Medicine Dietetics and Pharmacology - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 261

and rural markets, which are often evoked
but of which virtually nothing is known.
A systematic analysis of texts of all kinds
would perhaps facilitate a more accurate
identification of the places where differ-
ent types of commercial transaction were
concluded.
Reference has been made above to a
list of the revenues of different sales loca-
tions in Tunis in the 14th century cited
by Brunschvig: it emphasises the meagre
revenue of sū s as such in comparison
with the receipts earned by markets in
public places and by fundu s. But a more
precise analysis of commercial activities
as a whole and of the sū as a physical
commercial site often remains unattain-
able, in the absence of effective archives.
Reference may be made for example to
a judicial review conducted by a wazīr
āib al-akām wa 'l-sū of Cordova who,
in 458/1066, intervened in a transaction
involving a company consisting of two
brothers, one based in Cordova and the
other in Fez, who were in dispute with
a third party to whom they had for-
warded a number of dīnārs as payment
for the manufacture on their behalf of
ten pieces of silk, apparently for export.
This would seem to contradict the notion
expressed above that long-distance trade
was immune from the jurisdiction of the
āib al-sū , but this is only one particular
case among many others which should be
cited.

by Arab troops as early as the caliphate
of Abū Bakr. Following the Arab con-
quest of Irā, the founders of the garrison
towns of Bara and ūfa designated an
open space close to the mosque for use as
a market. In this they were emulating the
Prophet Muammad who had designated
an open space in Medina for a similar
use. A distinctive method in the organisa-
tion of markets began to emerge in the
new Islamic cities of Wāsi, Ba ∞ dād and
Sāmarrā during the late Umayyad and
early Abbāsid periods. Evidence from the
Abbāsid period suggests that there were
often a series of markets ( aswā ) adjacent
to each other and separated only by roads
and streets. Outside the central market in
Ba ∞ dād and Sāmarrā, other markets
were created for local residents and there
were also a number of smaller markets
known by the diminutive suwaya .
Markets, according to al- · ayzarī
(d. 589/1193), author of the earliest isba
manual, should be as spacious and wide
as possible (like the Roman market), and
every kind of craft or profession ( ana )
represented in it should be allocated
its own market ( sū ). The reference to
separate space for each product sold or
manufactured probably implies a series of
markets or a row of shops and workshops
producing and selling similar goods. Thus
al- · ayzarī recommends that a market
should allocate space to a concentration
of shops selling the same product. The
shops were arranged in a linear fash-
ion along roads, streets and lanes. The
author further recommends that traders
who used fire in the preparation of their
products, such as bakers ( ¶ abbāūn ), cooks
( abbā ¶ ūn ) and blacksmiths ( addādūn )
should for safety reasons have their shops
at some distance from others, for instance,
perfumers ( aārūn ) and cloth merchants
( bazzāzūn ). A similar market layout was
endorsed by Ibn Bassām al-Mutasib.

(P. Guichard)

3. In mediaeval Irq_
Before the Arab conquest of Irā
there were markets frequented by Arabs
in ancient cities, such as al-īra and
al-Madāin. There was also a so-called “sū
Ba ∞ dād” on the west bank of the Tigris,
where a monthly market was held during
the Sāsānid period. The latter was raided