Page 68 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

54 Historical Review

ship arriving for the purpose of redeeming captives. Al-Muqaddas¯ı has given us a
detailed description of this procedure. To be sure, Caesarea is not included among
the list of these riba¯.ta¯t, but it was surrounded by a wall, as he attests, and was
located on the maritime frontier.

Even though Caesarea was not known as a center of Islamic studies, living or
teaching there were a number of religious scholars – culama – whose names are
mentioned in sources referring to the Tulunid, Ikhshidid, and Fatimid periods. One
of them was Ibn al-Qaysarani, a native of Acre (1085/6) who grew up in Caesarea
and later moved to Damascus and from there to Aleppo, where he was in charge of
the local library. He was one of the important Syrian poets of his time.

Under the Fatimids, the leaders of the fortified city were a local ruler (amir) who
had available garrison forces and a qadi, who was the religious authority. Alongside
the Muslims was also a small Christian population, as well as a Samaritan and a Jewish
community, which were mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela later, in 1162/3. The
Cairo Geniza provides interesting information about the Jewish community, as well
as mentioning the names of two of the Fatimid governors of Caesarea and its district.

The earliest document containing such information stems from 1025, and
the latest, from 1098, a year before the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem. In them
Caesarea is sometimes called H. as.or or H. as.ariya – the result of a mispronunciation in
Arabic, Shezar. From the documents we learn of a synagogue in Caesarea and about
the communal leaders. Jaffa served as the main harbor of Ramle and Jerusalem,
but it was possible to disembark at Caesarea as well. This was the fate of a Jewish
merchant named Yacqu¯b (Jacob) ben Salman al-H. ariri (a silk merchant) on a ship
that left Tripoli for Jaffa and was stuck for four days in the sea opposite Caesarea
with broken rudders. The merchant and his merchandise were hastily taken off
the ship and for five days he was forced to stay in the local synagogue until he
continued on to Ramle with his wares (Gil, doc. 507, c. 1070).

The types of wares and food in which trade was conducted in the triangle
Phoenicia–Palestine–Egypt were silk and cotton textiles, wheat, raisins, and figs.
In document 460 (in Gil’s volume of documents), dated June 1053, a merchant is
mentioned by the name of Tzedaka ha-Qaysrani, that is, a person from Caesarea,
who lived there and was apparently an agent linked to commercial dealings between
Jerusalem and Fustat.

A rather large finding of pork bones from the Muslim era is likely to indicate
that a large Christian population still lived in the city. Written sources provide
some information about the fate of the Christian community. The story of the 70
martyrs from Iconium (Konya) in Asia Minor – young pilgrims who sought to make
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem without permission – occurred during the time of the
Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717–741). They were caught by the Arab
governor of Caesarea and accused of spying. All were executed except for seven
who agreed to convert to Islam. In the days of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma’amun
(813–833), the situation of the Christians improved. During the ninth century and
in the first quarter of the tenth, until October–November 923, we do not hear
about persecution. That year there were riots and incidents of robbery against the