300 chapter seven
increase the interaction between Muslims in the East and Non-
Muslims, mainly Christians, in the West. On the commercial side,
one of the effects of the Crusades was the establishment of new
organised commercial communities in the ports of the Levant. Italian
merchants, for example, formed organised communities subject to
their chiefs and governed by their own laws (Lewis, op. cit.) Notably,
the recapture of these ports by Muslim did not seem to have revoked
these foreign communities or put an end to their commercial activ-
ities. On the contrary, Muslim rulers were careful not to discourage
this trade, which was advantageous to them as well as to those
involved in trade (ibid.) This encouraged the appearance of other
European communities in other parts of the Mediterranean ports
such as Alexandria in Egypt.
Their residence was organised through bilateral treaties between
governments. Numerous agreements, that became known later as
capitulations, were concluded between European states and Turkey,
Egypt and other Muslim Mediterranean countries authorising the
citizens of the state to trade and reside in the other country with-
out being subject to the disabilities imposed on non-trading subjects
(Lewis, op. cit.). The first of these agreements was concluded in 1521
between Sulyman the Magnificent and the Venetians. In 1535 the
French were granted their capitulations and the English followed suit
in 1580. This encouraged trade and helped European commerce to
flourish and expand. The side effect of these capitulations, however,
became obvious when European communities grew significantly in
influence and power, while the political power of the host state was
in decline. When commercial disputes arose between European and
local traders, European traders demanded, and were granted, exemp-
tions from the rulings of local laws, in preference to their own laws.
The application of foreign laws in their homeland was no doubt
confusing to local traders who did not know the foreign law, which
put them at a disadvantage in relation to their foreign counterparts.
The legal complications led eventually to the establishment of what
became known as Mixed-Courts; with yet further complications added
to the judicial system. Interestingly, some of these courts still functioned
until the late twentieth century when it was only abolished as part
of the growing concern with national independence and some court
buildings in Alexandria Egypt are still displaying the engraved stone,
“The Mixed Court”.
The lesson was later to be learned. When the host country is strong,