Gladys Frantz-Murphy
Mounting evidence indicates that the economic prosperity of medieval Egypt may have hinged on the Egyptian textile industry. This is in conflict with the traditional view which attributes that prosperity primarily to Egypt's passive role in East-West trade, i.e., transit trade. The following will briefly present the evidence from narrative and documentary sources which supports this new interpretation. Crucial pieces of the evidence herein presented were found only in the Arabic papyri. The conclusive evidence needed to fully substantiate this new interpretation will also probably only be found in the Arabic papyri. There are more than 50,000 unread, Arabic documents housed in papyrus collections scattered throughout the world1).
The focus of this investigation will be the textile industry in Egypt at the beginning of Egypt's golden age, the Ṭūlūnid period (254-292/ 868-905). The economy of medieval Egypt, as all pre-industrial economies, was, in the first instance, agrarian. Because flax, the primary fiber of the Egyptian textile industry, was cultivated in Egypt the fortunes of the textile industry and of agriculture were intricately interwoven. Therefore, this investigation will begin by presenting evidence that agricultural revenues were the major source of investment in the textile industry, and will then turn to the forward and backward linkages which the industry generated in agriculture, commerce and employment.
The nature of the sources perhaps accounts for the lack of attention which the Egyptian textile industry has thus far received. Catalogues of extant, textile fragments are numerous; as yet, no firm typology has been devised for dating or even establishing provenance of uninscribed textiles 2). Information in narrative, historical sources is limited; while documentary, Arabic sources abound, an inadequate number of these has yet been published 3).
Ṭūlūnid and Fāṭimid Egypt are portrayed in the sources, and in the literature, as having enjoyed unparalleled economic prosperity. From the nearer end of that time spectrum, the later Fāṭimid period, prosperity is attributed to commerce, specifically transit trade4). Goitein's studies based on the geniza documents revealed "A Mediterranean Society", the existence of which we might otherwise not have known. The geniza documents, having originated primarily from Tunisian merchants living in Egypt are more informative on international trade than on the Egyptian textile industry5). While the geniza documents indicate the importance of Egyptian flax as an export commodity, the documents do not provide evidence that the Jewish merchants from Tunisia were involved in the export of textiles produced in government or private ṭirāz6) workshops, the major Egyptian textile producers7).
Within the context of transit trade Goitein8) noted that the textile industry was "the major industry of medieval times in the Mediterranean area". It was not his intent, however, to examine the structure or significance of the textile industry within medieval Egypt, nor to address the earlier Ṭūlūnid period. Ashtor9), in his survey of economic and social history, similarly indicates the importance of the textile industry in the medieval world and the expansion of the industry in Egypt during the Fāṭimid period. While there is agreement that textiles were a component, along with transit trade, of Fāṭimid Egypt's prosperity, the relative importance of the Egyptian textile industry was not the focus of either Goitein's or Ashtor's studies.
However, the geniza documents do indicate, quite emphatically, that flax was the single most important commodity handled by the Jewish merchants from Tunisia. Egypt's flax supplied the textile industries of both Tunisia and Sicily10). During the same period in which Egypt supplied flax for the other two Mediterranean producers, the testimony of Arabic geographers assembled by Serjeant11) attests to a high level of linen production by the Egyptian textile industry. Additionally, Lombard12) assembles evidence and concludes that, during the Fatimid period, the Egyptian industry held uncontested primacy in the manufacture and export of linen textiles.
An agrarian base which could supply volume export of flax, volume internal production, and extensive export of that production, certainly warrants investigation. The system of agricultural administration had to have been remarkably efficient, and therefore, well-established, in order to produce such quantities of an industrial crop. Ṭūlūnid prosperity has been variously attributed to unspecified reforms in agriculture and to reduced payment of imperial taxes which allowed for more money to circulate in the Egyptian ecomony13). While there is consensus that agriculture played some role in Ṭūlūnid prosperity, the evidence presented in this study indicates a causal link between those agricultural reforms and medieval Egyp's prosperity. The pivotal role of the textile industry which emerges in the following outline raises the questions: To what extent can the prosperity of Fāṭimid Egypt be attributed to the development of the Egyptian textile industry in the #x1E6C;ūlūnid period? And, did the prosperity of the textile industry provide a sound economic base for the later increase in transit trade?
The focus of this investigation will be twofold; investment in the Egyptian textile industry, and the significance of the forward and backward linkages which that industry created. In order to pursue these lines of inquiry, we will begin with evidence indicating sources of potential investment capital and the identity of investors and distributors. The value of, and demand for, the industry's product will be used as indicators of both the level of investment in the industry and of the industry's pivotal role in the economy. Finally, this study will discuss the extent to which employment and linkages generated by the industry contributed to a sound economy.
Information on investment capital is not readily available in the published sources for the reasons which follow. Investment capital came from agriculture, and the mechanisms by which one gained rights to agricultural revenue had not been investigated. In fact, the terms for gaining access to agricultural revenue, determined only from the evidence of the Arabic papyri, proved to be the major element of the unspecified, agricultural reforms to which the sources attribute Ṭūlūnid prosperity14).
The Ministry of Finance (dīwān al-kharāj) and its high level personnel administered agricultural revenues. The link between the Ministry and agricultural revenue was access to land which the Ministry granted on contract to resident Egyptian managers15). Personnel attached to the Ministry were also responsible for assessing and collecting tax revenues. Beginning in the Ṭūlūnid period and continuing until some time in the Fāṭimid, those government personnel often granted themselves land contracts, and they assessed and collected taxes due on the land under those contracts. The distinction between state tax revenue, which they assessed and collected, and their own revenue from those estates was not always respected16). This resulted in a diminution of state tax revenues. But, because those revenues would have been drained out of the Egyptian economy and forwarded East, the effect was to retain a larger proportion of agricultural revenues in Egypt. Those revenues were then ploughed back into the Egyptian economy. Because this system increased their profits from agriculture, the governmental/ landholding elite personally saw to the efficient management of the agrarian base of the economy. This was, in fact, the essence of Ṭūlūnid agricultural "reforms".
The problem of identifying investors is similar to the problem of determining sources of investment capital. State industries presumably produced for state consumption, but also for a profit. Private industries would have been profit-making enterprises. But, in view of the purposeful ambiguity in the sources of investment capital, there would have been a similar ambiguity concerning state and private investors. It is not surprising that, since the distinction between state and private investment capital was not respected, narrative, historical sources are uninformative as to the specific identity of investors in the textile industry. However, narrative sources do indirectly associate landholders with the textile industry, and basic economic principles lead us to expect that those landholders would have been among the largest investors in the private industries.
In pre-industrial revolution economies agriculture is the source of wealth. In Europe, agricultural wealth was invested in the textile industry. The role of the textile industry in the economic growth and development of medieval and renaissance Italian cities, the Low Countries, and in England has, in fact, been central to the study of the economic history of medieval Europe. Also in Egypt agricultural wealth was the major source of investment capital. Agricultural revenue was available to the government and to land contractors. Since government personnel were both land contractors and representatives of the state, they had access to both state and private revenues. In addition, in Egypt the class of officials/landholders also administered government production of linen textiles17). They may also have controlled the large private industries.
The tax structure, also under their control, encouraged the cultivation of flax; and the area under cultivation was expanded18). Data correlated from the Arabic papyri and narrative sources demonstrates that already in the Ṭūlūnid period the primary commercial crop in Egypt was flax19). Thus by virtue of their official affiliation, landholders were in a position to reap the lion's share of agricultural revenues and to further increase their profit by, 1) controlling state production and increasing the demand for flax, which they supplied, and 2) by investing in the private linen industry. This was doubly significant for the long-term prosperity of Egypt because the landholding elite which emerged in the Ṭūlūnid period continued in possession of its estates into the Fāṭimid period and had access to the the political power with which to protect its economic interests20).
An anecdote21) about the Governor of Egypt is illustrative of officials who were also landholders investing in the textile industry. That Governor, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn (245-270/868-884), had access to revenue from private estates and to state agricultural revenue as well22). The anecdote, which was intended as a piece of "public relations", makes the point that the Governor's concern for the virtue of charity prevailed over his desire for profit. In the anecdote, Ma mar al-Jawharī23), a representative of a powerful banking firm, a firm with offices in Egypt and in Iraq, proposes to the Governor that they form a partnership in the linen industry.
"Ma'mar al-Jawhari had presented commerce to Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn in a favorable light. Ibn Ṭūlūn had delivered money to him on condition that he engage it for him in linen".
After having done so, the Governor, we are told, having had a dream summoned a renowned interpreter who explained the dream as a warning against seeking profit24).
"Ibn Ṭūlūn then summoned Ibrāhīm ibn Qarā#x1E6D;ughan, one of his confidants who had been appointed to administer alms, and said, 'Go to Abū al-Ḥasan Ma'mar and take the value of the linen from him. Give it all out in alms'. Ibrāhīm did accordingly. A great amount of money was involved".
The anecdote was not intended to provide us with information on the Governor's investments. Regardless of the intent, or the veracity of the sequence of events, the fact remains that the linen industry must have been a profitable investment, since not only the Governor, but also a renowned international financier, are depicted as having chosen to invest substantial funds in the industry. The anecdote tells us that both the Governor and a foreign financier intended investing in the private textile industry.
Other evidence of the growth and vitality of the private linen-textile industry and of foreign involvement is provided by extant textile fragments dating from the reign of Ibn Ṭūlūn which indicate the establishment of a new private linen factory in this period. The textiles indicate the expansion of the industry. More importantly, the textiles evidence the introduction of Asian techniques and styles foreign to preceeding Egyptian production, suggesting that the new textile industry was developed to produce for a new market. The fact that a resurgence of Coptic motifs has also been noted in textiles dating from this period suggests that there had also been an expansion of the internal Egyptian market25).
The new class of landholders which emerged in Egypt beginning in the mid-9th century and continued into the Fāṭimid period are exemplified by the family of Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm and his son, Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf. Ibn Ibrāhīm had been a courtier at the 'Abbāsid court in Baghdad26). He and his son subsequently occupied similar positions at the Ṭūlūnid court in Egypt. A narrative source tells us that the father was a land-contractor in Egypt, that his name was listed among the contractors in the government registers of 250/844, and that his son still held those estates 43 years later27). Documentary evidence confirms the father's position. A papyrus receipt28) lists taxes paid on his estates in Ahnās. Ahnās was both the site of a large linen textile industry and a flax growing district29).
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf, as his father, held estates in Ahnās30). In a separate anecdote we learn that he also held estates in yet another renowned flax growing region near modern Cairo31). Besides informing us that he held estates in two flax growing ditricsts, the second anecdote also informs us that he had business agents in Tinnīs32), site of a major state textile industry and of a new private industry. And, furthermore, his agents in Tinnīs were instrumental in restoring the fortunes of a ruined textile merchant.
The size of Aḥmad's holdings was considerable. The anecdote tells us that he was short of the necessary cash with which to pay his taxes, short in the amount of 200 dīnārs33). Since taxes on agricultural revenues was a percentage of the value of the harvest, 10 or 20% depending on the terms of the contract, his estates yielded some thousands of dīnārs per annum.
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf himself relates the following anecdote which he clearly intended as an example of the rewards to be reaped for practicing charity34). The anecdote is here translated in extenso because of its rare detail.
"One of the tax collectors in the Egyptian capital demanded more money than I had cash receipts on hand (ḥāsil)35). And so, in order to pay, I was in need of a loan (nu'āmala)36) from one of the money-lenders (tujjār)37). I was referred to a man from Syria who dealt in pledges (ruhūn)38) While I was at the Treasury (dīwaān al-māl) a well-bred, old man of agreeable appearance approached me and said.
How much do you need'.
'Two hundred dīnārs'.
He took money from his room39), weighed it, and asked his assistant for a few more dīnārs to make up the two hundred. He then gave me the money and requested my signature for it saying.
'Save yourself the trouble of the pledge'.
I asked.
"But for what amount shall I write the receipt?'
'For the two hundred dīnārs which I gave you'.
I replied
'This is not the way to do business'.
'By God, I will not accept interest (ribḥ)40) on it from you. If I gave the money to you it would be less than I owe you'. And he asked, 'Do you remember me?'
I replied no.
'I was traveling on a ship to Fusṭāṭ from Tinnās carrying all the merchandise I possessed. Suddenly, when the ship reached Maḥalla41), opposite an estate which was in your care, the ship sank and all I possessed sank with it. I saved myself after having nearly drowned and was sitting on the shore weeping and wailing when you approached in the midst of a group of your retainers and asked me what had happened. When I told you, you ordered some men to dive for the ship and its cargo; you waited on the bank. The men brought up a piece of fabric belonging to me, the rest was lost.
You entreated me to tell you the extent of my losses, which was seventy dīnārs. You raised that amount for me from you agents and secretaries, and when it was given to me, added a few dinars saying this is compensation for your clothing. You then ordered a vehicle to be hired to take me to Tinnis.
You wrote on my behalf to a group of your agents in Tinnīs about my loss and instructed them to assist me in whatever I needed. Through you I have regained what I possessed and my position has taken on a new aspect, thereby doubling my money and improving my situation'.
He took my receipt for the money and left".
Maḥalla, on the route between Tinnīs and Fusṭāṭ, Old Cairo, was an important flax growing region which supplied the important coastal industries of Tinnīs and Damietta in the 10th century.
The circumstantial evidence contained in these narrative, historical sources is certainly suggestive. It suggests that government officials, and land-contractors who were quasi-officials, were among the financiers of the private sector of the Egyptian textile industry.
The above-mentioned Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm had faced charges for non-remittal of state tax revenues due on his agricultural land contracts42). We have numerous examples of such proceedings43). Even the Governor, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, faced repeated attempts by the 'Abbāsid government to force him to pay his tax arrears. Arrears at times rose to over half the assessed tax revenues of Egypt44). What use was being made of those unpaid tax revenues?
As noted above, they were being at least partially reinvested in agriculture since such reinvestment increased both legitimate profits and unpaid tax revenues at the landholders disposal. We know that officials who were themselves landholders also controlled the state textile industry, and the state textile industry created a demand for flax which the landholding elite supplied and from which they profited.
While the investment of unpaid tax revenues in agriculture was a profitable opition, it also had one inherent shortcoming—tenure to land was not absolute. The following provides evidence that the distribution system of the private textile industry facilitated alternative and more secure investment of unpaid tax revenues.
Governing officials had no inherent right to the state tax revenues which they administered and of which they made personal use45). Fortunes based on agricultural revenues were, therefore, tenuous and tended to change hands with the vicissitudes of political favor and ruling dynast. When officials were brought to trial and fined, either because they had fallen from favor or, more frequently, for non-remittal of state agricultural tax revenues, their property was confiscated, often in the amount owed to the government in unpaid taxes. Such confiscation was clearly an attempt by the 'Abbāsid imperial government to collect tax revenue withheld by powerful provincial officials, rather than arbitrary extortion by the state to meet deficits. And, with regard to pre-Fāṭimid Egypt's prosperity, while the Finance Ministers of Egypt were repeatedly brought to trial and fined sums in the millions of dīnārs, only a fraction of those fines are reported as ever having been paid, and after each trial, the Ministers were reappointed to their former position46). While they sustained losses, they returned to power with the system of tax evasion intact.
By secreting investment of unpaid tax revenues landholders lessened the impact of arrears proceedings which resulted in confiscation of their visible, non-agricultural assets, and in the worst case scenario, could result in the loss of their agricultural holdings. Thus, they would obviously have benefited by placing part of their asssets in the distribution system of the private textile industry where their assets would be handled by eminent religious personalities who would not reveal their clients or their clients' secreted assets. The financial assets and property managed by the jurisprudents were sacrosanct; while they held assets for an official being fined they might also be holding assets for the official who had ordered the confiscation or for that official's associates. Thus, interferring with a jurisprudent's financial activities might damage the interests of others besides the person being fined47). Religious scholars were depended upon to successfully secrete assets, which they seem to have done very effectively. The foregoing element of secrecy would explain why there is limited information in narrative sources on textile merchants or on textile commerce.
A further qualification of religious scholars for such activity was that their studies involved considerable travel. It was not sufficient to have read a noted religious authority's works. To be an authority one had to have himself heard the works recited by their author, or by his student. Religious scholars frequently financed their studies by acting as merchants and commercial agents48). In a representative biography of a religious scholar, Maqrīzī49) informs us that the scholar traveled and that he financed his travels and studies through his commercial activities. "Ibrāhīm ibn al-Sirrī ibn Sahil . . . He died in 311 or 316 at the age of 80... He traveled to Egypt to hear Traditions from So and So and while returning stopped at Tinnīs [site of a major linen industry] to exchange textiles (matā')50) he had brought from Baghdad. . ."
An example of the involvement of a jurist in the distribution system is related by a jurist himself51), Muhammad ibn Yazīd al-Wāsiṭī, who relates that he had been traveling between cities in Middle Egypt, cities well-known as having been linen producing centers, for the purpose of collecting goods for which he had earlier advanced cash (wa kānat lī aslāfun. . . fakharajtu liqabḍihā)52). The judge tells of his encounter with a young man who had recently been released from prison and who had taken to thieving. While at the firm of a garment dealer (ba'ḍaṣḥāb al-aksiya) in Ahnas the judge had a discussion with the young thief, Musāfir by name, who explained that he had no money or means of returning to his home and so had been forced into thievery. The pious Muhammad recommended that Musāfir seek assistance from God. When the young man responded that he would so prefer the jurist gave him the money which would enable his return, and advised that should he again be reduced to thieving, he would again provide for his sustenance.
Less than a month later the districts of Ahnās and Bahnasā53) (both flax growing and textile producing districts) were again ravaged by a band of thieves. Again the judge was in the area on business. He had, "advanced money in Sumusṭā54) [in the flax belt] and its environs and had gone out in the company of merchants, who were carrying textiles, perfumes and such items as are in demand in provincial areas in order to collect the goods for which he had paid in advance". He and his party were stopped by the band of thieves led by the young man whom the judge had befriended a month earlier at the garment dealer's in Ahnās. The jurist was this time able to set the young man on the path of repentence.
While the purpose of the anecdote was to recommend the practice of charity, it also provides information on the commercial activities of the jurist. Although it is not expressly stated that he had advanced money against future delivery of textiles, his itinerary through a flax growing district, his appearance at textile dealers while collecting on accounts receivable and his travelling in the company of textile merchants is certainly suggestive.
Information on Fāṭimid officials suggests that the inferences drawn from narrative, historical sources on the investment of Ṭūlūnid officials in the textile industry are probably correct. In the Fāṭimid period Egypt was no longer the province of an empire, and biographies of the independent rulers of Egypt openly acknowledged that Fāṭimid officials engaged in commerce. Serjeant55) provides details on a Prime Minister's involvement in the expanding Fāṭimid textile industry. A biography of that wazīr, Ibn Killis, informs us that when he died his wealth included cloth (bazz) of all varieties valued at 500,000 dīnārs, and 16,000 dīnārs invested in trade56). The overwhelming proportion of his wealth was in textiles. Clearly this Fatimid official's prosperity was due to the textile industry and not to transit trade.
Geniza documents also talk about the involvement of government officials in the distribution process. While they do not tell us about the distribution of textiles, they do tell us about the distribution of flax. They indicate that in the Fāṭimid period government officials were the largest producers and consumers of flax, and that the officials controlled the sale of flax to merchants57).
There is evidence that Ṭūlūnid officials had treasuries containing quantities of linen clothing. Narrative, historical sources contain numerous inventories of the contents of the treasuries of deceased governors and rich merchants, treasuries stocked with all manner of clothing58). The thesaurization and hoarding of clothing suggests that clothing was as good as gold. Narrative sources tell us of numerous ways in which clothing was used in lieu of currency.
In the imperial budget of c. 190/807, recorded by Jahshiyārī59), entries for receipts from many provinces include values or quantities of commodities produced or cultivated in that province. Textiles, or rather finished clothing, occur most frequently as commodities rendered in lieu of currency. The imperial budget reflects that a significant proportion of revenues was paid in textiles. In the Ṭūlūnid period, Egyptian ṭirāz is also reported as having comprised a proportion of imperial taxes60). The government may even have been an important link in the distribution network. The imperial treasury could presumably exchange the commodities at a merchant/banking house for other merchandise or for currency61). Presumbly, the large quantities of commodities sent to the capital were sold from government warehouses to merchants at a profit.
The imperial government itself used the products of the textile industry in lieu of currency. Sources mention of the conferral of luxurious robes on governing officials as part of the insignia of high office. Robes were given by rulers to all officials of the governmental ministries, regional governors and military commanders, on holidays and important occasions, upon promotion, or in recognition of outstanding service62).
There are accounts of rulers having sent an ally war aid in an emergency situation, which aid, besides weapons, would include currency and a specified value of textiles63). Textiles and clothing were also used for payment of troops64). The frequent mention of the use and high values of textiles and clothing is an indicator of the level of production. Perhaps even more significant, however, is the implication that even in an emergency situation textiles could be exchanged without difficulty for war material, or for the cash with which to acquire such material.
Currency as a medium of exchange has never eliminated direct exchange of commodities from the international market. Medieval Arabic geographers expressly state that the products of the Egyptian textile industry were exported65). We may assume that markets in Baghdad, or in India and China, wanted commodities which they themselves did not produce, as well as gold or silver. We may also presume that Egyptian coins held no particular attraction for the Chinese, but we do know that the Chinese had an appetite for "western" textiles66). And thus far there is no evidence of any significant linen exporter other than Egypt in the Ṭūlūnid period. It is obvious that the Egyptians would have had no desire for Chinese paper money 67). Therefore, if desired commodities could be mutually exchanged there would be no need of the intermediate exchange of currency.
Linen textiles, which were Egyptian products from the ground up, commanded the security, ease of transport, imperishability and confidence of any minted money. Textiles also had one outstanding feature which gold coins did not. Once the gold sources were exhausted the economy might well have collapsed; whereas textiles were a renewable source of income68). This may well explain the remarkably low output of Egyptian mints in the Tulunid period, a time of widely-reputed, internal prosperity and stable prices69). That Egyptian-produced, linen textiles were used in lieu of currency is major indicator of the active role of the Egyptian textile industry in the Egyptian economy.
Yet other indicators of the importance of the textile industry as an active agent of Egypt's economic prosperity are the employment and linkages generated by the industry70).
Besides employment in cultivation, the flax crop created work in the manufacture and sale of linseed oil; processing flax—rippling, retting and macerating—required labor, as did bleaching, dying and weaving 71). An expanding industry would have generated new jobs in the field and perhaps marginal employment during harvest in March and until the completion of processing sometime in July. Such marginal employment would have provided supplemental income in rural areas during the lull in other agricultural work. The fashioning of fabric into garments employed tailors; employment in marketing and shipping would also have been affected72).
While Egypt's special advantage was the unrivaled quality of it flax the Egyptian industry also produced blends of linen and silk, or linen and cotton. While these new fashions presumably stimulated demand, the import of silk and cotton, as well as spun-gold thread for embroidery, created linkages in international commerce and shipping 73). It was only a short step from such textile-related, international commercial dealings to expanded, more general, transit trade.
While there are reports in narrative, historical sources that employees in government workshops were reduced to near servitude, there are as many contradictory reports of their excellent working conditions. The tenor of both extremes probably reflects the reporter's enthusiasm for the current ruling dynast74).
Besides the ṭirāz industry controlled by the government and geared to a luxury market, there were also private ṭirāz factories scattered along the Nile from the coast to Upper Egypt. The papyri also indicate cottage production dispersed in agrarian areas. Such small-scale, private production would have provided supplemental income and employment in an agrarian economy. Fragmentary information on regional textile-manufacturing centers is scattered in geographers' accounts and the published papyri. Cottage manufacture was of more homely goods which supplied the local market. Published, papyrus documents from provincial areas reflect the dealings of local merchants and indicate widespread geographical dispersion of cottage industry.
Besides flax, there was industrial production of wool. Papyri include tax receipts identifying weavers resident in provincial areas, and tax assessments on inventories of looms75). There was a large pastoral population in medieval Egypt which supplied wool for the woolen industry76). A document dated Baūna, 264/June, 878, is a receipt for payment of 2 dīnārs, two month's charges for washing wool in a pool in a village in the district of Ushmūnayn, (a textile producing district in which were located ṭirāz factories)77). The large sum (8.5 grams of gold) indicates an industrial tax rather than a tax borne by a peasant producer.
An expanding textile industry would have generated new jobs, not only in urban industry, but also in the countryside, especially in agriculture, since the two fibers of Egyptian provenance were linen and wool. The demand for wool would have provided supplemental income to pastoral populations. Such marginal employment in rural areas could have been a significant factor in integrating pastoral populations into the fabric of settled society.
Employment generated by the textile industry may have been a solution to the perennial problem of Near Eastern sedentary societies. Since antiquity, settled society had had to provide employment for the pastoralists who moved onto its fringes, or suffer their incursions. Maqrīzī gives us an account of pastoralists newly settled in Egypt who became rich transporting merchandise78). An alternative form of employment which settled states offered to importunate pastoralists was the military79). Although incorporating incoming pastoralists into the auxiliary forces was preferable to having them self-employed as highway robbers80), the forward and backward linkages generated by the textile industry provided a more productive form of employment.
Historians have long known that textiles were produced in medieval Egypt. Arabic geographers inform us that those textiles were exported and documents evidence that those textiles served as currency. Documentary evidence and narrative evidence further indicate that flax was the primary commercial crop in Egypt from the 9th until perhaps the late 12th century. In addition, officials who administered agricultural taxes also administered governmental production of linen textiles. Inferential evidence suggests that those officials invested agricultural revenue in the textile industry. The evidence from the Arabic documents and the inferential evidence from narrative, historical sources confirms all of these facts. More importantly, the evidence indicates that a system developed which encouraged a high level of investment in the Egyptian textile industry and a compelling interest in agricultural efficiency.
We have firm evidence from the Arabic documents, supported by narrative sources, regarding the structure of that system. Governing officials granted themselves land contracts giving them access to private agricultural revenues; they simultaneously collected state tax revenues from those lands. Thus, they were in a position to blur the distinction between the two revenue sources to their personal benefit. Additionally, they controlled the state textile industry which created the demand for the flax from which they made their profits. It was, therefore, to their advantage to increase agricultural efficiency. This virtual vertical monopoly encouraged a high level of investment in all phases of the textile industry. A key element of this system was the re-investment into the Egyptian economy of withheld tax-revenue which would otherwise have been sent East.
The hitherto ambiguous Ṭūlūnid agrarian reforms were, on the evidence of the Arabic papyri, the emergence of a powerful landed-elite and the efficient agricultural administration which they fostered. That landed-elite, which continued into the Fatimid period, may have initiated a sequence of developments which culminated in the prosperity of the Fāṭimid period. By the late Ṭūlūnid period there had already been a pronounced increase in linen-textile production. By inference and logic, that increased production resulted from increased investment of agricultural resources in the linen industry by the new landed-elite. A synthesis of all of these factors provides a new perspective on the medieval Egyptian economy.
We need further evidence to substantiate the inferential evidence presented in the foregoing outline of the textile industry's pivotal role in the medieval Egyptian economy. We need further evidence linking the landed-elite and the expanding private textile industry, farther confirmation that religious personnages in fact acted as distributors for the state and private linen industry, and further confirmation of the geographers' testimony that the products of the industry were exported. Finally, we need quantitative and qualitative evidence of the role of both the cottage industry and the overall industry in providing supplemental and alternative employment and in sedentarizing pastoralists. The long-neglected Arabic documents are the only untapped source which may substantiate the inferential evidence.
If the growth and expansion of the textile industry was encouraged by the development of a governmental land-holding elite which regulated agricultural administration, then the decline of the industry should be sought in subsequent changes in the population of the landholding elite which in turn effected changes in agricultural administration81).
The evidence on agricultural administration, only touched on in his paper, is discussed in detail in G. M. Frantz, Saving & Investment in Medieval Egypt, Ph. D. Dissertation, The University of Michigan, 1978.
1) Claude Cahen has organized the Équipe de Papyrologie, Centre Universitaire, 9 rue Mahler, 75004 Paris, to coordinate efforts in making available the Arabic documents which are scattered across four continents.
2) I. Bierman, Art and Politics: The Impact of Fatimid Uses of Ṭirāz Fabrics, Ph. D. Dissertation, The University of Chicago, 1980, includes an up-to-date bibliography and, 66 ff., establishes a new stylistic typology based on inscriptions and motifs.
3) Y. Ragheb of the University of Paris has in press an edition and study of a series of 50 papyrus letters dating from the mid-3rd century, the correspondence of a textile merchant in the Fayyūm. For published correspondence, Arabic Papyri in the Egyptian Library (APEL), 6 vols., Cairo, 1934-1968, APEL, V, 301, 307, 308, 311, 312, APEL VI, 388, 394; J. David-Weil, "Lettres à un marchand égyptien du 111/ixe siècle", JESHO, 16, 1973, 1-14; M. Lombard. Les textiles dans le monde musulman viie an xiie siècle, Paris, 1978, 223, n. 3, for additional citations.
4) The prevailing interpretation is summarized and discussed by R. Owen, in Studies in Eighteenth Century Islamic History, Ed. T. Naff and R. Owen, Carbondale, Illinois, 1977, 134-135; S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 3 vols., Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967-1978, I, 33; E. Ashtor, A Social and Economic History of the Near East in the Middle Ages, Los Angeles, 1976, 78, 80, 95, 195, 198; and S. Labib, "Egyptian Commercial Policy in the Middle Ages", in Studies on the Economic History of the Middle East, Ed. M. A. Cook, London, 1970, 65, 67, 73.
5) Goitein, I, 47, 148.
6) A. Grohmann, "Ṭirāz", EI, 4, 785-793, "From the Persian, originally means embroidery. It then carne to mean a robe adorned with elaborate embroidery, especially one ornamented with embroidered bands with writing upon them, worn by a ruler or person of high rank; finally it means the workshop in which such materials or robes are made". The ṭirāz factories also produced unembroidered textiles and clothing, R. B. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles Material for a History up to the Mongol Conquest, Beirut, 1972, 138 ff, originally published in Ars Islamica, 9-16, 1942-1951, provides extensive examples.
7) Goitein, I, 82, 224.
8) Ibid., 101
9) Ashtor, 95, for a general statement. Without always citing his sources, Ashtor 150-5, discusses the output of the "royal" and private textile industries located in disparate provinces of the medieval Near East, and expansion of output in the Fatimid period, 198-199. On the structure of the textile industry, 95-98, 198-199, Ashtor notes only that it remained unchanged, that there was both government and private production, and free labor. Ashtor also notes that there was technological progress, 75-98, but what that progress consisted of is not specified. Nonetheless, the importance of textile production is implicit in Ashtor's discussion. The textile industry in Ṭūlūnid Egypt is noted by Z. Hassan, Les Tulinides, Paris, 1933, 236-237,
10) Goitein, I, 224, 267; N. A. Stillman, "The Merchant House of Ibn 'Awkāl", JESHO, 16, 1973, 20, 29,
11) Serjeant, 140-160.
12) Lombard, 44-59, for a survey of all linen producing areas in the medieval period
13) Cursory mention of reforms is made by Hassan, "Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn", EI2, 1, 279; Hasan, Les Tulunides, 230-233; H. A. R. Gibb, "Ṭūlūnids", EI, 4, 835-836; C. H. Becker, "Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn", EI, 1, 191; Ashtor, 126-127. Ashtor variously attributes Ṭūlūnid prosperity to industrial efficiency, 95-8; the incorporation of so many countries in the Muslim Empire, the intensification of commercial exchanges, and the flow of precious metals towards the Near East, 80.
14) Those mechanisms and agricultural "reforms" are systematically detailed and documented in Frantz. For a summary of the findings see, G. M. Frantz, "Saving & Investment in Medieval Egypt", in P. Useidinb Ed., Business and Economic History, Urbana, Illinois, 1979, 110-113.
15) Frantz, chap. 5; Kosei Morimoto, The Fiscal Administration of Egypt in the Early Islamic Period, English typescript of Morimoto's recent Japanese dissertation, 165, 167, 177, 208. For his statement that military estates were already being given in Ṭūlūnid Egypt, Ashtor, 133-134, cites al-Balawī. sīr at aE25;mad ibn ṭūlūn, Ed., M. K. cAlī, Damascus, 1939, 294. In that passage al-Balawī, states that the imperial government appointed a general to lead an army to Egypt to oust Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, and assigned military estates in Egypt to the new general's army. However, al-Balawī, 320, informs us that neither that general, nor his army, ever came to Egypt.
16) The evidence is assembled in Frantz, and see chap. 5. S.J. Shaw, The Financial and Administrative Organisation and Development of Ottoman Egypt 15 17-1798, Princeton, 1962, 74-75, 77 for tax collectors as those with access to agricultural tax revenues in Ottoman Egypt; 52-53, similarly the role of multezim; 62-3, 67, 74, the role of provincial governors.
17) Frantz, 198-9. Lombard, 219-225. Geniza documents intimate that governing officials continued to regulate the cultivation and sale of flax, Goitein, I, 267. Ashtor, 113-114, interprets participation of "the princes" as a negative factor; 308-309, he suggests a monopoly position of "royal" factories and estates in the Mamlūk period.
18) Frantz, Chap. 3.
19) Ibid., chaps. 3, 8. Similarly in the Fāṭimid period, flax was the main industrial crop in Egypt, Goitein, I, 104-105, 224-228.
20) Frantz, 202-8; Kosei Morimoto, "On Ǧizya in the Taxation System of Egypt in the Early Islamic Ages", Tamura Hakushi shoju Toyo-shi Ronso, Kyoto, Tamura Hakushi Taikan Kenen Jigyoka, 1968, 589-606, and "Land-holding in Egypt in the Early Islamic Period", Sbirin, 54, 1, 1971. Ashtor, 308-9 sees participation of "the princes" in the Mamluk period as a great obstacle to the development of capitalism. The military power of the Mamluks would have caused their participation to be of an entirely different nature than civilian participation in the earlier period.
21) Balawī, 318-319; Ibn Sacī, al-mughrib fī āal-maghrib, Ed. Z. Ḥassan, Cairo, 1954, 103. The incident was first noted by Gibb, EI, who cites Ibn Sa'īd, "A somewhat obscure narrative hints at an attempt to create a flax monopoly, which was afterwards given up..."
22) Frantz, 53 ff. and 194 ff.
23) Ma'mar al-Jawharī was banker to the Governor of Egypt, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, Balawī, 60-61; Ibn Sa'īd, 95-6.
24) See the study by A. Leo Oppenheim, The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, N. S. 64/III, 177-374, Philadelphia, 1956, for the tradition of dream interpretation.
25) Kuehnel, The Textile Museum Catalogue, Washington, D. C., 1952, 101 ff. for the influence of Asian (i.e. cAbbāsid) techniques on Egyptian production in the Ṭūlūnid period. It is noted, 121, that in the 8th century there had been only a government factory at Tinnīs, while in the 9th there was also a private factory, 124. The earliest dated, extant textile from that factory is 270-9/885-94. See also Kuehnel, Late Antique and Coptic Textiles, New York, 1926, Intro., for a discussion of the influence of the 'Abbāsid market on Egyptian production. A resurgence of Coptic motifs in textile fragments dated in this period has also been noted, E. Grubbe, "Studies in the Survival and Continuity of pre-Muslim Traditions in Egyptian and Islamic Art", JARCE, 1, 1962, 75-97.
26) Ibn al-Dāya, al-mukāfa'a, Eds. A. Amīn and A. al-Jārim, Cairo, 1924, 204; Ibn Abi Uṣaybica, cuyūn al-anba' fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭṭibbā', Beirut, 1965, Ed. N. Ridā, 187-201.
27) Mukāfa'a, 203 ff., mentions that his father was still listed as a land contractor on the registers which dated from 250/844 in 293/905.
28) Papyri Schott-Reinhardt an der Universitäts bibliothek in Heidelberg, 251.
29) Serjeant, 154, citing Ya'qūbī, katāb al-boldān, Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum. Leyden, 1892, 7, 331.
30) Mukāfa'a, 37, 41 ff., also indicates that Ibn Yūsuf was a land contractor and specifies that one of his estates was in Ahnās,
31) Ibid., 50 ff.
32) Serjeant and Lombard, s.v.
33) Narrative sources always describe agricultural estates by their per annum, revenue yield, never by their size. One dīnār contained 4.25 grams of gold. Goitein, I, 359, the evidence of the geniza documents suggests that 2 dīnars were the equivalent of a family's monthly expenses.
34) Mukāfa'a, 50 ff., The title of the book in which these anecdotes occur is Requital; the first section is "Reward for Good", and the second, "Punishment for Evil".
35) Khiṭāṭ, Būlūq, 1853-4, I, 82, line 37; C. Cahen, "Contribution à l'étude des impôts dans l'Égypte médiévale", JESHO, 5, 1962, 252.
36) Mu'āmala, transaction, is a euphemism for a fictitious transaction (ḥīla), i.e., a loophole, used to evade the prohibitions in Islamic legal theory on both contract, and on taking interest, J. Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law, Oxford, 1964, 79.
37) Schacht, 79, translates tājir as money lender, "because traders also acted as money lenders".
38) E. W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, reprint of 1872 edition, Beirut, 1968, s.v. See also Schacht, pledges and securities, s.v. Pledges were a means of disguising interest.
39) Kumm, R. Guest, Ed., al-Kindī's wulāt miṣr, London, 1912, 67; "cabinet," Goitein, "A Mansion in Fustat," The Medieval City, Ed., H. Miskimin, New Haven, 1975,169, n. 28.
40) Lane, s.v. See also Schacht, 12, 40, 145 ff., 153 ff., 155, 157. Goitein, I, 25 5-256, for the charging of interest in the Fāṭimid period.
41) Ibn Zawlāḳ, Yousouf Kamal, Monumenta cartographica Aegypti et Africae, Leyden, 1930-34, III, II, 685, cited in Serjeant, 153, n. 137. For Ma-Öx1E25;alla in the Fāṭimid period see Goitein, I, 349. In the Ottoman period flax continued to be cultivated in the interior of the Delta, Shaw, 5 2.
42) Mukāfe'a, 190-193.
43) Frantz, 202-5; for several prominent examples see, H. L. Gottschalk, Die Mādarā'ijjūn, Berlin, 1931, 67-77.
44) Frantz, 45-58, 197 ff. Reputed Egyptian tax revenues in the Ṭūlūnid period amounted to 4,300,000 dīnārs. Of that total, 2,200,000 dirhams (sic), ṭirāz, tenting, and candles, are reported as having been forwarded to the capital in 257/871, Ya'ūbī, ta'rīkh, Beirut, 1960, II, 508, and 1,200,000 dīnārs in 262/875-6, Balawī, 80; Ibn Sa'īd, 87, reports 1,200,000 dīnārs, ṭirāz, slaves, horses and candles.
45) For a comparable situation in medieval Europe see H. Miskimin, The Economy of Later Renaissance Europe, Cambridge, 1977, chap. 1, "The Abstractions of Law and Property Rights", which includes a discussion of the problem of property rights to land in 16th century Europe. See also, D. C. North and R. P. Thomas, "An Economic Theory of the Growth of the Western World", Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 23, 1970, 1-17.
46) Gottschalk discusses several such proceedings, 67-78.
47) Al-Kindī, 518; Ibn Sa'īd, 162; al-Ṣābī, kitāb al-wuzarā', Ed, A. Farrāj, Cairo, 1958, 51, for examples of attempts to secrete assets by using religious personalities as intermediaries.
48) See Cohen, "The Economic Background and the Secular Occupations of Muslim Jurisprudents and Traditionalists in the Classical Period of Islam", JESHO, 13, 1970, 299-312.
49) Maqrīzī, al-ta'rīkh al-kabīr al-muqaffā, MS. Istanbul, Süleimaniye, Pertev Paşa 446, folios 31v-32r.
50) Serjeant, 10, 125, 159, 216 for matā' as a generic term for textiles.
51) Mukāfa'a, 60 ff.
52) Salaf, aslāf, Lane, s.v., "Any money, or property, paid in advance, or beforehand, as the price of a commodity for which the seller has become responsible and which one had bought on description ... or payment for a commodity to be delivered at a certain (future) period with something additional to (the equivalent of) the current price at the time of such payment ... or a sort of sale in which the price is paid in advance, and the commodity is withheld, on the condition of description, to a certain (future) period".
53) Ibn al-Kindī, fadā'il miṣr, Ed., I. 'Adawī, et. al., Cairo, 1971, "The Egyptians produce unparalleled ṭirāz drapes and pavillions at Bahnasā". Serjeant, s.v., cites all geographers' accounts textile production, the Bahnasā's, 22, 154, 155-156, 160-163. For Ahnās see n. 29 supra.
54) A city on the Baḥr Yūsuf, South of Ahnās, Ibn Ḥāwqal, kitāb sīrat al-arḍ, J. J. Kramers, Ed., Leiden, 1939, 133.
55) Serjeant, 151, Ibn Killis's widely reported interference with the functioning of the ṭirāz factory at Tinnīs, 141, may have been related to his promotion of the ṭirāz industry at Cairo.
56) Ibn Ṣayrafī, al-ishāra ilā man nāla al-wizāra, Ed., A. A. Mukhliṣ, Cairo, 1923, 19-23.
57) Goitein, I, 423, 247.
58) Mukāfa'a, 34-36, for the contents of a deceased, Egyptian merchant's warehouse; Miskawayh, tajārib al-umam, Ed. H. F. Amedroz, Oxford, 1921, I, 44, 49, for Ibn al-Furāt's investments in trade; Ibn Ṣayrafī, 23; Balawī, 350, 356; Ibn Sa'id, 133, Lombard, 196-7, for additional citations. Such inventories have not been systematically examined.
59) Jahshivārī, kitāb al-wuzarā' wa al-kuttāb, Ed. M. Al-Saqqā', et. al., Cairo, 1938, 281-288.
60) Ya'qūbī, II, 508, Ibn Sa'īd, 87.
61) In the geniza documents only silk was used as currency, Goitein, 1, 245.
62) The Ḥawfī Arabs, who had been the bane of Ahmad ibn Ṭūlūn, and of earlier Egyptian governors, were enrolled as auxiliary troops by Khumārawayh, who conferred uniforms of sumptuous robes upon them, Ibn Taghrī Birdī, nujūm al-Ẓāhira fī mulūk miṣr wa al-qāhira, Cairo, 1963-72, 3, 59. While the robes ususally were not adorned with inscriptions, in some instances they were, Serjeant, 16-27; Lombard, 194-199.
63) M. Canard, "Basasīrī, EI2, I, 1074. Mustanṣir's war aid to Basasīrī included "500,000 dīnārs, clothes of a like value, 500 horses, 10,000 bows, 1000 swords, camels and arrows".
64) Al-Kindī, 146, Nujūm, 76.
65) Serjeant, 136-164; and Lombard, 175 ff., 249 ff., for citations.
66) E. H. Schafer, Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics, University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963, 28 ff. John E. Vollmer, Curator of the East Asian Collection, Royal Ontario Museum, informs me that recent archaeological discoveries in China include textiles of "Western provenance".
67) For early T'ang paper money see Ward D. Smith and B. Matravers, Chinese Banknotes, Menlo Park, California, 1970, 1978; A. McF. Davis, Ancient Chinese Paper Money as Described in a Chinese Work on Numismatics, Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 53, 7, June, 1918. The geniza documents do record the export of textiles from Egypt to India during the Fatimid period. Goitein, "Letters and Documents of the India Trade in Medieval Times", Islamic Culture, 37, 1963, 197. However, that those textiles were of Egyptian manufacture is not stated One geniza document, c. 1132-1149, does mention the eastern export of Egyptian cloth, bazz, Goitein, "From Aden to India, JESHO, 23, 1980, I, line 25, p. 52, "Egyptian linen".
68) R. de Roover, "New Interpretations of the History of Banking," Business, Banking & Economic Thought, J. Kirshner, Ed., Chicago, 1976, 222, n. 99, for the effects of the influx of silver on the 16th century Spanish economy.
69) A. Ehrenkreutz, "Numismato-statistical Reflections on the Annual Gold Coinage Production of the Ṭūlūnid Mint in Egypt", JESHO, 20, 1977, 267-81. See Balawī, 195-196, for a contemporary account of the high standard of fineness of Ṭūlūnid coins.
70) See Lombard, 117-151, 165-175, 219 ff; for the Fāṭimid period, Goitein, I, 99-108, 332-346. "As far as the statistical data available allow us to gauge, a very great proportion, perhaps a majority of the working population and certainly the distributing classes was engaged in this branch of the economy [textiles and dyeing]". Goitin, I, 101.
71) The document published by C. Cahen, Y. Ragheb and M. A. Taher,"L' achat et le waqf d'un grand domaine egyptien", Annales Islamologique, 14, 1978, 59-126, indicates that in the 12th century a privileged estate of 2,824 faddāns (18 square kms.) in the vicinity of Cairo produced flax on a commercial scale. In 554/1159 that estate yielded 2,913 dīnārs in tax revenue, of which 285 dīnārs were taxes for the use of pools in which flax was retted.
72) In the Fāṭimid period, even shipping was substantially under the control of high government officials, Goitein, I, 309-313.
73) Serjeant, 134-164 for references to fiber mixtures and embroidery with spun-gold thread as well as silk. See also, W. N. Bonds, "Genoese Noblewomen and Gold Thread Manufacturing", Medievalia et Humanistica", 17, 1966, 79-81.
74) Serjeant, 138, cites the account of a visiting Syrian Patriarch who describes conditions at Tinnīs in 200/815; and, 145, a less severe report, late 10th century related by Yāqūt, of conditions at Damietta. Serjeant also cites, 143, glowing reports of conditions at Tinnīs as related by the mid-11th century traveller Nāṣir-i-Khusraw; and, 146, Maqrīzī's glowing account of the prosperity of the weavers of Tinnīs. See also, Goitein, I, 82.
75) APEL, VI, 387, for looms, and p. 13, n. 3 for citations of weavers in the documents.
76) APEL, IV, 261-264; Lombard, 35-38; Serjeant, 156; Goitein, I, 105.
77) Published by Grohmann, "Einige bemerkenswerte Urkunden aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer an der Nationalbibliothek zu Wien", Archiv Orientální, 18, 1950, 80-119, No. 15.
78) Khiṭāṭ, I, 80; al-Kindī, 83-84.
79) The phenomenon of the influx of pastoral populations into the Near East, especially the influx of Turkic speakers from Centeral Asia in the medieval period needs full study. The influx, which greatly increased in the nth century, may well have created a pool of unemployed, or perhaps unemployable, labor which resulted in the expansion of Near Eastern armies. A. Lambton, Contributions to the Study of Seljūq Institutions, Ph. D. Thesis, University of London, 1939, presents the evidence for the Turkic influx having increased in the nth century. Miskawayh repeatedly comments on the serious disruption which the influx of pastoral peoples caused, for an example, sub anno, 349.
80) Narrative sources are replete with lamentations prompted by the pastoralists' preying on caravan traffic, e.g., nujūm, 58 ff.; Miskawayh, 2, 215.
81) The industry's decline has been attributed to European competition in the first half of the 13th century, Ashtor, 244-248, 306-311. However, narrative sources indicate that fundamental changes in land-holding and in agricultural administration had already taken place in the course of the 12th century.