Page 101 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

Foreign Interventions and Occupations of Kamaran I. 91

The Red Sea as a major international sea-way: 9th- 13th
centuries
After Yemen had broken away from the central authority the
volume of maritime trade in the Red Sea gradually increased and it
would be unreasonable to suppose that shipping did not take on
supplies at Kamaran. In the ninth century Jewish merchants of
Cairo carried on a trade between Western Europe, Byzantium and
the Far East via the Red Sea. It was not, however, till the following
century that Cairo superseded Basra and Baghdad as the principal
centre for the East-West trade which increased the importance not
only of Egypt but also of the Arabian ports. In the tenth century,
al-Kindl described Egypt as the emporium for Mecca, Medina,
$an‘a\ TJman, India, Ceylon and China.7 Goods arriving at Cairo
from the East (such as pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, perfumes,
gums, frankincense, dyeing, tanning and varnishing materials,
pearls and gems) were re-exported to the European markets.8 From
the twelfth century, the Karimls of Aden, with the support of
Saladin, dominated the East-West trade.9 The Ayyubids
encouraged Yemeni trade more than any other dynasty before
them and Kamaran must surely have had a role in the Ayyubid
reorganization of Yemeni ports. The Yemeni Ayyubids built
splendid funduqs and qay$ariyyahs for their merchants. In Cairo,
Saladin’s nephew Taqlyy al-Dln ‘Umar built the famous funduq
for Kariml merchants: this was soon followed by similar funduqs
on the main trade routes between India and the Mediterranean at
Alexandria, Qu$, Aden, Ta‘izz, Ghalafiqah, Blr al-Rubahiyyah,
Mecca, Medina and Jeddah.10 Funduqs were established for other
Yemeni merchants at Alexandria, where they could trade with the
major European trading powers—Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Barcelona
and Marseilles.11 So great was the desire to increase the already
vast trade between East and West that emissaries were despatched
to Yemen and Egypt bringing gifts from the Emperors of China
and Ethiopia and from the Indian princes.12
This impetus to the expansion of Yemeni trade ended when the
Rasulids attempted to occupy the Hejaz, an action accompanied
by the ‘maltreatment and exploitation of merchants who put in’ at
Yemeni ports while trading between the Red Sea and the Indian
Ocean.13 Another event occurred in 1283 which spelt the end of
Yemeni predominance in the Red Sea trade. That year a Sinhalese
trade mission reached Cairo and spoke of a Yemeni delegation
which had suggested that a pact be concluded between Yemen and
Ceylon: the Sinhalese preferred to strengthen their commercial ties
with Egypt. Egyptian trade domination then followed with the