TRADE BETWEEN EGYPT AND BILAD AL“TAKROR IN THE XVIZITH CENTURY . Terence Walz Egypt's geographical location at the nexus of east- west and north-south international trade routes had since ancient times brought her commercial advantages, and even in the eighteenth century, when she had supposedly sunk into economic doldrums following the rounding of the Cape ©f Good Hope by the Portuguese, European visitors to Grand Cairo continued to marvel at her rich trade connections. “A center of commerce which has no equal in all the world,” Pronounced Vitaliano Donati after a visit in 1760, as he cast his eyes over goods brought from all ports of the Le- vant, Europe, Asia and the “most interior parts of Africa." Of these, the African connection was possibly the most exotic. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the African trade of Egypt was almost certainly in the process of re- orientation. At that time, the two regular sources of African staples -- slaves, gold, ivory, feathers were the regions controlled by the Funj sultans at Sinnér in eastern Sudan and those far-flung countries of western and central Sudan which will be considered in this paper to + Paolo Revelli, “I1 viaggio in Oriente di Vitaliano Donati (1759-1762)", Cosmos, XII (1894-6), 323.constitute bildd al-Takriir, The Sinndr goods weze brought from various market towns in the kingdom by caravan to Dungala at which point a large company of merchants and soldiers as- sembled to take the route into the western desert to Salima, and from there to follow the famous darb al-arbatin into Upper Egypt. Goods were then processed through customs and taken down the river to Cairo. Takrir goods originated at numerous points in centrel-end western Sudan, but chiefly at Mmbuktu and Katsina, and then moved northwards via Agades, Murzug and Awjila, entering the Nile Valley just west of Cairo. However, first references to a new market in the emergent Kingdom of Dar Fir at the southern end of the darb al-arbatin appear toward the middle of the seventeenth century, and by the end of the eighteenth it had become Egypt's chief trading partner in the interior. Trade with Dar Fir did not end ‘the older commercial ties with Sinnar and Takrir, but its caravans were more numerous and richer. ‘A great deal of African economic history is now in the Process of being reassessed as more and more sources are being Aiscovered and utilized. ‘therefore, it should not be sur- prising to readers of Bovill and adu Boahen or to the school of scholars who have emphasized the impact of the sixteenth century Moroccan invasion of Mali or of European economic activ-ity along the Atlantic coast to learn of an on-going trade between Egypt and bilad al-Takrir in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and even as late as the beginning of the nineteenth.” Given the abundance of consular and military accounts in European archives, it is perhaps easier to find evidence for a reappraisal of nineteenth century trans- Saharan trade, but a similar revision of eighteenth century trade is also needed. Unfortunately, historical documentation remains at a primitive stage of investigation. This paper hopes to mark the beginning of a reappraisal of one branch of the trans-Saharan trade in the pre-nineteenth century period. It is based on a variety of sources, chief among them the ‘invaluable archives of the religious courts of Cairo (here- after Mabkama),? from which an outline, if not a definitive portrait, of Egypt-Takriir trade relations can be drawn. ®E.w. Bovill, The Golden Trade of the Moors, 2nd ed., (London 1968), 241; A. Adu Boahen, Britain, the Sahara and the Western Sudan 1788-1861, (Cxford 1964), 114; for a revisionist view, A.G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa, 2nd ed., (London 1975), 80-2. Historians of Ottoman period Egypt have also tended to dismiss the subject of Egyptian-black African trade, employing the same type of argument: see André Raymond, Artisans {_commerpants au Caire au XVIIle sitcle, 2 vols., (Damascus,, forsee) top202 especially 159-64, the archive is presently housed in the Maglabat al-shahr al- “Agari, Cairo (MSA); six court series are used_in this paper and are abbreviated as follows: Qism al-*Askariya (Askar); Qism al-‘Arabiya (Arab); al-Bab al-*All (BA); oy eau tive al-Najmiya (SN); al-Dasht (Dasht); IMlamat (Qadim) (I'lamat).I. The Goods Exchanged_ Egyptian-Takrir trade may be predicated on the basis of an exchange of Egyptian textiles for Takriri gold. Other commodities proved equally useful but none rivalled the im- Portance of these two items.. The advice given by the ‘ulama of the Air kingdom to its first sultan is instructive: he was counselled to provide for the Tuwariq guardians of “the road between Misr and Timbuktu, since it is the world's road on which cloth are exported from Egypt and gold from Timbuktu. “+ And in Cairo, had not members of Mansa Musa's entourage gone on a buying spree in the city's textile markets, paying up to five‘dinars for shirts and cloths that ordinarily cost but one?> Gola Takrir had been a major supplier of gold to Egypt during the Mamluk period, but contrary to Ahmad Darrag's claim that the supply “dried up in the third quarter of the fifteenth century*® there is clear evidence that the precious metal continued to flow into Cairo up to the nineteenth century. " R. Palmer, “A treatise concerning the people of the kingdom of Ahir and the kingdom of Bornu," in Bornu, Sahara and Sudan, (London 1936), 56; Urvoy translates this:”...sinee It is fre- quented by all those who transport cottons from Egypt and gold from Timbuktu." "Chroniques d'Agades," J. Soc. Africanistes, IV (1934), 155. Al-‘Umari's story, cited in ‘Umar al-Nagar, The Pilerimaze Tradition in West Africa, (Khartoum 1972), 15 > Ahmad Darrag, L'Egypte sous le rbgne de Barsbay (825-8li1/ 1422-1438), (Damascus 1961), 92.From European sources are found the following reports: In 1511 Portuguese authorities were informed by their agents in Alexandria that two caravans from Takrir arrived every six months, bringing gold “in great quantity," and this report was confirmed by Jewish merchants in India who were knowledgeable about that aspect of Egyptian trade.” In 1635 a European traveler to Egypt noted how blacks from the ‘pays_d‘Acrouri, “between Ethiopia and Morocco," brought gold to Cairo and when they failed to arrive, gold prices dipped ten per cent on the local market.© At the end of the seventeenth century, de Maillet, the French consul at Cairo, estimated that between 1,000 and 1,200 kantars of gold (presumably between 9,600,000 and 11,520,000 mithqals, amounting to some 250-300 camel loads)? were brought from the interior “almost every year. "10 This astoundingly high figure must be exaggerated for if it were true, it would have been valued at more than 20 million Spanish Vitorino Magalhaes-Godinh, L'Economie de l'empire portuguais aux Xe et XVie sidole, (Parle 1969), 120M “Estat des revenus d'Aegypte, par le Sieur Santo Sequezzi" in Relations veritables et curieuses de l'isle de Madagascar et gu _Bresil.../et/ trois relations d‘sgypte et une du Royaume de Perse, (Paris 1651), 97-8. Hereafter Sequezai, “Esta: Calculated on the basis of 1 kantar=100 ratls-1200 ugiya= 14,400 dirhams=9,600 mithgals. See E.W. Lane, Manners and Gustoms of the Hodern Egyptians, Everyman Edition, (New York T95u), 379. Ch weight ofvcanel loads, see delow. 1nugmoire sur Je gouvernement d'Zgipte, "(Archives du Ministtre des Affaires Etrangeres, Paris), Mémoires et Documents, Egypte, Vol. 20, 20. See also Raymond, Artisans, 48,dollars at current rates, far more than the number of dollars imported from Europe and re-exported to Jidda, Egypt's princi- ad pal foreign market. Far lesser amounts plundered by Ottoman Soldiers at Awjila were considered fabulous sums by Arab chroni- clers at the time.!2 In such @ statistical quandary, it might be hoped that more reliable figures might emerge from Egyptian customs re- cords.13 unfortunately, gold was one of the few imports that 1 were exempt from customs," and even if it was not, it would probably been brought into the country by Takruri pilgrims and have been exempt from customs on the basis of their performing a religious duty.!5 Small amounts were also imported from Ethiopia by way of Sinnfr,1© vut it must have Deen on the basis of Takriir gold 1) Raymond, Artisans, 22 and footnotes. In 1690 the mithqal was valued at 120 nisf figda, the dollar at 60 nisf. Twelve loads (48-60 kantars) were seized in 1639: Charles Feraud, Annales tripolitaines, (Faris-Tunis 1927), 102-3. Records of the customhouse at Gld Cairo for the years 1790-2 were published by Girard in “mémoire sur l'agriculture, Ltindustrie et le commerce de LiEaypte,” Description de 1'tevnte Etat Moderne, II, 1 (Paris 1812), 682-3. 4 Comte a*Esttve, "Mémoire gur les finances de 1'zeypte,” Description de 1'Egypte, Stat Moderne, I (Paris 1809), 338. 15 stanford J. Shaw, The Financial and Administrative Creaniza tion and Development of Cttoman £, yt 1517: 1798, Princeton 1962), 105. Caravans from the west were supposed to pass through the customhouse at Burullus, in the Nile Delta (see Stanford J. Shaw, Ottoman Egypt in the age of the French Revolution, (Cambridge, Mass. 1966), 130), but in many cases they avoided it entirely ty passing’ into the valley at villages near the Pyramids: see A. de C. Motylinski, “Itingr- aires entre Tripoli et 1*Egypte," Bull. Soc. de Géox. d'Alger, V (1900), 69-140, 16 subé 1e Mascrier, Description de 1'Zgypte...composée sur les Mémoires de M. de Waillet, 2 vols. (Paris 735), 196-7* (here- after cited Maillet, Description); Girard,"iémoire", 638; 12 13imports that the Ottoman government could authorize the minting of new gold coins in Egypt in the course of the eighteenth century. In 1697, an order was received in Cairo to mint a new coin, called the turali, but it soon lost its value, and in 1707 the minting of a new piece, the zinjurli, was sanctioned. It was in turn succeeded by the fundugli in 1725 and replaced in 1736 by the zar makbub. This coin, though constantly devalued through debasing and chip- ping, circulated widely in the last half of the century and is among the coins most often mentioned in local documents.!? Gold coins recalled from circulation were certainly recycled, but unminted "pure gold" from the interior of Africa must have been in great demand. It is curious, however, that reports of gold imports during much of the century are scarce. In 1709 the ram- bunctious military corps established a protection tax on gold sold by the merchants of Awjila (i.e. Takrir gold), but the amount, 1,500 nigf figd: of this trade rather than its size or importance!® A late merely indicates the existence Samuel Bernard, “Némoire sur les monnaies d'Egypte," Description de i'Egypte, Etat Moderne, II, part i (Paris 1812), 400; individual gold transactions ty Eeyptian and Maghribi merchants in Sinnar are recorded bis (SA) SN, vol. 519, p. 290, #595 (1156/1743); Askar, vol. 118, P. 303, #448" (1133/1719). ? Raymond, Artisans, 20-34. 18 roia., 645-6report from Tripoli, dated 1788, expressed the opinion that gold shipped from Takriir by-passed the Libyan ports altogether and was taken directly to Cairo because its price was not fixed by the local government.+9 certainly gold was still coming into Cairo for about this,time it was being reported that “a great quantity of gold dust and small lingots” had come from the interior.*° However, ty the end of the century gold supplies had drastically fallen off -- only 1,946 mithgals came with the "Maghribi" caravan of 179921 he three years of the French occupation were, to be sure, an exceptionally turbulent period in Egyptian-African relations. At the same time, Egypt had by then moved off the gold standard. Its all-important trade with the Hijaz was conducted in silver coin, the merchants of Jidda preferring the Spanish and Austrian dollar (riyal Abi Taga or riyal Abi Madfat) to locally minted gold coins, and indeed large shipments of dollars figure in annual exports to that Red Sea port from the early years of the eighteenth century.** whether this resulted from dwindling Takrtir supplies or from newly preferred methods of paying international balances remains a matter of conjecture, 19 Venture de Paradis, “Notions sur le voyaume de Fezzan," Bull. Soc. 0g. Paris, 2e serie, IV (1835), 193. 79M, Gruguet, “iiémoire sur 1*Z¢ypte, "(Archives du Ministre des Affaires Etrangéres, Paris), Némoires et Documents, Egypte, vol 1, 71 verso. * Bernard, “Wonnaies," 401. ‘The actual figure is 2,919 dirhens (drachmes). A dirhem=two-thirds mithgal. 22 Raymond, Artisans, 22-4; Shaw, Ottoman Eeypt, 168-70.Considering at least some degree of reliance on Takrir gold up to the eighteenth century, Egyptian rulers might be expected to have made efforts to secure the route leading west from Cairo from brigands and marauding bedouin. Along these lines, Stanford Shaw hypothesized that Awjila oasis was in fact under Egyptian control until the beginning of the seven- teenth century when it was seized by rebels. Nevertheless it succumbed once again to the Egyptians by the early part of the eighteenth century.7? such an expedition into the desert so far from the Nile Valley seems doubtful. Siwa oasis, only half the distance from Cairo and a more obvious military tar- get, was independent until occupied by Muhammad ‘Ali's troops in 1620.2" - aw3ilm during this time‘renained undér quasi- control ty-Ottoman authorities in Tripoli.who only periodically dispatched soldiers to the oasis to collect taxes.*5 with the notable exception of expeditions to maintain the hajj route to Mecca, Egyptian troops rarely operated outside the confines of the valley. Indeed, reports reached Cairo in 1702 that a rich caravan from Fazzin, said to number 3,000 camels, 2,500 slaves and to carry quantities of gold and other goods, was pillaged by bedouin in the Libyan desert near Awjila, and the attackers apparently went unpunished.7© 23 shaw, Financial and Administrative Organization, 128, note bd. (Ujele=Awjila). 24 ahmed Fakhry, The Cases of Seypt, Vol 1; Siwa Oasis, (Cairo 1973), 97-106. Feraud, Annales tripolitaines, 101-3, 122. Raymond, Artisans, 163. 25 2610 The gold trade in Cairo exhibited two curious features. Gold dust was transported in small leather purses, or surar (sing. surra), made of several layers of thick cloth and enclosed in a tight-fitting skin case. In the eighteenth century each purse is said to have usually included small “African” rings or circlets, earrings or neck pieces, often having the shape of a snake or tortoise. The purses also bore interesting tooling, though the design has not been des- eribed.?? In the seventeenth century Takriri pilgrims brought surar weighing various numbers of mithgals, from as many as 100 per purse to as little as nine. Other sources mention surar of 100 mithgals more often than any other quantity, and 2 100 mithgel ‘purse may heve been accepted asa commen weight, at least in North Africa.*® However, by the end of the eighteenth century the surra sold in Cairo had been standardized at 65 mithqals (99 dirhams or 298-300 grams, according to Bernard”?), and such was the regularity of their size and the honesty of their sellers that they carried a virtually constant value-of 244 Spanish dollars and had not to be weighed.2° 2? Bernard, "Monnaies," 401, Would such jewelry have been made at'Jenne? See James Grey Jackson, An Account of the Empire of jiarocco, (London 1814), 290-1. (MSA) Arab, vol. 41, pe 404, #534 (1061/1651); Askar, vol. 83, p. 319, #420 (1101/1690). For purses weighing 100 mithgals in nineteenth century Western Sudan, Rene Caillic, Voyaze au Timbuktu, (Paris, 1830), II, 366, quoted in Raymond Mauny, Rableau g6ographique de 1'Guest africain, (Dakar 1961), 375+ Warion Johnson would believe this reflected an Egyptian market peculiarity: "The. Nineteenth Century Gold 'Mithgal' in West and North Africa," J. Afr. Hist., Ix, 4 (1968), 556. 29 Monnaies," 401. 3° Tpia., 401. See also Truguet, loc. cit. ‘The gold purse 28a Second, the selling of gold was carried out “in an almost unique fashion in market procedures. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, de Maillet commented that the “Croys" refused to sell gold dust for gold coin, believing that in doing so “they would have committed a very great sin." They did, however, accept silver coin.+ Bernard, watching these transactions at the end of the century, noted the same reluctance of “pious travelers /Takririg/ to buy metal,” whether gold or silver. Instead, a curious exchange was acted out. . “The clusters of gold sacks are put on one side: the agreed upon silver on the other; and the seller asks the buyer which,of the two lots would give him the most pleasure. The buyer takes the gold, and the silver stays with the seller."2? this behavior may bely a natural suspicion of locally minted gold specie -~ which may not have been accepted in markets outside Egypt in any case -- or may hark back to specific regulations affecting gold trading in the Sudan. Bernard thought it was related to their curious religious beliefs. commonly employed in Egypt as a unit of accounting amounted to 25,000 nigf fidda, Zl Spanish dollars in 1798 was valued at 36,000 nist. (Bernard's calculation of 3,660 nig? must be a printer's error, as the exchange’ rate was ‘then fixed at 150 nigf per dollar.) Cther than seeing in the decline of the gold dust purse from 100 to 65 mithqals @ general reflection of the serious depreciation of Egypt- ian currency in the course of the eighteenth century, we find no obvious link between it and local units of currency or accounting and can offer to explanation as yet as to how as why the standardization came about. Maillet, 196%. The story is repeated in Le troisiéme voyage du Sieur Lucas, (Paris, 17M) and Richard Pococke, A Des- cription of the East and Some Other Countries, (London, 1743-8). Bernard, "Monnaies," 401. 31 3212 Textiles Egyptian textiles were famous. In West Africa Ibn Battuta was an early witness to the popularity of Egyptian cloths, particularly among the wealthy and ruling classes. The garments of the inhabitants of Walata, he noted, were of “fine Egyptian fabric." During an interview with the sultan of Mali, he noticed the windows of the audience hall were covered by Egyptian mandil cloth and that the caftan worn by his interpret- er was made in Alexandria. Further on he related how the peo- ple of Tagadda “travel to Egypt every year, and import quantities of all the fine fabrics to be had there and of other Egyptian wares. "99 In the eighteenth century the medieval celebrity of Egypt- ian textiles had survived in much of bil&d as-siidin. Textiles are found to have constituted almost half the goods exported to Sinnar and Dar Fir. Chief among them were cotton stuffs called maballawi (made at Makallat al-Kubra, the great textile center in the Nile Delta); silk and/or cotton cloths called gutni; woollens, usually cut into ready-made garments; silk stuffs, finished, raw and thread; and linens, manufactured in the Upper Egyptian city of Asyit.2% A number of towns and villages in various parts of the country made cloth for the 93 ton Battute, Travels in Asia and Africa, tr. H.A.R. Gibb (London 1929), 320, 335. See also Mauny, Tabloau goopraphique, 369-70, u_geopraphique See my dissertation, “Tho Trade between Egypt and bilad as- Sudan, 1700-1820," (Boston University, 1975), 5u-5, 176-6,13 African export trade -- Qin, for instance,>° and probably Najfda and Kirdisa?® -- which were noted for their bold de- signs and bright colors. In all cases they supplemented purchases of Indian and European fabrics found in Cairo mar- kets and were probably used to complement those textiles manu- facturéd at home. In Hausaland and Bornu they were often con- sidered suitable as gifts to local rulers, but wealthy mer- chants as far away as Ashanti were observed wearing them too.” Scattered accounts, many of them dating either before or after the eighteenth century, show some of the types of cloth popular in bilid al-Takrir. References have been found to shipments of Italian silks and Indian brocade satins,2° tobes, 3? nilbaf (similar to the turkedi clotn made in Kano), 4° ana alaja (striped silk and cotton stuffs, manufactured in both Syria and Egypt.) When Hornemann arrived in Murzuq in 1798 he found silks, mil@yat (striped blue and white calicoes, pos- ie woven at Kirdasa| and woollens among Egyptian imports in 35 36 37 Girard, “Mémoire,” 2nd ed., XVII (Paris 1824), 209-10. As they do now. On Kirdasa cloth, see below. Joseph Dupuis, Journal of a Residence in Ashanti, 2nd ed. (London 1966), 72. Sequezzi, "Estat," 97; four loads of Indian_satin brocades were sent to K-na (or K-ba) bi-wilayat as-Sudan in 1690: (iSA), BA, ve 175, pe 279, #108 (1101). “Tariv (?Ta21) tabes are mentioned in (MSA) BA, v. 109, p. 147, #391 (1036/1626)« for black toves, see below. Heinrich Barth, Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, 5 vols. (London 1857), V, 26+ Fakhry, 47; 17.B. Holher, A Report on the Oasis of Siva, (Cairo 1900), 34: C. Darymple Belgrave, Siwa, the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, (London 1923), 140-1. 38 39 4o Ma4 its markets.“2 twenty years later Captain Lyon drew up a more complete list: muslin turban cloth (worn by the people of Bornu, according to “Ben ali*"3), silks stuffs (“silks the WY wwery manufacture of Zgypt" Clapperton had seen at Kulfi; valuable silks brought from Egypt" were purchased by the father of Abi Bakr al-Saddiq in Bouna"5), ribbons of silk and cotton -- some of which may have been rewoven into cloth made in Nupe-- gold thread and lace, alaja cloth, cotton shirts, silk hankerchiefs for women, striped silk stuffs used for women's undergarments, cotton carpets, ready-made and lined woollen caftans, and woollens “of the most brilliant colours.“!? *2n.y, Bovill, ed., Missions to the Niger, (Cambridge 1964-6), 4 vols. Vol 1: The Journal of Friedrich Hornemann's Travels from Cairo to Murzuk in the years 1797-98, and the Letters of Major Alexander Gordon Lai 1824-26. Vols. 2-4: Dixon Denham, Hugh Clapperton and walter Cudney, Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the years 1822, 1823 and i624. Vol. 1, 100. 3 Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, 2 vols. (London 1810), 1, 135, footnote. Hugh Clapperton, Journal of a Second Expedition into the Inter- jor of Africa from the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo, (London 1829), 137 45 “The African Travels of Abu Bakr al-Saddiq" in Philip D. ie Curtin, ed., Africa Remembered, (Madison, Wisc. 1968), 159. See Marion Johnson, “Cloth on the Banks of the Niger." gs Hist. Soc. Nigeria, VI, 4 (1973), 358. George F. Lyon, A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa in the years 1818, 19, and 20,(London 1621), 158-9. 4?15 It may be assumed that goods brought to Fazzan in 1819 and shipped south represented the types of Egyptian textiles that had found a steady market in the eighteenth century. Certain cloths, however, must have come into and fallen out of fashion. Barth, for instance, noted that red and green woollens, once a popular import in Kano, were out of style dy the time of his visit.® But the white shawls with a red or yellow border, reported by him to have been in much demand in Agades and Kano in the mid-nineteenth century, had at an earlier time been popular among “the great people, espetially at Sennaar"#9 and may well date back to the eighteenth century. Slaves, Cowries and Other Goods It is possible that in medieval and late medieval times Egypt was a heavy importer of slaves from Takrir.°° Statistics from the eighteenth century, published by Girard, suggest the trade in this particular item had virtually ceased.°! This can not have been so, however, since there were sufficient numbers of Takrirl slaves in the slave market in Cairo on whom Dr. Frank could base some short remarks: “The blacks that are brought 48 perth, Dravels, II, 132. 49 roids, I, 143, 479s IZ, 180, 180. For Sinnar: John Lewis Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, (London, 1822), 199, 268. See also merition of Clapperton's gifts to Bello: Bovill,Missions, Iv, 677-8. Marian Malowist, “Le commerce d'or et d'esclaves au Soudan Occidental," Africana Bulletin, No. 4 (1966), 67. 51 temoire," 630-39.16 from Fegzan are less dark /than those from Sinnar and Dar Fur/, he wrote, “and are distinguished by their docility and their intelligence: they are frequently marked by rather regular facial scars, which they customarily consider an ornamentation. "5* Venture de Paradis' informant on the Fazzan trade, writing in 1788, believed that most slaves exported from Takrlur were taken to Cairo while only 800 per year came to Tripoli.°? Yet none of these was tagged with an identifiable nisba (al-Takruri, al-Barnawi) in inventories of slave merchants in Cairo at this time. Their origins seem to have been lost in the popular usage of al-Aswad or al-Sida in legal documents to describe freed or enslaved blacks.5" tn short, the question of numbers of slaves imported from Takrtr, annually or periodically, re- mains unanswerable. Ivory, ostrich feathers, pepper, sheep, skins, parrots, leather and “dark blue Soudan cloths" were among other items brought by Fazzan caravans to Cairo, presumably from Takrir.°> Sudan cloths are particularly interesting, but references to them Can not been traced in eighteenth or nineteenth century Egyptian inventories. °? Louis Frank, “Mémoire sur le commerce des nBares au Kaire,” appendix in Vivant Dennon, Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte, 2 vols. (London, 1807), IT, 2ii. 53 Venture de Paradis, "Notions," 193. 5 vor instance, Nabrika bint taba Allan al-Sida al-Barndwlya, “Abd Allah al-Aewad al-Barnawi and tiubarak al-Aswad al-Tajuwi were freed in 1690: (NSA) BA, v. 175, p. 199, #689 (1101); see also SN, v. 508, p. 91, #300’ (1106/1695); SN, v. 516, p. 189, #414 (1144/1732) for similar examples. 55 tyon, Narrative, 159.17 In addition to textiles, Egyptian exports fell into a number of categories: beads and shells; metals and hardware; spices, perfumes, herbs and condiments; paper, arms and arma- ment. Beads and shells were imported from Europe and the Indies and, as would be expected, are mentioned among goods taken by early travelers to the interior. 4 document from the Mabkama archive, dated 1626, for example, notarized the journey of Abu Bakr ‘A1I Abu Bakr al-Misurati, known as "Ibn ‘Ujayba", who was sent to Timbuktu with two loads of "Habush" beads (flecked?), “each /load7 weighing 308 ratls Egyptian weight, "55 and two loads of "Khurj as-Sidan" beads.5” an inventory dated 1690 belonging to Ahmad Madkur Mazin "al-Jallab", a merchant in Cairo, lists seven loads of beads sent before his death to Fazz’in.°® Beads of all varieties, including no doubt the green and yellow transparent beads called contaria transparente which Venice manufactured expressly for the African trade,°? agates, ©? coral,®! giass and brass armlets,©% anklets, earrings, and 56 approximately 308 lbs. This may have been a light load; Girard listed camel loads of Venetian beads weighing 5§ kantars of 105 ratls each (525 lbs): "Mémoire," 635. (NSA) BA, ve 109, p. 147, #991 (15 Ramagin 1036). Askar, v. 83, p. 319, #420 (20 Shatban 1101), Girard, "Mémoire," 664. Ledyard was shown a stock of 1,500 varieties of beads owned by Carlo Rosetti, the Venetian consul in Cairo in 1788, many of which were consumed locally. Bovill, Missions, I, 23, footnote 1. Richardson found this trade still flourishing in 1650: Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa, performed in the years 1€50- dy 2 vols. (London 1853), Il, 29. 61 sequezzi, "Estat," 97; lyon, 159. 62 tyon, loc. cit. Barth mentions “painted arn-rings of clay, imported from Egypt, and of which the women of these districts are passionately fond" among goods on sale in Agades: II, 3. 57 58 59 6018 silver ornaments figured among eighteenth century exports. If indeed Cairo had in medieval times been the major sup- plier of cowries to western Africa as Bovill believed,©? it seems to have played a much diminished role by the eighteenth century. Here, too, sources at the Egyptian end are too frag- mentary to provide a complete picture of the situation, but they nonetheless confirm a general view that trade between Egypt and bilad al-Takriir remained surprisingly strong up to the beginning of that century. Seventeenth century documents indicate the presence of two varieties of cowries in Cairo markets: kiida hindi, pre- sumably the Cypraea moneta from the Maldives, and kida sa‘ial, which were collected along the Red Sea and brought to the city by way of Upper Egypt (whence the probable source of its name.)°* As a term for cowries, kida or kawda dates back to the fifteenth 65 century at least;°° judging by the. frequency with which it is employed in inventories and other legal documents, it seems 63 Missions, I, 245, quoted in Marion Johnson, “The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa, Part 1," J. Afr. Hist., XI, 1 (1970), 26. © the two varieties are found in the inventory of Alin ‘abd al- Munim al-Bisa}}i, (MSA) Arab, v. 36, p. 379, #608 (1049/1640). ©5 Gaston Wiet, tr., “Le traité des famines de Magrizi,” J. Zeo. and Social Hist. of the Orient, V, 1 (1962), 62: “...these shells (kuda) which are called wada‘ in Old Cairo...." Gn the derivation of kuda (kawda) from kauri, see Henry Yule and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, a Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Stymological, Histori-- cal, Geographical and Disoursive, 2nd ed., (Delhi 1900), = 70.19 to have passed into standard mercantile parlance. An inventory dated 1690, however, uses both kida hind? and wadat ‘aragi -- referring perhaps to the ventral aperture -- and it is inter- esting to note that in the following century wadat comes to be adopted exclusively. Cowries were sold by the arded (a dry measure,’ approximately 5 English bushels)®® and ty the kayla or Kila, twenty-four of which equalled an ardev.©” Sequezzi, writing in 1635, had this to say about cowries purchased by the merchants of “d'Acrouri":68 - They use no other currency in their country, but the small conchs, or white marine shells that come from Muchal, and the small red snail /-shells (Limagons)7 from the Red Sea, which are sold to them at 70 piasters the Ardeb (or Artaba) for the small white ones, which are also used as a comestic (fard) by the Ladies, and at 6 piasters the ardeb for the red limagons. Both kinds, a more expensive white cowrie and a cheap Red Sea variety,©? were exported to Problems arise, however, in trying to identify this second shell. A “ruddy-colored" cowrie would have been only one of as many as a dozen species or sub-species native to the Red Sea. In rane, Modern Egyptians, 579; Raymond, Artisans, /ivii/. 7 cn the basis of calculations in al-Biea}{i's inventory. It generally varied according to the goods weighed and where Employed (Shaw, Ottoman Seypt, 170). “Estat,” 98. © 4 1ess_than ten-to-one price difference is also reflected in al-Bisatti's inventory. 20 see C.u. Burgess, The Living Cowries, (1iew York 1970): Robert J.L. Wagner and R. Tucker Abbott, eds., Van Nostrand's Standard Catalog of Shells, (Princeton 1964).20 color terms alone, it might be related to the Cypraca arabica which Seetzen claimed ‘as recherché par les nggres.7! But the size of this cowrie measures from two to three times that of ¢. moneta, larger even than annulus and other East African varieties which were introduced into western Africa after initial difficulties in the nineteenth century.’* It seems doubtful it would have proved profitable to transport in bulk across the Sahara. Another Red Sea cowrie, a"small white shell called at Cairo Woda" was seen by Burckhardt in offshore waters near Sawakin,’3" clearly not C. moneta, it may nonetheless have been accepted as a substitute. Johnson, following Jeffreys and Mauny, recognizes the possibility that other shells, such as the mar- ginella, were used in place of the Maldive cowrie when the latter became scarce, 7" and it may be suggested that in similar manner the kiida gatIdl or Red Sea cowrie, whatever its species, served as an expedient currency in western Sudan. The cowrie zone seems not to have extended to eastern Sudan (Sinnfr and Dar Fur), or if it once did, it was replaced by a monetary system based on gold dust, dhurra, cloth, iron bits and other commodities in the seventeenth or eighteenth 7 U, seetzen, “Mémoire sur les pays de Souakem (Szauakem) et de Massuah (Massaua)," Annales des voyages, IX (1809), 332. He Delieved its Arabic name was qawqa'ah (snail shell). 7% Johnson, "Gowrie Currencies, Part 1," 17-27. 73 mravels in Nubia, 420. Plain white cowries measuring .5-1 inch can be bought in Aswan today. They are said to come from the Red Sea. 74 Jonnson, "Cowrie Currencies, Part 1," 26.2a century.?5 Cowries were, however, used in personal ornament- ation,’ but what quantities were needed could easily have been supplied from Sawakin, if not from Cairo. Cowries were also used in Egypt as charms against the evil eye and as such were applied to trappings of horses, camels, and other animals and sometimes to the caps of small chiléren.”? thus the Cairo cowrie market met consumer demands from various directions. With regard to the Takrur market in particular, some specifics can be gleaned from Makama archives, and scarce though they are, they do suggest a steady flow of cowries in the direction of Takrir at least to the latter part of the seventeenth century. A Takrurl pilgrim party purchased 12 loads of kida hindT ca. 1651. In terms of quantity, such a shipment might have amounted to some 2,280,000 - 2,880,000 cowries, per- haps 2.4 to 3 tons.”© In another transaction, four camel loads were sent to PazzZn in 1689 (along with four loads of eloth).?? At the turn of the eighteenth century, they still figured pro- minently among goods taken back by the “Croys." °° 75 2.8. O*Fahey and J.L. Spaulding, Kingdoms of the Sudan, (London 1974), 55-6, 70-1, 80; Burckhardt, Nubia, 216-17, 257-8 For a general discussion of the cowrie gone, gohnson, "Cowrie Cur- rencies, Part 1," 32-7: Hopkins, Economic History, 67-9. Mupammad “Umar_al-Tiinisi, Tashbidh al-a pi-sirat bilad al- “arab wa's-Stidan, ed. Khalil Mahmud ‘Asakir and Mugtafa Muhammad Mus*ad, (New &d., Cairo 1965), 215-16. Lane, Modern Egyptians, 257. Calculated on the basis of 4-5 kantars per load, 190,000-240,000 cowries each: see Johnson, "Cowrie Currencies, Part 1," 29. Sources: (MSA) Arab, v. 41, p. Hob, #534 (1061/1651); Askar, ve 84, p. 425, #650 (1102/1691). Maillet, Description de l'zgypte, 196*. 76 77 78 79 8022 An ardeb of Maldive cowries, Sequezzi reported in 1635, cost 70 piasters (dollars); by 1640 it had reached 80 dollars. Fifty years later (1690), the price had dropped to 64 dollars in constant money, and thereafter seems to have suffered a steady decline. In 177 an ardeb was valued at 21 dollars.®! this decline occurred at a time when an increased demand for cowries was underway in West Africa, especially in Hausaland,®* and at @ time when records of European factors along the Guinea coast show no parallel decline in prices.°? Low prices in Cairo should have made cowrie exports all that more profitable, yet the cost of transport had probably become too expensive while the lines of communication between Hausaland and the coastal states were proving undoubtedly safer. Alternatively, Tripoli merchants took over the long-distance trade in this item.©* Copper rods and bars (nubas shababik, nubas gadib) were taken to Timbuktu in 1626 by Abu Bakr al-Misurati: copper was probably the most important metal exported from Cairo across the Sahara.®5 in and lead are ‘also mentioned in our sources, as are hardwares, such as razors, files and knives which fell Sources: Sequezzi, “Estat,” 98; (WSA) Arab 36, p. 379, #608 (1640); Askar 84, p. 425, #650 (1690-1): 3,840 nis? figaa; Askar, vs 194, p. 330, #308 (1774): 1,890 nist. Prices i dollars have been adjusted to fluctuating exchange rates. Faul E. Lovejoy, “Interregional Monetary Flows," J. Afr. Hist., XV, 4% (1974), 566-9; see also Yusifu Bala Usman, "Some Aspects of the External Relations of Katsina before 180k," Savanna, I, 2 (1972), 175-97. 82 83 Jonnson, “Cowrie Currencies, Fart 1,” 21-2. ba Ibid, 276 85 wauny, Tableau gfograpnique, 370. Copper exports to Taker: Sequezzi, “Estat,” 98; Maillet, Description de. 1'Ezypte, 196%.23 6 wetals and hara- under the general rubric of guincaillerie.® ware do not appear in late eighteenth century accounts of the trade, and it.is possible that new sources were found or developed. Bornu and Hausaland, for example, may have begun to import copper from Dar Fir, although much of the copper in the latter country actually came from Egypt.©? Spices, herds, perfumes and condiments included soap, musk, attar of roses, jasmine, aloes wood, camphor, luban and gum mastic.°8 spikenard and mahaleb, so popular in Sinnar and Dar Fir as scents, medicines and condiments, were apparently not used in Takrir. Paper was also purchased by Takriri pilgrims in 1651.1t is not known if this was locally produced paper or imported from Europe. In the eighteenth century, most paper in Cairo was imported and paper re-exported to the interior usually carried the "three moon" watermark characteristic of Zuropean makes. ©? Books "in Zgyptian handwriting" (bi-khutt migri) were also ac- quired by TakrirIs, though they may not have been bought for 86 sequeazi, "Estat," Naillet, loc. cit. On Dar Fir exports to the west: Barth, Travels, II, 141; Charles Cuny, "Notice sur le Dar-Four et sur les caravanes qui se vendent de ce pays en Egypte, et vice-versa," Bull. Soc. géog. Paris, 4e serie, VIII (1654), 95. On Zgyptian exports to Dar For: W.G. Browne, Travels in Africa, "zypt and Syria, (London 1799), 302-3; Wohamed el-Tounsey, Voyage au Quadday, (Paris 1851), 3515 Antonio Figuri, Studii scientifici sul" Egitto @ sue adiacenza, 2 vols. (Lucca, 1664-5 > Il, Gb2. Lyon, Narrative, 159. 89 Browne, Travels, 303; Girard, *némoire," 2nd ed., XVII, 351 882 commercial purposes. 7° Blunderbusses, pistols, swords, daggers and powder are pisted by Lyon among Egyptian imports in Murzug in 1819. Though firearms were in use early in Bornu, there seems to be little firm evidence they or other arms and armaments came from Egypt before the nineteenth century. II. Merchants and Intermediaries Imposingly large caravans came to Cairo from Takrir in medieval days. They were organized for the hajj and were scheduled to arrive in the city in time to join the officially sponsored and state protected Egyptian pilgrimage caravan. Ordinary merchants mixed with pilgrims and an occasional important personage, and their arrival in the country was often noted ty local chroniclers. 22 In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, references to 9° (usa) arab, v. ML, p. 404, #534 (1061/1651). Cn the export of paper to Takrur: Sequezzi, “Estat,” 97; Venture de Para- dis, 1924 see also Barth, Travels, II, 135, 138. However, this has been suggested by A.D.H. Bivar, Nigerian Panoply: Arms and Armour of the Northern Region, (Department epee Mae quoted in fobert Smith, “A Note on Two Shirts of Chain’Mail in the Falace of Owo in South-western Nigeria," Cdo, No. 5 (1971), 95. Major supplies may have come from Libya: Humphrey J. Fisher and Virginia Rowland, “Firearms in the Central Sudan," J. Afr. Hist., XII, 2 (1971), 215-39. Sources: Jacques Jomier, Le mahmal et la caravane égyptienne des pélérins 2 la Mecque, Allie - Xixe siecle, (Cairo 1953), 77) Hu. Sartain, Jalal al-bin el-Suyuti, 2 vols. (Cambridge 1975), IT, 100; J Ibn Tyas, Journal d'un bourgeois du Caire, tr. Gaston Wiet, 2 vols. (Paris 1955-60), 1, 85, jeln 324, ot. 9225 fakrirl hajj caravans fall off sharply. Al-Ishaqi refers to one in anecdotal manner in 1619,7 but al-Jabarti, the best of the chroniclers, fails to mention a single caravan. Still, it is known from West African sources that a number of sovereigns performed the pilgrimage during these years, presumably travel- ling by ‘way of Cairo and presumably travelling in the company of a large band of pilgrims and merchants. ‘Ali b. ‘Umar, sultan of Bornu (1645-84) went on pilgrimage four times and during his second haji, was reportedly “received in Cairo with much pomp.** ‘Three eighteenth century successors, Dunama b. “AlT, Yamdtin b. Dunama and Muyammad b. Hamdiin also performed the hadi journeyed to Mecca: the son of Sultan Muhammad al. 95 ryom Air, half,a dozen sultans or sons of sultans Mubarak in 1674 and 168i; Muhammad b. ‘Is in 1691; Muhammad Agali in 1707; Muhammad al-Tafrij bd. al-Hajj Muhammad in 1709; Muhammad Hammad “Haddi" in 1722. A large party of Tuwariq from several confed- 93 tugammad ‘abd al-ifutt? al-Ishéql, Kit@b aknbar al-awwal, (Cairo 1315 AH), 169. “leauecn ne. 9* charles do la Roneigre, “Une histoire du Bornou au XVIIe sitcle par un Chirugien frangais captif & Tripoli," Revue de l'his- toire des colonies francaises, VII, 2 (1919), 80. It was he ino ts thought to have teen interviewed ty avliya Celebi, ‘the Turkish traveller, ca. 1670: Tomasz Habraszewski, “Kanuri- Language and People - in the Travel-book (Siyatetnane) of Evliya Celebi," Africana Bulletin, No. 6 (1967), 65. Urvoy, Histoire de l'empire du Bornou, (Paris 1949), 83: see also al-Nagar, 26-36, Two sons of the sultan of Bornv arrived in Cairo on pilgrimage in 1707: they were “most generous dur- ing their passage...." letter from de Maillet in C. Beccari, ed., Rerum Aethiopicarum Scriptores Occidentales, XIV (Rome 19th), See Se 9526 erations came through Gairo in 1768.9° ‘The passage of these caravans may be taken as corner-stones in Egyptian-Takrir rela- tions. The liberality of sultans was well-known, much of it pro- bably directed, however, toward Takrirl pilgrims and students studying at al-Azhar.?? one Bornu sultan in the seventeenth century is reported to have purchased houses in Cairo, Madina and Mecca “destined for lodgings by pilgrims from Bornu who make this Journey." Shops were also acquired in order to provide monthly funds to maintain the houses.2° tdividual pilgrims may also have made private arrangements to support members of their families passing through Egypt by depositing sums of money with local religious leaders.9? Most came with their own means of financing, carrying with them purses of gold and other saleable goods. Such private arrangements are particularly interesting, yet are the most difficult to uncover. Two early documents from 96 Urvey, “Chroniques d*Agades," 160-71. 97 ys paper discussing endowments of the rivdq al-Takirna_ is forthcoming. Kost of its money seems to have accrued from ». awaaf established by wealthy Egyptian emirs rather than by passing Sudanese monarchs. 98 t. Rerum Aethiopicarum, loc 99 Such a pattern, for instance, existed_in the nineteenth cen- tury. Hajj Hasen al-iaghribt al-Barnawi b. Ahmad Datud al- KanimI deposted 900 Spanish dollars with Shaikh hahmid “alaysh, father of Muhammad ‘Alaysn, chief Maliki shaikh at al-Azhar. Part of the sum was spent by three of his sons when they came through Egypt at a later date. ‘The remainder was turned_over to his heirs’ agent's agent, wali Musa Isma‘il al-Najbari in 1863: (MSA) I'lamat, v. 41, p. 40, #85 (7 Rabi® I 1280).27 the Mabkama archive yield some precious details. One, dated 1562, was registered by Hajj ‘All Abi Bakr al-Takrirl al-wanjari, placing the guardianship of his two sons in the hands of Muhammad Ibrahim al-Takrirl al-Wanjari. His property, care- fully listed in the document, consisted of 200 gold mithgals, five camels pastured at Kirdasa, and personal effects. He owed, the document continues, 60 gold dinars to a Muhammad al-ZanatT which he had borrowed earlier in the year while in Hijaz (i.e. on the hajj).10° A reluctance to take all their belongings on the arduous and often perilous trip from Cairo to Mecca is underscored in @ second document, registered by a party of Takriri pilgrims in 1651. In it they lay claim to property they had stored with the village shaikh of Manshiyat al-Bakari}®! perore their depart- ure. (He had died while they were on the pilgrimage and the Property had been confiscated by the local bait al-ml.) Hach of the pilgrims had left behind assorted quantities of gold, obviously meant to support them during the long journey. Hajj $Alib and Yajj Abii Mis& al-Takriri, for example, had 14 purses containing 361 mithqals between them: Fiqi ‘ali al-Takriri had three purses with 33 mithqals; Figi Hamadu and ‘atiya al-Takrirl stored two purses of 90 mithgals each as did Hajj “Agid al- 100 (usa) BA, ve 20, p. 25, #114 (12 Safar 970). 10L no resting place of the Takrirl hajj caravan mentioned by al-Ishaqi (see above).28 Takriri, and so fortht®? In addition, almost all the pilgrims had left other possessions: black tobes, gold chains, books, milbaf (large pieces of cloth worn about the shoulders),1°9 bags of pepper, or small scales.*% Stored also with the village shaikh were a load of alaja cloth, two loads of paper, two loads of yellow jukh (cloth) and 12 loads of On the basis of such documents, it would be safe to con- jecture that a good portion of the gold of Takrir materialized through private channels, a sort of early version of the tourist trade. Yet it is equally clear from other Mabkama documents that another part of the trade was handled independent of hajj caravans and hajj time-schedules. The data at hand suggests the major element in this "independent" commerce was provided by North Africans settled in Cairo. By and large, the main thrust of native Egyptian commercial activity-~at least in the eight- teenth century -- seems to have been directed toward Sinnar and Dar Fir than toward Pazzan, Hausaland, Bornu and further points west. In this activity, a key role was assumed by merchants from the oasis of Awjila. Located some three to five days' journey south of Benghazi, nine days west of Siwa oasis and thirty days 102 Altogether the pilgrims’ gold amounted to 1,463 mithqals, or ‘two-thirds the amount brought by "Naghribi" pilgrims in i799. 103 on milpat, al-Tinisi, TashyTah, 204; R. Dozy, Supplément eux dictionnaires arabes, 2 vols. (Leiden 1881), II, 527. 104 Used to weigh gold duct: Tho Travela of ifungo Fark, ed. Ronald Miller, Everyman Edition, (London 1954), 3 105 (rsa) Arab, v. 41, p. 404, #534 (25 Safar 1061).29 west of Cairo, Awjila is composed of three oases: Awjila itself, with a mixed Arab-Berber population (al-Awajil); Jali, inhabited by Majabra (sing. Majbari) Arabs; and al-Jikharra, a palm grove visited by nomadic Zawaya. 18 107 Contacts between Awjila and Sudan are very old,’ and the oasis" strategic position astride major caravan routes leading west and south from Egypt to the Maghrib, from the Libyan coast to the int- erior enabled its inhabitants to become early intermediaries in the trade between the Maghrib and bilad al-Takrir. When Hornemann arrived in Murguq in 1798 he found “the trade from Cairo is carried on by the merchants of Augila,"?°8 as no doubt it had been for several centuries. Their control of this route, incidentally, explains why some modern historians of Ottoman Egypt have claimed that gold brought from this quarter was actually mined in Awjila.09 There is still no satisfactory history of the oasis. (ne unsolved aspect relates to the position of the two major tribes of the oasis, the Awajil and Wajabra, in trans-Saharan trade. Before the nineteenth century, few sources, Arabic or European, 106 see the article “Awdjila” by J. Despois in Encylopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., I, 763. 107 whey wore among the legendary founders of Air: Palmer, Bornu, Sahara and Sudan, 55} are mentioned as early settlers in _ Walata and Timbuktu: ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Satdi, Tarikh al-Sudan, replay text and French trans. vy 0. Houdas, (Faris 1911), 21/36-7. 108 sovill, Missions, T, ‘99. 109 shaw, Financial and Administrative Creanization, 128, notes Raymond Se30 refer to Naj@bra as long-distance traders.1*° nonetheless, as the first Europeans reached the Hausa states and Bornu in the early nineteenth century, Majabra were found to be in Kano and aaa Kukuwa, sometimes in positions of great wealth, and when the road between Benghazi and Wadai opened up they were quick to dominate its trade.14? would such information suggest the Majabra had ousted the Awajil from their trading connections sometime in the eighteenth century? Hornemann describes how the inhabitants of the oases (the Majabra?) kept three houses: “one at Kardassi /Kirdasa/, near Cairo; one at Mojabra /Jali7, and a third at Zuila, or sometimes at Kourzouk."!43 phe station at Kirdisa, on the edge of the desert eight miles from Cairo, served as a convenient resting place for their caravans, but in Cairo they operated out of waka'il (sing. wakala) or caravanserais servicing North Africans from Tripoli, Tunis, and “the west." The Wakalat al-Bakir and Wakalat al-Fabhamin lodged them in the-eighteenth century; the Wakalat al-Sharaibl in the nineteenth. All were located in the Fabhamin quarter of the city favored by North African merchants.!1" 11014 wagkama documents all inhabitants of the oases are called si-tetit until the nineteenth century. 41lyovill, Missions, IIT, 386; Clapperton, Second Zxpedition, 169- 171. 112 auntie v-D Lebeuf, Les populations du Tchad (nord du 10e para~ ligle), Institut international africain, (Faris 1959), Eis Robert Capot-Rey, Borkou et Cunianga, étude de géozraphie re- gionale, Institut de recherches sahariennes, (Alger 1961), 90. 113 Bovill, Missions, I, 82. 114 Raymond, Artisans, 474-5; tall Kubarak, Khitat al-tawfiqiya, 20 vols. (Cairo, new ed., 1970-), III, 173; ¥.B. Jennings Bramley, “Tales of the Wadai Slave Prade in the Nineties31 This small point underlines the fairly clear-cut separation in Egypt's African trade since the great caravans of Sinnar and Dar Fur were lodged at Wakalat al-Jallaba and adjacent buildings, near the Khan al-Khali1i market complex.!45 Several eighteenth century inventories of Awjila mer- chants indicate the scope and interests of their trade. Hajj ‘Abd al-Rabman Ahmad Damaya al-Awjili and Hajj ‘Isa “al-gaysi~ “Umar al-AwjilI, among them, dealt in coffee and Sudan goods. Hajj ‘Isa's property also included an unspecified amount of gold dust, unusual among ordinary Egyptian merchants, of which 212 mithgals had been given him by the gagI of Awjila!!® the inventory of another merchant -- styled tajir fir-ragig/merchant in slaves in the document -- was drawn up in the presence of 17 individuals from Awjila, excluding a son and grand-nephew who had accom- panied him from the oasis before he died. Muammad }usain's inventory is a neat representation of the Awjila-Wurzuq-Takrir trade on the individual level at this time. It listed: 3 slave girls 10,000 beads (unidentified) 5 baskets of beads (430,000 in number) 32 pieces of “Shalabi® cloth 2b pieces of “Nabarawi" cloth 123 pieces of “Kati” or “Wati" cloth Sudan Notes and Records, XXIII (1940), 170. 115 Weis, “The Trade between Egypt and bilad a: 15-7; “Wakalat el-dallaba, the central market for African goods," forthcoming in Annales isiamologiques. 16 (sa) Askar, ys 143, pe 257, #303 (1149/1736)s Asker, ve 144, pe 288, #416 (1149/1737).32 8 pieces of soa 3 shirts (gamis - 3 skullcaps of broadcloth, made at Mahallat al-Kubra 5 pair of walking slippers (baboosh). He had, moreover, a variety of stuffs in single pieces, strands of green and other beads, leather pieces, a dagger, @ sword and a gun, various articles of clothing (binishes, inrams), and personal belongings. Muhammad's estate, excluding debts, was valued at 984 dollars, about average for estates of Egyptian merchants in the African trade.!17 One of the North African merchants attending the estate procedures of Hajj ‘Abd al-Rahman and Hajj ‘Isa in 1736-7 had been “Abd Allah ‘Abd al-Rahman al-GhariyanI. As the nisba de~ notes, he originally came from Ghariyan, near Tripoli, and from other Mabkama documents he is seen to have been intimately in- volved in trade with bilAd al-Takrur. A brother, Hajj Muhammad, had travelled to Timbuktu in 1715, leaving a family settled in Cairo, le died there ca. 1722, and ‘Abd Allah journeyed across the Sahara to settle the estate. The settlement was officially registered in Cairo in 1724 and must be considered one of the more curious documents in the Mabkama archive. It is calculated entirely in terms of mithgals and salt. According to this document, Hajj Muhammad's property in Timbuktu consisted of a number of promissory notes, amanat or 417 (usa) Askar,.v. 188, of estates, see Walz, " 132-40 and Table 7. 3, #6 (1186/1272). For a discussion_ rade between Egypt and bilad as-Sudan,"33 dhimam, expressed in terms of “value of salt" in unspecified quantities and tabulated in gold mithqals. He had notes “for the value of salt" from “Uthmin al-Jabbari for 1,500 mithqals, from Yabib Jastis for 900 mithgals, from Hajj ‘Arabi for 267, from al-Sayyid Hashim, an associate, for 1,000, from Yajj Muhammad al-Ghadimsi for 340, and others, altogether amounting to 6,725 mithgals. Some of the debts had been paid to Mupanmad's agent in Timbuktu (or Tripoli), Ahmad Shatban al-Ghariyani, but others, including the sale of four camels (for 40 mithgals) and two loads of salt (at 5 mithgals each) had to be collected by “Abd Allah while he stayed in Timbuktu. To Tripoli and Cairo, Hajj ijupammad had periodically dis- patched goods, including slaves, by various agents.*18 They went to pay for expenses of his children in Egypt (990 mithqals during nine years of his absence) and probably for trade items purchased by his agents while in North Africa. To settle the estate, ‘Abd Allah spent 2,272 mithgals for travel expenses -- evidence that the journey between Cairo and Timbuktu was a costly undertaking, This sum did not include an additional 333 mithgals paid by him to"the Agades state" (lil-aawlat bi-napiyat Aghadidh), amounting to less than a tenth of the gold he transported from Timbuktu to Cairo, Despite these expenditures and various debts, jj Mukammad left an estate 118 nwo of whom bore nisab indicating an origin at Awjila and Sukma. a34 worth 7,103 mithgals, a small fortune by contemporary standards in Cairo.1+9 Other North African merchants in Cairo maintained links with the central Sudan and it seems more than likely that it was under their aegis that Egyptian-Takruri trade generally operated. One sees: the importance of some ties in often minor inventory notations. Hajj ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Maghribi “al-Sarsuri", for example, received two slave girls from the “sultan of Fazzan" who had sent them as a gift (‘ala sabi] al-hadaya). In return, Hajj ‘Abd al-Qadir sent him a collection of batina, ipram and alaja clotns.12° Had he been acting as the sultan's agent in Cairo? Or there is the inventory of ‘Umar ‘Abd al-Da'im al- Waghribi “al-‘araibiv who lived in the aristocratic Cairene quar- ter of Azbaqiya while dealing in coffee, soap, tamarind, ivory, ebony, Asyuti cloth, French satins, and beads -- lemon green, black, white and red are listed in the inventory.+?4 Summary It is apparent that Egypt's trade with bilad al-Takrur, or those countries of western Africa from the Niger Bend to Bornu, 119 (tsa) Dasht, vs 23/, p. 613 (1136/1724). In terms of constant money, this would have amounted to 745,815 nigf fidda (1 mith- qal = 105 nisf). Raymond considered an estate of 200,000 nisf the dividing line between "great merchants" and lesser ones, A) Dasht,V . 223, p. 161 (1120/1709) » Askar, v. 102, p. 516, #720 (1124/1712). 120 12135 survived in surprisingly strong shape up to the early decades of the eighteenth century. As far as the sources indicate, it seems not to have achieved the volume of traffic that character- ized its medieval heyday. That it did not may be due to a. number of economic developments in Egypt and western Africa. The shift away from a gold standard (and toward a silver cur- rency and even a currency based on European coin) made it per- haps less important for Takriris to bring gold to pay for the pilgrimage expenses. Nor could slaves be used as a substitute for gold since at this time a steady and sure supply of blacks was being furnished by Dar Pir. Moreover, this country could be depended upon to supply other staples of the African trade -- ivory, feathers, gum, leather -- which may once have come from Takrir. Finally, the route to Dar Fur was shorter and being virtually free of brigands, was sefer and cheaper. In western Africa, the opening up of lines of trade from interior states to the Guinea coast meant that cowries and Zuropean and Indian textiles, copper and beads could be supplied by ocean routes. The settlement of North African merchants in major market centers in central Sudan, many of them from Tripoli and Ghadamis, reen- forced old commercial links with North Africa but tied them more closely to Tripoli than with more distant Cairo. None of these adjustments of sources and supply, however, brought an end to Egyptian-Takrur trade, as travellers’ accounts in the nineteenth century testify, but they did undermine the necessity of the trade, transmuting it into a simple exchange of luxuries.