The Sultan’s Ship (markab al-sulṭān) and the Geniza Merchants: Crossing Maritime Borders in the Medieval Mediterranean

• In Event: Re(de)fining the Boundaries of the “Jewish Community” in Cairo Geniza Documents

Abstract

One of the challenges that travelers and traders faced when crossing premodern maritime borders was the threat that pirates or the sailors of enemy states (not discrete categories) would seize their property and/or persons. To what extent did medieval Islamic states protect travelers and traders in these contexts? How did Jewish merchants deploy their ties to Islamic courts to ensure protection for their trans-Mediterranean mercantile ventures.

This paper will investigate over two dozen Geniza documents that refer to naval vessel(s) associated with state actors (markab al-sulṭān, markab al-qāʾid or markab al-qāḍī ). It will also make reference to other Geniza texts and responsa concerning acts of piracy and hostage taking on the high seas. The talk will present what these documents can tell us about how the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk leaders did or did not use their fleets to protect the persons and properties of their subjects at sea and what expectations their non-Muslim subjects did or did not have about their state’s responsibility for preventing acts of piracy and hostage-taking.

Author

• Brendan G Goldman