Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port
Positioned at the crossroads of the maritime routes linking the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the Yemeni port of Aden grew to be one of the medieval world's greatest commercial hubs. Approaching Aden's history between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries through the prism of overseas trade and commercial culture, Roxani Eleni Margariti examines the ways in which physical space and urban institutions developed to serve and harness the commercial potential presented by the city's strategic location.

Utilizing historical and archaeological methods, Margariti draws together a rich variety of sources far beyond the normative and relatively accessible legal rulings issued by Islamic courts of the time. She explores environmental, material, and textual data, including merchants' testimonies from the medieval documentary repository known as the Cairo Geniza. Her analysis brings the port city to life, detailing its fortifications, water supply, harbor, customs house, marketplaces, and ship-building facilities. She also provides a broader picture of the history of the city and the ways merchants and administrators regulated and fostered trade. Margariti ultimately demonstrates how port cities, as nodes of exchange, communication, and interconnectedness, are crucial in Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern history as well as Islamic and Jewish history.
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Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port
Positioned at the crossroads of the maritime routes linking the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the Yemeni port of Aden grew to be one of the medieval world's greatest commercial hubs. Approaching Aden's history between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries through the prism of overseas trade and commercial culture, Roxani Eleni Margariti examines the ways in which physical space and urban institutions developed to serve and harness the commercial potential presented by the city's strategic location.

Utilizing historical and archaeological methods, Margariti draws together a rich variety of sources far beyond the normative and relatively accessible legal rulings issued by Islamic courts of the time. She explores environmental, material, and textual data, including merchants' testimonies from the medieval documentary repository known as the Cairo Geniza. Her analysis brings the port city to life, detailing its fortifications, water supply, harbor, customs house, marketplaces, and ship-building facilities. She also provides a broader picture of the history of the city and the ways merchants and administrators regulated and fostered trade. Margariti ultimately demonstrates how port cities, as nodes of exchange, communication, and interconnectedness, are crucial in Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern history as well as Islamic and Jewish history.
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Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port

Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port

by Roxani Eleni Margariti
Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port

Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port

by Roxani Eleni Margariti

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Overview

Positioned at the crossroads of the maritime routes linking the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the Yemeni port of Aden grew to be one of the medieval world's greatest commercial hubs. Approaching Aden's history between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries through the prism of overseas trade and commercial culture, Roxani Eleni Margariti examines the ways in which physical space and urban institutions developed to serve and harness the commercial potential presented by the city's strategic location.

Utilizing historical and archaeological methods, Margariti draws together a rich variety of sources far beyond the normative and relatively accessible legal rulings issued by Islamic courts of the time. She explores environmental, material, and textual data, including merchants' testimonies from the medieval documentary repository known as the Cairo Geniza. Her analysis brings the port city to life, detailing its fortifications, water supply, harbor, customs house, marketplaces, and ship-building facilities. She also provides a broader picture of the history of the city and the ways merchants and administrators regulated and fostered trade. Margariti ultimately demonstrates how port cities, as nodes of exchange, communication, and interconnectedness, are crucial in Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern history as well as Islamic and Jewish history.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781469606712
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date: 09/01/2012
Series: Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 360
File size: 4 MB

About the Author

Roxani Eleni Margariti is assistant professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian studies at Emory University.

Table of Contents


Foreword   Carl W. Ernst   Bruce B. Lawrence     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction     1
The Physical Entrepot
The Environment     33
Topography of the Harbor     68
Topography of the Port City     86
The Commercial Entrepot
The Customshouse     109
Ships and Shipping     141
Mercantile and Legal Services     176
Conclusion     206
Notes     215
Bibliography     307
Index     331

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Well-researched. . . . A welcome addition to the never-completed work on the Indian Ocean trade.—Journal of Interdisciplinary History

[A] work of formidable scholarship. . . . Recommended.—CHOICE

Dotted with numerous . . . insights.—International Journal of Maritime History

Notable for its broad use of both archeological sources and medieval Judeo-Arabic documents, which provide a crucial window into both Aden and the Indian Ocean trade.—Middle East Journal

[A] major contribution to scholarly understanding of seaborne trade in the medieval period, not only in the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and the Gulf. . . . A very readable book.—Quaderni di Studi Indo-Mediterraei

[A] fascinating and scrupulously researched book. . . . Sets a high standard for port and Indian Ocean studies.—Northern Mariner

A significant original step in the right direction.—International History Review

"Fascinating. . . . An important and eminently readable monograph.—Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

Margariti's work should be required reading—not just for those interested in the Indian Ocean trade, but for anyone who is interested in seaborne trade in the medieval period. Her mastery of the sources and her ability to extract maximum data from Geniza letters and Arab texts enables her to reconstruct the physical setting in Aden on a scale lacking in all previous works.—Jere L. Bacharach, University of Washington

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