Wilkins|143with the law, this day the Fourth of Shawwal in the Year 961 of the Hijra
[September 2, 1556].In this context, Ibn al-Hanbali’s notice may be seen as a cautionary tale to mer-
chants who violated established norms in a slave-owning society. Whether free
or unfree, these agents witnessed loan transactions and consented to the terms of
the contract, including not only the value of the loan and a schedule of repayment
but also the pledging of collateral and financial guarantees should the borrower
default.
The types of loans that al-Qaramani extended to others can be divided into
three general categories: (1) sales of goods on credit, (2) salam (adva nce pu rcha se)
contracts, and (3) cash loans, which may or may not have involved interest. By far
the greatest number of loans (twenty) consisted of sales of goods on credit, and
on average they tended to be of greater monetary value than any other category. It
is clear from these documents that a substantial if not preponderant component
of al-Qaramani’s business activities was wholesale marketing—namely, the sell-
ing of bulk quantities to retail vendors either on credit or on consignment.
What is equally interesting is the kind of goods being marketed. Of the
twenty sales on credit transactions, thirteen involve the material named shāshāt,
a plural Arabic noun probably referring to a fabric akin to muslin but made of
either cotton, silk, or linen. The English word “sash ” is said to have been derived
from this Arabic usage. Typical, then, was the loan that the Muslim merchant
Saydi Ahmad ibn al-Khawāja Jaɇfar, known as Ibn Farshan, took from al-
Qaramani in 1554. The loan was for 600 sultanis, a substantial sum, the value of
muslin that Ibn Farshan had purchased and received from al-Qaramani. To be
repaid in six months, the loan was guaranteed by Ibn Farshan’s mother and adult
son and secured with the collateral of his house in Aleppo. Where the great vol-
ume of muslin fabric was woven cannot be said with certainty, but it may well have
been a mix of different locations, whether Syria, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, or
South Asia. One unique document specifies “shāshāt qandahāriyya,” suggesting
the muslin was imported from the city of Qandahar in southern Afghanistan.
Al-Qaramani sold a variety of other goods on credit but in many fewer
transactions. Among the textiles he sold were raw wool and silk and finished
products such as broadcloth (jukh), satin (kamha), and velvet (qatifa). Also no-
table were sales of indigo, spices (pepper), leather, and combs, the last presumably
for carding wool and cotton. That al-Qaramani sold muslins and other com-
modities on credit and not outright suggests the economic power he wielded.
Because many retail vendors, both shopkeepers and peddlers, were indebted to
him, he exercised a general influence on the price and availability of these goods
on the market. The relative dearth of silk found in the loan transactions made
by al-Qaramani may have resulted from the continuing vitality in this period of