Merchants, Mamluks, and Murder
Subtitle: The Political Economy of Trade in Eighteenth-Century Basra (S U N Y Series in the Social and Economic History of the Middle East)
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: December 2000
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 180
ISBN-13: 9780791448083
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history: c 1500 to c 1900; Domestic trade & commerce; Political economy; c 1700 to c 1800; Commerce; Baòsrah (Iraq); Merchants; Business & Economics; History - General History; Business/Economics; Iraq; Economic History; Middle East - General; Modern - 18th Century; Baòsrah; Mamelukes; Economics - General; 18th century; Basrah (Iraq); History
Description: "Using the case of the murder of a Jewish merchant in 1791 as the backdrop to this study of Ottoman Basra's long-distance trade in the eighteenth century, Thabit A. J. Abdullah takes a novel comparative approach to Middle Eastern and Indian Ocean historiography. He examines three broad inter-related issues, all of which have a direct bearing on the case of the Jewish merchant.

First, the overall nature of Basra's trade is examined; second, the book looks at the city's large wholescale merchants, the tujjar; and the third issue deals with the gradual development in Basra of the "soft areas" in Asian economies through which European articulation, followed by incorporation into the capitalist world economy took place."--BOOK JACKET.