulated maritime laws. However, written evidence about Islamic maritime trade in the Mediterranean comes from the ninth century CE onward.

  The existence of a transcontinental trade, from China to the eastern and western Mediterranean, gave the countries of the Indian Ocean (see Trade, Indian Ocean) an economic unity and brought a new impetus to sea trade. The Arab achievements made it possible to unite the two arteries used since antiquity for the long-distance trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. The twin routes of the transcontinental trade from Asia—the sea-borne traffic through the Red Sea and the combined sea, river, and overland journey across the Persian Gulf, Iraq, the Syrian desert, and Egypt—were brought under political control of a single authority: first that of the Umayyad caliphs and later that of the ‘Abbasids.

  The year AH 212/827 CE constitutes a turning point not only in the naval history of the Mediterranean but also in the history of maritime commerce.  The establishment of the Sicilian and Cretan Arab emirates marked a new era in the Christian-Islamic international trade. Meanwhile, the breakup of Islamic Mediterranean territories into fragments motivated the ruling dynasties to found commercial hubs and ports of call to attract local and foreign merchants and expand the interregional and international commerce. Among the major Andalusian seaports on the Mediterranean were Tortosa, Valencia, Denia, Cartagena, Ma´laga, Algeciras, Seville, Silves, Almerı ´a, and Pechina; of western Maghrib they were Ceuta and Badis; for Central Maghrib they were Hour, Dellys, Djidjelli, Bijaya, Boˆne, and Marsa al-Kharaz; for Ifrı-qiyya they were Tabarqa, Bizerta, Tunis, Monastır, Susa, al-Mahdiyya, Sfax, Gabes, and Derna; and for the eastern Maghrib they were Tripoli, Lebda, Surt, Bernik, Barqa, Ra’s al-Tin, and Tubruk. In addition, seaports of Islamic Mediterranean islands, especially those on Sicily—Palermo, Trapani, Mazara, Messina, and Syracuse—linked Christian Europe with most Islamic territories. In these commercial centers gathered together merchants of different races, religions, and languages—indigenous and foreign Muslims, Jews, and French, Italian, Greek, and Slavic Christians—to exchange their views as well as their wares despite the prevalent enmities among the various powers. With a few exceptions, political boundaries never formed an obstacle to the freedom of movement of either persons or goods. Only during wartime and political disturbance were the visits of foreigners limited in time or confined to certain localities. The Mediterranean, divided as it was between a Christian north and a Muslim south, eventually recovered much of its economic unity through the activity of merchants and traders. Although Muslims maintained some sort of superiority at sea, neither they nor Christians could call the Mediterranean‘‘mare nostrum’’(‘‘our sea’’).

  The Islamic Mediterranean maintained direct and very frequent commercial relations with Christian Europe. Although Jews played an integral role and acted as intermediaries between Islamic coastal frontiers and Christian seaports, as early as the tenth century CE, Byzantine and Islamic sources indicate that Muslim merchants carried out commercial transactions in Christian Mediterranean trade centers. Traders from the Islamic east, including Arab Christians, were, for instance, a constant feature of the Constantinopolitan landscape throughout the late tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries. Their stay in the Byzantine capital was ordinarily limited to three months, although some of them resided in Constantinople for longer periods. Similarly, foreign merchants entered dar al-Islam (the realm of Islam) by virtue of a valid pledge of security (aman) and were allowed to conduct commercial transactions in any part of Islamic territories if they carried such a pledge. Sources also show that more than a masjid (mosque) had been built in the capital city; one of the earliest masjids was constructed during the reign of Constantine VII (913–959). Meanwhile, their commercial networks exceeded beyond the realm of Byzantium and included the Slavic territories in Eastern Europe.

  Geographically, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian merchants operated within separate but overlapping commercial spheres. They all took part in Mediterranean international commerce and all did business in Syrian, Egyptian, North African, and Spanish markets, but each group was subject to different constraints. It was characteristic throughout the medieval Mediterranean world to find Jews and Christians trading with all regions, whereas Muslim merchants generally restricted their sphere of operation to Islamic markets; Muslim merchants traded freely throughout the realm of Islam. Why Muslim itinerant merchants were absent from the hinterland markets of Latin Europe has been explained by two factors. First, perhaps they found Christian cities uncongenial to their needs in terms of facilities for bathing and eating. Second, Islamic law discouraged them from trading with nonIslamic lands. Third, the hinterland markets of Latin Europe might have been less favorable to Muslim merchants.

  The boom of Islamic trade in the Mediterranean was made possible as a result of the innovation of commercial techniques (see Merchants, Muslim) and the establishment of shipping laws and responsa.It was during the first third of the tenth century when the Kitab Akriyat al-Sufun wa-al-Niza‘ Bayna Ahliha (Treatise Concerning the Leasing of Ships and the Claims Between Their Passengers and Sailors) was  promulgated. Written in the form of responsa, the core text of the treatise, as composed by the original author Muhammad Ibn ‘Umar al-Kinani al-Andalusi al-Iskandarani (d. 310/923), consists of only nine chapters; an appendix of six jurisprudential inquiries from a later period was apparently supplemented by the compiler Khalaf Ibn Abi Firas or a later Maliki jurist. The first chapter deals with the hiring of sailors on ships. Chapter two treats the leasing of ships, forms of hire, and the freight charges. Problems that may emerge between the parties to the contract after concluding the charter agreement and preventing them from carrying out their transaction and bringing it to completion are discussed in the third chapter. However, the fourth chapter establishes the payment arrangements between the contracting parties if a technical malfunction to a ship should occur in the port of origin, en route, or after docking in the final destination. The fifth chapter is the longest, and it covers jettison, salvage, and contribution. Liability of ship owners for what they carry and for what they are not liable is addressed in the sixth chapter. The author of the treatise devotes the seventh chapter to discussing the procedures of the loading and unloading of goods. Partnership in a vessel is inadequately treated in the eighth chapter. The concluding chapter refers to profit-sharing with the person who operates the vessel. Finally, the appendix, the legal inquiries of which are dated between the second half of the tenth century and first half of the eleventh century CE, concerns itself with the calculation of freight charges, overloading, liability of the shipowner for the transport of fixed goods to the intended destination, collision, and jettison and general average. The Kitab Akriyat al-Sufunis, thus, not precisely a collection of maritime laws that treats ownership and possession of ships, methods of acquisition, rights of co-owners, the relations of master and crew, and so on but rather a maritime treatise that exclusively treats mercantile and shipping matters. Despite the substantial legal data that can be derived from this unique treatise, it does not enable economic historians to draw a global view on Christian–Islamic maritime commerce in the Mediterranean region. Additionally, its geographical scope does not cover the entire Islamic Mediterranean; rather, it is confined to the major ports of Egypt, Ifriqiyya, Sicily, and Andalusia. However, the Moroccan, Syrian, and Cretan ports are not mentioned at all.

  Mediterranean merchants handled an enormous range of commodities: expensive luxury goods and mundane everyday necessities, raw and manufactured, bulky and compact. Spices, medicinal drugs, aromatics, lac, brazilwood, indigo, dyestuff, and textiles were imported from the East, whereas metals, minerals, timbers, ceramics, leather, furs, and slaves arrived in Islamic ports from Christian Europe.

Further Reading

Citarella, Armando O. ‘‘Merchants, Markets and Merchandise in Southern Italy in the High Middle Ages.’’ In Mercati e Mercanti Nell’Alto Medioevo: L’Area Euroasiatica e L’Area Mediterranea, 239–84. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’alto Medioevo, 1993.

———. ‘‘The Relations of Amalfi with the Arab World before the Crusades.’’Speculum42 (1967): 299–312.

Constable, Olivia R. ‘‘The Problem of Jettison in Medieval Mediterranean Maritime Law.’’Journal of Medieval History20 (1994): 207–20.

———.Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula 900–1500.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Christides, Vassilios. ‘‘Raid and Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean: A Treatise by Muhammad bn. ‘Umar, the Faqihfrom Occupied Moslem Crete, and the Rhodian Sea Law, Two Parallel Texts.’’ Graeco-Arabica5 (1993): 61–102.

Delgado, Jorge L.El Poder Naval de Al-Andalus en la E´poca del Califato Omeya. Granada: Universidad de Granada, 1993.

Goitein, Shelomo D.A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza: Economic Foundations. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

———.Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973.

———. ‘‘Mediterranean Trade in the Eleventh Century: Some Facts and Problems.’’ InStudies in the Economic History of the Middle East from the Rise of Islam to the Present Day, ed. M.A. Cook, 51–62. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1970.

———.Studies in Islamic History and Institutions. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968.

Hammam, Mohammed. ‘‘La Peˆche et al., Commerce du Poisson en Me´diterrane´e Ocidentale (X

e–de´but XVIe)In L’Occident Musulman et L’Occident Chre´tien au Moyen

Age, ed Mohammed Hammam, 151–78. Rabat, 1995. Imamuddin, S.M.Muslim Spain 711–1492 A.D. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981.

Khalilieh, Hassan S.Islamic Maritime Law: An Introduction. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998.

Kreutz, Barbara M.Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Labib, Subhi. ‘‘Egyptian Commercial Policy in the Middle Ages.’’ InStudies in the Economic History of the Middle East from the Rise of Islam to the Present Day, ed. M.A. Cook, 63–77. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Lagardere, Vincent. ‘‘Le Commerce des Ce´re ´ales Entre alAndalus et le Maghrib aux XI e et XIIe Sie´cles.’’ In L’Occident Musulman et L’Occident Chre´tien au Moyen Age, ed. Mohammed Hammam, 123–50. Rabat, 1995.

Lewis, Archibald. ‘‘Mediterranean Maritime Commerce: A.D. 300–1100 Shipping and Trade.’’ InLa Navigazione Mediterranea Nell’Alto Medioevo, 481–501. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’alto Medioevo, 1978.

———.Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterranean A.D. 500 to 1100. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951.

Lombard, Maurice.Espace et Re´seaux du Haut Moyen Age.Paris: La Haye, 1972.

Lopez, Robert S.The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

———. ‘‘The Role of Trade in the Economic Readjustment of Byzantium in the Seventh Century.’’Dumbarton Oaks Papers13 (1959): 69–85.

———. ‘‘The Trade of Medieval Europe: The South.’’ In The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, eds. M. Postan and E.E. Rich, 257–354. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1952.

———. ‘‘Mohammed and Charlemagne: A Revision.’’n Speculum18 (1943): 14–38.

Lopez, Robert, and Irving Raymonds.Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.

Monks, George R. ‘‘The Church of Alexandria and the City’s Economic Life in the Sixth Century.’’Speculum 28 (1953): 349–62.

Nazmi, Ahmad.Commercial Relations between Arabs and Slavs. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie, 1998.

Pirenne, Henri.Medieval Cities: Their Origins and Revival of Trade. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974.

———.Mohammed and Charlemagne. New York: Meridian Books Inc., 1957.

Pleguezuelo, Jose´ Aguilera.Estudios de las Normas e Instituciones del Derecho Isla ´mico en Al-Andalus. Seville: Guadalquivir Ediciones, 2000.

———. ‘‘El Derecho Mercantil Marı´timo en Al-Andalus.’’ Temas Arabes1 (1986): 93–106.

Reinert, Stephen W. ‘‘The Muslim Presence in Constantinople, 9th–15th Centuries: Some Preliminary Observations.’’ In Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire, eds. He ´le `ne Ahrweiler and Angeliki E. Laiou, 125–50. Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1998.

Taher, Mustafa Anwar, ed. ‘‘Kitab Akriyat al-Sufun wa-alNiza‘ Bayna Ahliha.’’Cahiers de Tunisie31 (1983): 5–54.

Udovitch, Abraham L. ‘‘An Eleventh Century Islamic Treatise on the Law of the Sea.’’Annales Islamologiques 27 (1993): 37–54.

Whitehouse, David. ‘‘Abbasid Maritime Trade: The Age of Expansion.’’ InCultural and Economic Relations between East and West:Sea Routes, ed. Takahito Mikasa, 62–70. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1988.

Yusuf, Muhsin. ‘‘Sea Versus Land: Middle Eastern Transportation during the Muslim Era.’’Der Islam73 (1996): 232–58.

TRANSLATION, ARABIC INTO HEBREW

  During a period of about three hundred years, from around 1100 to 1400 CE, several dozen translators rendered more than four hundred Judeo-Arabic, Arabic, and Greco-Arabic works of grammar, law, theology, philosophy, medicine, and literature into Hebrew. The translators, who were often refugees from Islamic Spain or descendants of refugees, produced a variety of texts for patrons, students, and colleagues. Jews worked with other Jews and also collaborated with Christians, often producing Hebrew versions of the same texts that they would help render into Latin. The main centers of translation were Toledo, where Avendaut (probably Abraham Ibn Daud) worked together with the Christian Dominicus Gundissalinus; Barcelona, where Abraham Bar Hiyya collaborated with Plato of Tivoli; Southern France (Lunel, Bezier, Narbonne, Montpellier, Marseilles), where Judah Ibn Tibbon, the ‘‘father of translators,’’ established a dynasty of translators, followed by his son Samuel, grandson Moses, and great grand-son Judah b. Makhir; and Naples, where a long line of Jewish translators found patronage, from Jacob Anatoli in the thirteenth century to Qalonymus b. Qalonymus in the early fourteenth century.

  The first works translated into Hebrew were Jewish works of grammar and theology, including the writings of Isaac Israeli, Dunash b. Tamim, Sa’adyah Gaon, Judah Ibn Hayyuj, Jonah Ibn Janah, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Bahya Ibn Paquda, Moses Ibn Ezra, Judah Halevi, and Moses Maimonides. Then the translators shifted their attention to Arabic and Greco-Arabic works of philosophy, medicine, and literature. Among the classical authors rendered from Arabic into Hebrew were Aristotle, Alexander, Themistius, Hippocrates, Galen, Archimedes, Euclid, and Ptolemy; lesser-known authors such as Appolonius, Autolycus, Geminus, Menaleus, and Theodosius; and pseudoepigraphical works of Neoplatonic or Hermetic orientation, such as the Book of the Apple, the Book of Causes, and the Book of Istimakhus. Al-Razi, ‘Ali ibn Ridhwan, al-Majusi, Ibn al-Jazzar, Ibn Zuhr, Abu ’l-Salt, Ibn al-Muthanna, Ibn al-Haytham, alFarghani, Jabir ibn Aflah, Ibn al-Zarqalluh, Ibn al-Saffar, al-Kindi, al-Farabi, al-Ghazali, al-Batalyawsi, Ibn Bajja, Ibn Tufayl, Averroes, and al-Bitruji were translated from among the Arabs, along with popular works such as Kalila wa-Dimna, Bilawhar wa-Yudasaf, and even al-Hariri’s Maqamat. The most influential author translated was Averroes, many of whose writings survive only in Hebrew. Avicenna, by contrast, was made available only in his medicalCanonandCanticumand in a late anthology of texts excerpted from the Najat and Shifa’.

  From the very beginning of the translation movement, there were two established approaches: literary and literal. Philosophical and scientific works were generally translated word for word, producing calques and loanwords and following the original text closely even in terms of word order. Literary works, such as Kalila wa-Dimnaand al-Hariri,on the other hand, were translated more loosely, often using paraphrases and replacing citations from the Qur’an and hadith (tradition) with verses from the Bible and rabbinic dicta. However, there was not always this neat division into different specialties and disciplines. Two famous controversies among the early translators helped to shape the development of the different ideologies: both Judah Ibn Tibbon and his son Samuel criticized their rival translators for subordinating meaning to language and style, failing to accurately reproduce difficult philosophical notions in their paraphrastic translations. The Hebrew terminology of the Ibn Tibbon family in particular became the standard language of philosophy and science. Their ‘‘Arabized Hebrew,’’ as it has been called, became the accepted terminology used in original compositions as well, even by Jewish scientific authors who did not know Arabic.

  The Jewish communities of Europe were changed dramatically by the translations. The traditional yeshivah student, who had previously studied only the Bible and rabbinic literature, now had access to the vast riches of the classical tradition. As a result, science and philosophy influenced every area of rabbinic Judaism. Philosophical commentaries were written about biblical texts and rabbinic legends. Legal codes and commentaries were introduced with theoretical discussions of ethics and political philosophy. Sermons with philosophical and scientific content became a common occurrence in the synagogues, whereas liturgy was framed by philosophical poems praising wisdom and describing the soul’s ascent to the supernal realm or conjunction with the active intellect. The translations also stimulated the emergence of a Hebrew scientific tradition, represented by such outstanding philosophers as Gersonides, whose original astronomical investigations were recorded primarily in Hebrew. The translations served as the basis for commentaries, supercommentaries, abridgments, encyclopedias, and original compositions. They satisfied a practical need as well, creating a medical library for aspiring physicians, who were not allowed to enter into the Christian medical schools. In fact, the extensive Hebrew medical library produced during the thirteenth century made Jewish education even superior to Christian and Jewish physicians more highly sought after.

  However, not every Jew was enamored of the new sciences made available through translation. From the very beginning of the translation movement, there was opposition expressed by traditional scholars and legal authorities who recognized a danger in a ‘‘foreign wisdom’’ that contradicted religious doctrines and presuppositions. This opposition led to three major communal controversies, which resulted in a ban on the study of philosophy and the public burning of Maimonides’Guide to the Perplexed. The opposition to science and translation continued into the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as well, when the Jewish study of Greco-Arabic philosophy in Hebrew translation was even blamed for the persecutions in Spain in 1391 and the expulsion of 1492. However, the reaction to Greco-Arabic science and philosophy during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries led to a renewed interest in translation as well: works of Arabic anti-Aristotelianism such as Ghazali’s Incoherence of the Philosophers were translated into Hebrew for the first time. During the fifteenth century, Jews began to turn to Latin rather than Arabic sources, not out of scientific curiosity but polemical necessity: to know how to respond to the Christians. Thus, the medieval period of scientific and philosophical renaissance among the Jews began and ended with translation.

Further Reading

Berman, Lawrence. ‘‘Greek into Hebrew: Samuel b. Judah of Marseilles, Fourteenth-Century Philosopher and Translator.’’ InJewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies, ed. Alexander Altmann, 289–320. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press, 1967.

Bos, Gerrit, ed. and transl.De Anima, Translated into Hebrew by Zerahyah b. Isaac b. She’altiel Hen. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994.

Bos, Gerrit, and Charles Burnett, eds. and transl.Scientific Weather Forecasting in the Middle Ages: The Writings of Al-Kindı¯. London: Kegan Paul International, 2000.

Drossaart-Lulofs, H.J., and R.L.J. Poortman, eds. And transl. Nicolaus Damascenus, De Plantis: Five Translations. Amsterdam, 1989.

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