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prise an Arab clan living alongside the Persian Some of the merchants made more pious use of
merchant community in the port of Siraf, the their fortunes, like Ramisht of Siraf who devoted a
tune of this sea captain (na-khuda) is described by ■
largest port in the Gulf during the 9th century part of his goods as a religious donation. The for­
A.D.
At the beginning of the 10th century the Arab the anonymous author who continued the Ibn
geographer Mas'udi underlines this same link bet­ Hauqal chronicle : n
ween the merchants of Sohar and the merchants of RTimisht has four servants, each of whom is said to
Siraf: be richer than his son Musa. I have met Ali al-Nili,
from the countryside of al-Hilla (in Iraq),
the captains of Oman cross this Gulf to go to the Rnmisht’s clerk, and he told me that when he
island of Kanbalu (Zanzibar). The men of Siraf came back from China twenty years before, his Ii
make the same crossing, and I myself have sailed merchandise was worth half a million dinars; if
on this sea, setting out from Sohar, the capital of that is the wealth of his clerk, what will he himself
Oman, in company with several merchants of be worth ? M
Siraf. My last voyage from Kanbalu to Oman was
in the year 304 (Hijra). I was aboard a boat Indeed the ships of Ramisht are mentioned many
belonging to Ahmad and ‘Abd al-Samad, the times in the letters of the jewish merchants from
brothers of ‘Abd al-Rahim b. Dja ‘far al Sirafi. Egypt who traded with India. But it is mainly as a II
These two men were ultimately lost at sea without patron that Ramisht is known. Ibn al-Athir wrote
trace. in AH 532/A.D. 1137-8 :
in this year, the cover of the Ka‘ba was torn in the
Rather luckier was another merchant of Siraf course of dissension... Ramisht, the merchant U
described by Istakhri : from Fars, undertook to provide a new cover. He
used for it the most precious material he could lay
the men of Siraf and surrounding coast travel so his hands on, so that it cost him 18,000 Egyptian
much that it happens that some of them stay away dinars.
on the sea all their lives. I was told of a man of Siraf
who was so accustomed to the sea that for nearly Ramisht was also known in Mecca as the founder
40 years he did not leave his ship. When he came of a ribat, a hospice for Sufis, the inscription of
to land he sent his associates ashore to look after which was :
his business in all the towns, and he crossed over this is what has been given as a waqf... by the
from his boat to another, when the vessel was eminent elder, elder of Islam, the refuge of the
damaged and needed to be repaired. two sanctuaries, the pride of the two communities,
Abu'l Qasim Ramisht... in favour of all male sufis,
When they had the good fortune to escape from excluding females, who wear the patched gar­
the dangers that constantly menaced their lives ment, from the whole of ‘Iraq, as well as other
and their cargoes — shipwreck, plunder, acciden­ pilgrims and inhabitants of the holy city.
tal fires in the warehouses — these merchants
made considerable profits, and their fortunes Ramisht died in AH 534/A.D. 1140. Three years
astounded the imagination of their contem­ thereafter, his servant Mithqal carried the coffin of
poraries. Ibn Haugal painted a picture of Ahmad his master to Mecca in order to bury him there. He
ibn ‘Umar al Sirafi, whom he met in Basra around also brought as a posthumous gift, a fountain of
AH 350/A.D. 961 : gold for the sanctuary. At that time, in the 12th
century A.D., Siraf lost the pre-eminent role, that
this man. prouder than a prince, possessed a con­ '
it had formerly enjoyed, and even though Ramisht
siderable fortune; a manager handled his business was originally from Siraf, it was in Arabia that he
affairs; he had contacts with partners and agents established his foundations in Aden and in Mecca. i
far away; his warehouses were overflowing with
spices, precious stones and perfumes; his vessels
sailed for India and China, as well as the coast of The decline of Siraf benefited the ports of Qais
Zanzibar. and Hormuz in the south of the Gulf. From Hor­
muz a certain Hasan ibn al-Abbas, a contemporary
The houses of Siraf attest to the opulence of these of Ramisht, sent his trading vessels to India and
men; constructed from valuable timber that the China. But it was, above all, the island of Qais that
sailors had brought back from India or East Africa, took on the leading role in the great trade. In the
they dominated the town with their multiple 13th century, Saadi met there a merchant who had
stories. One such building cost its owner the 150 camel loads of wares together with 40 slaves
and servants. He confided to him :
unheard-of sum of 30,000 dinars.

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