Choosing and Enforcing Business Relationships in the Eleventh-Century Mediterranean

Reassessing the 'Maghribi Traders

Bibliographic Data

ID4161773
AuthorsJeffrey L Goldberg (0000-0002-1390-7360, California University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume216
Issue1
Pages3-40
Publication date2012-08-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePast & Present (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-2746 • E-ISSN: 1477-464X
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/pastj/gts018
OpenAlexW2021149060
LanguageEN
Citations received12

Around the year 1050, a wet bale of indigo that had arrived from Egypt became the object of dispute among a group of merchants from Palermo. The bale — dumped off a ship onto the beach of Mazara in western Sicily, some 110 kilometres from Palermo — was labelled on the outside with the name of Maṣliah b. Eliah, who was both the Jewish judge of Palermo and a merchant, but inside it contained seven discrete packages, three labelled with the name of both the owner and the receiving agent, and four with only the names of the receiving agents. Since Maṣliah was in Palermo, the bale became the responsibility of Ḥayyim b. ‘Ammār, who was already on site dealing with another bale dumped from the same unweatherly ship. He took up the task with reluctance after Aḥmad (an official whom ‘all the people of Palermo had agreed to leave in charge of their goods’) had enquired about it and Maṣliah (who owned none of the packages and was labelled as agent for three) had refused either to come for it or to have it delivered to him. Ḥayyim opened the bale at the funduq1 in front of a group of witnesses including Aḥmad, who recorded its contents, their ownership and agency.

Agency (philosophy) · Ancient history · Archaeology · Eleventh · Front (military) · Geography · Judaism · Political science · Sociology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Medieval History and Crusades

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