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Muslim Identity in Maritime Trade: General Observations and Some Evidence from the 18th-Century Persian Gulf / Indian Ocean Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Patricia Risso
Patricia Risso
Affiliation:
Department of HistoryUniversity of New Mexico
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Extract

Trade is often discussed in an Islamic context with reference made to Muslim merchants. However, the significance of Islam in specific commercial circumstances is difficult to assess. Some historians label trade as “Muslim” because it was conducted by Muslims; others do so because the trade originated and/or concluded with the boundaries of an Islamic state. The label Muslim may also suggest networking, a process more familiar in relation to Armenians or Jews. We can ask if the operative principles of Muslim networks were at all the same as those for the minority groups.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , August 1989 , pp. 381 - 392
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

NOTES

1 A familiar work on the subject is Richards, D. S., ed., Islam and the Trade of Asia (Oxford, 1970).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 The Qur'an (Egyptian numbering), 30:45. Sailing the sea is not always interpreted literally as maritime trade but sometimes as a metaphor for spiritual growth. Other similar passages are 2:164, 16:14. 7:66, and 45:12.

3 Lewicki, Tadeusz, “Les premiers commerçants arabes en Chine,” Rocznik Orientalistyczny, 11 (1935), 173–86.Google ScholarDasgupta, Ashin, “Indian Merchants and the Trade in the Indian Ocean, c. 1500–1750,” in The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1982), p. 422.Google ScholarCoedès, G., The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, Cowing, S. B., trans., 3rd ed. (Honolulu, 1968), p. 19 and p. 269 n. 27.Google Scholar

4 Chaudhuri, K. N., Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge, 1985), ch. 2, esp. p. 36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also, Lombard, Maurice, The Golden Age of Islam, Spencer, Joan, trans. (Amsterdam and Oxford, 1975), ch. 9.Google Scholar

5 Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation, p. 36. Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S. makes much the same argument for the eastern Mediterranean region in “Another Orientalist's Remarks Concerning the Pirenne Thesis,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 15 (1972), 98.Google Scholar

6 Lombard, Golden Age, ch. 9.

7 A detailed study of this is Dasgupta, Ashin, Indian Merchants and the Decline of Surat, c. 1700–1750 (Wiesbaden, 1979).Google Scholar

8 The Qur'an, e.g., 2:275.

9 Udovitch, Abraham L., Partnership and Profit in Medieval Islam (Princeton, N.J., 1970).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 See for example Yusuf, Abu, Kitab al-kharaj, Shemesh, A. Ben, trans., in Taxation in Islam, vol. 3 (London, 1969), pp. 21–25.Google Scholar

11 Björkmann, W., “Maks,” in Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed.Google Scholar

12 Stevens, Robert, The New and Complete Guide to the East India Trade (London, 1775), p. 128.Google Scholar

13 E.g., Carsten Niebuhr recorded these rates at Muscat for 1765: Europeans paid 5 percent, Muslims 6.5 percent, and Jews and “Banians” 9 percent. Description de l'Arabie, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1774), 11:264. See also note 21.

14 Stevens, New and Complete Guide, p. 128. Rates changed with confusing frequency but here it is the differential that is most interesting. Another British merchant reported that, in 1778, English and Mocha merchants paid 3 percent import duties at Mocha; non-Mocha Arabs, Indians, and other paid 5 percent. Parsons, Abraham, Travels in Asia and Africa (London, 1808), p. 276. Parsons doesn't mention fees, which could be considerable.Google Scholar

15 Parsons, Travels, p. 341; Raymond, André. Artisans et commerçants au Caire au xviiie siècle, 2 vols. (Damascus, 1973), 11:788–95.Google Scholar

16 Risso, P., Oman and Muscat: an Early Modern History (London and New York, 1986), pp. 57–58; 79–80.Google Scholar

17 Perry, John R., Karim Khan Zand (Chicago, 1979), pp. 160, 180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 Ruzayq, Ibn, al-Fath al-mubin al-mubarhin sirat al-sadat Al bu Sa'idiyin, Badger, G. P., trans., under the title History of the Imams and Seyyids of Oman (London, 1871), pp. xxxix, 140, 142.Google Scholar

19 Floor, W. M., “A Description of the Persian Gulf and Its Inhabitants in 1756,’ Persica, 8 (1979), 169.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., 172.

21 E.g., al-Qadir, 'Abd, Waqa'i'-i manazil-i Rum: A Diary of a Journey to Constantinople, Hasan, Mohibbul, ed. (Aligarh, 1968), p. 13 = folio 25: in 1786, rates at Muscat were 5 percent for Europeans; 6 percent for Arabs and Persians; 8 percent for Hindus.Google Scholar

22 Parsons, Travels, p. 207.

23 For Tipu, see Hasan, Mohibbul, History of Tipu Sultan, 2nd ed. (Calcutta, 1971), esp. ch. 21.Google Scholar

24 Kirkpatrick, William, Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (London, 1811), various letters to his agents in India and the Gulf area.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., Appendix E, “Commercial Regulations,” pp. xxxiii–xlvii.

26 For an assessment of his commercial achievements, see Gopal, M. H., Tipu Sultan's Mysore—An Economic Study (Bombay, 1971), ch. 2.Google Scholar

27 This idea recurs in several articles in Levtzion, Nehemia, ed., Conversion to Islam (New York and London, 1979).Google Scholar A more recent discussion in MacLean, Derryl, “Religion and Society in Arab Sind,” Ph.D. dissertation, McGill University, 1985, esp. pp. 147–58.Google Scholar

28 There were merchants who were also ulama trained in law. See for example MacLean, “Sind,” p. 158; Cole, Juan R. I., “Rival Empires of Trade and Imami Shi'ism in Eastern Arabia, 1300–1800,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 19, 2 (05 1987), 180. The overlap of merchants and ulama is another indication of positive Muslim attitudes toward trade and of the likelihood for Muslims to seek out coreligionists in commerce.Google Scholar

29 Raymond quoting de Maillet, Artisans et commerçants, 1:127.

30 'Abd al-Qadir, Waqa'i', p. 6 = folio 15; p. 61 = folio 99.

31 India Office Records, Bombay Political and Secret Proceedings, R381, vol. 7, 17 December 1799, p. 6267.

32 Ibid., R380, vol. 72, Mahdi 'Ali Khan to his vakil at Bombay, 26 Rabi' al-thani 1213 (7 October 1798), p. 3780; R381, vol. 16, 1 August 1800, p. 5885.

33 Baniya is also used as a general term in northern and western India for any merchant or moneylender.

34 Parsons, Travels, p. 276.

35 For further discussion on these points, see Raymond, Artisans et commerçants, 1:280–82.

36 There was also installment buying on credit (Pers. dastgardan). Risso, Oman, p. 201.

37 The concept of trade diasporas is discussed by Curtin, Philip in his Cross-Cultural Trade in World History (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 96–108, 179–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 Khachikian, Lvon, “The Ledger of the Merchant Hovannes Joughayetsi,” Journal of the Asiatic Society, 8, 3 (Calcutta, 1966), 153–86.Google Scholar

39 'Abd al-Qadir, Waqa'i', p. 13 = folio 25.

40 Risso, Oman, p. 192.

41 BPSP R381, vol. 71 for 3 Sept. 1798; vol. 19, p. 419; vol. 3, pp. 3064–67; vol. 7, p. 6267; vol. 27, pp. 6423–25; vol. 18, pp. 6942–49.

41 Grummon, Stephen R., “The Rise and Fall of the Arab Shaykhdom of Bushire: 1750–1850,” Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1985, pp. 249–54; BPSP, R381, vol. 71 for 3 September 1798.Google Scholar

42 Grummon, Stephen R., “The Rise and Fall of the Arab Shaykhdom of Bushire: 1750–1850,” Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1985, pp. 249–54; BPSP, R381, vol. 71 for 3 September 1798.Google Scholar

43 For a recent essay on Muslim/non-Muslim interaction, see Humphreys, R. Stephen, Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry (Minneapolis, 1988), ch. 9, “Non-Muslim Participants in Islamic Society.”Google Scholar

44 The Qur'an, 18:60–82.

45 'Abd al-Qadir, Waqa'i', pp. 29–31 = folios 49–52; Perry, John R., “Mir Muhanna and the Dutch: Patterns of Piracy in the Persian Gulf,” Studia Iranica, 2, 1 (1972), 79–95.Google Scholar

46 E.g., Lewis, B., “Berāth,” in Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed.Google Scholar