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Medieval Alexandria – Life in a Port City

Miriam Frenkel
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To cite this article: Miriam Frenkel (2014) Medieval Alexandria – Life in a Port City, Al-Masaq:
Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean, 26:1, 5-35, DOI: 10.1080/09503110.2014.877194
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Al-Masāq, 2014
Vol. 26, No. 1, 5–35, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2014.877194
Medieval Alexandria – Life in a Port City
MIRIAM FRENKEL
ABSTRACT The article presents an overview description of medieval Alexandria, based on

the integration of archaeological finds, Muslim historiography, and medieval travelogues,

with Geniza documents. It begins with a short outline of Alexandria’s geographical
location, then provides a depiction of its environs and its infrastructure, especially
emphasising the water system and the port. The description then moves from the city’s
outer circle to its inner areas and discusses the various quarters and neighbourhoods, the
commercial centres, and the industrial zones, finally focusing on the buildings, both public
and private. It concludes with a short discussion of the way in which Alexandria was
viewed by local Muslims and by European visitors. On the basis of this overall description,
it is suggested that we should perceive medieval Alexandria in terms of a gateway city that
underwent significant reorientation but succeeded in retaining its special status as such.
Keywords: Local history / Eastern Mediterranean; Alexandria, El Iskanderîya,
Egypt; Cairo, El Qâhira, Egypt – Genizah documents; Egypt – towns; Ports – in
Egypt; Towns – in Egypt; Fātimid caliphate – trade; Ayyūbid sultanate – trade
After being told by the oracle of Zeus Amon that he would rule the whole world, and
after being crowned by the oracle of Memphis as the new Pharaoh, Alexander the
Great arrived from the Libyan desert at the small village of Rhakotis. It was at this
specific location, where the Canopic branch of the Nile meets the southern shores
of the Mediterranean, that he decided to build his new capital, which was destined
to become the centre of the world, and which would immortalise his name.
It seems that a city like Alexandria, which was initially constructed to become the
centre and capital of the world, is doomed to be discussed in terms of deterioration,
decline and decadence. Indeed, most of the literary and academic discourse con-
cerning Alexandria is engaged with the question of its glorious past versus its histori-
cal decline. This is particularly true of the meagre academic research on the medieval
city. The earliest modern scholars to attempt writing a comprehensive history of
medieval Alexandria were the Egyptian scholars ʿAbd al-ʿAzı̄z Sālim and Jamāl al-
Dı̄n al-Shayyāl, who wrote in the 1960s.1 They succeeded in composing a
Correspondence: Miriam Frenkel, Department for Jewish History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount
Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. E-mail: [email protected]
1
Jamāl al-Dı̄n al-Shayyāl, Taʾrı̄kh madı̄nat al-Iskandariyya fı̄ ʿasr al-Islām (Alexandria: Matba’at Madrasat
˙
Dūn Būskū, 1967); ʿAbd al-ʿAzı̄z Sālim,Taʾrı̄kh madı̄nat al-Iskandariyya wa-hadarātihā fi al-ʿasr al-Islāmı̄,
˙ ˙ ˙
2nd edition (Cairo: Markaz al-Kitāb li-l-Nashr, 1969).
© 2014 Society for the Medieval Mediterranean

6 Miriam Frenkel
spectacular history of medieval Alexandria based mainly on medieval Islamic chron-

icles, but as they both explicitly demonstrated, their works, which depict medieval
Alexandria as a central city of much importance and glory, actually aimed at refuting
its reputation as a declining city, which they felt was undeserved. Abraham Udo-
vitch, in a groundbreaking article written about twenty years later, tried to give a
more balanced portrait of the subject, using the formerly unknown documents of
the Cairo Geniza.2 In this article, which was later complemented by a few more,3
Udovitch, following the preliminary remarks suggested by S.D. Goitein in the first
volumes of his magnum opus on the Geniza society, showed that Alexandria in the
High Middle Ages was secondary in importance to Fustāt-Cairo, which was not
˙ ˙
only the administrative and military capital, but also functioned as the emporium
4
of the whole region. It was in Fustāt-Cairo that merchandise from all parts of the
˙ ˙
world was amassed, stored and redistributed, while Alexandria remained only a geo-
graphical point of entry and departure with limited markets, totally dependent on the
inland capital. Udovitch went on to show that, since Alexandria still retained its basic
geographical advantages as a maritime port city, it actually functioned as a distant
neighbourhood of Fustāt, with a “community of information on a wide range of
economic, commercial and financial matters” operating between the two cities
and “making the commercial distance between Alexandria and Fustat significantly
smaller than the geographical distance”.5 The thesis proposed by Udovitch in his
articles is the only scholarly attempt that has so far been made to provide an intelli-
gible characterisation of Alexandria’s historical development in the High Middle
Ages and his wide and sophisticated use of Geniza letters establishes them as critical
sources for this task.6 Nevertheless, Udovitch’s important insights await further
elaboration and grounding.
In 1998, following a short conference at the Institut Français d’Archéologie
Orientale, a volume of short articles entitled Alexandrie médiévale 1 and dedicated
to late-antique and medieval Alexandria was published, to be followed later by
three more volumes on the same subjects.7 This scholarly series, with its highly pro-
fessional studies, constitutes a significant contribution to research on medieval Alex-
andria. Nevertheless, its articles naturally concern specific and isolated aspects of the
city, together forming an important conservatoire d’informations, as it is put by the
2
Abraham Udovitch, “A Tale of Two Cities”, in The Medieval City, ed. David Herlihy, Harry
A. Mishkimin, and Abraham L. Udovitch (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977), pp. 144–8.
3
Abraham Udovitch, “Medieval Alexandria: Some Evidence from the Cairo Genizah Documents”, in
Alexandria and Alexandrianism: Papers Delivered at a Symposium Organized by the Paul Getty Museum and
the Getty Center for History of Art and the Humanities and Held at the Museum, April 22–25, 1993
(Malibu: Getty Museum, 1996), pp. 273–83; idem, “Alexandria in the 11th and 12th Centuries –
Letters and Documents of the Cairo Geniza Merchants: An Interim Balance Sheet”, in Alexandrie médié-
vale, ed. Jean-Yves Empereur and Christian Décobert, volumes I–IV (Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéo-
logie Orientale, 1998–2008), II (2002): 99–112.
4
S.D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Docu-
ments of the Cairo Geniza, volumes I–V (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press,
1967–1988), esp. vol. I.
5
Udovitch, “Medieval Alexandria”, 282.
6
The Cairo Geniza is a repository of discarded writings found at the Ben Ezra synagogue in Fustāt. It con-
˙ ˙
tains religious writings as well as secular documents, most of them in Judaeo-Arabic and largely dating
from the third/tenth to sixth/thirteenth centuries. They offer an authentic unmediated source for medieval
Egyptian life. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, I: 1–28.
7
Alexandrie médiévale, ed. Jean-Yves Empereur and Christian Décobert, volumes I–IV (Cairo: Institut
Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1998–2008).
Medieval Alexandria 7
editors in the introduction to the first volume.8 Although most of them are new and
original studies that significantly enhance our knowledge and understanding of med-
ieval Alexandria, we still lack an overview of its history within a theoretical model,
like that proposed by Udovitch. Moreover, most of the articles in this series are con-
cerned, in one way or another, with the status of Alexandria as central or peripheral,
as explicitly admitted by Christian Décobert in his introductory article: “Les exposés
qui traitent d’Alexandrie médiévale, explicitement ou non, tournent autour de la
question de la situation d’Alexandrie comme pôle, ou comme marge, en Égypte,
et de la question corollaire mais inévitable de la décadence de la ville”.9 In my
own book on the Jewish community of medieval Alexandria, I dedicated an intro-
ductory chapter to the history and topography of the city, based on various
sources including Geniza documents. However, I consider this chapter to be still
preliminary and partial, albeit the present article relies on it in many aspects.10
It seems, then, that further studies on Alexandria in the High Middle Ages are
most desirable. Port cities all over the world are a widely-studied subject that is fruit-
ful and significant. Medieval Alexandria certainly deserves a comprehensive mono-
graph of its own, released from the constricting discourse of glory and decadence
and free of the compelling rhythm of high and low water. The High Middle Ages,
the fifth/eleventh–sixth/twelfth centuries, were a period of intensive global trade,
in which the Mediterranean basin played a major role. From the middle of the
fifth/eleventh century, the commercial centre of gravity moved towards the eastern
shores of the Mediterranean, in which Alexandria was the sole significant port.11
About a century later, Alexandria also became the pivot of the caravan route from
Africa, which passed through both Sijilmāsa, on the edge of the Sahara desert,
and Qayrawān.12 Alexandria was also an important station on the trade route with
India, as becomes increasingly evident with the gradual publication of volumes of
the India Book.13 Alexandria in the High Middle Ages appears to have been, then,
a meeting point of people, merchandise and information from all over the Mediter-
ranean and beyond.
Finally, as was so convincingly shown by Udovitch, Alexandria in the fifth/ele-
venth–sixth/twelfth centuries was deeply integrated in the land of Egypt and
“moved definitely from being by Egypt (ad Aegyptum) to being permanently in
and of Egypt”.14 As such, Alexandria assumed additional importance as a major
link between Egypt’s hinterland and the sea. Its unique geographical position, situ-
ated on a central branch of the Nile, which was Egypt’s main transportation route,
and on the Mediterranean shore, makes study of the city promising, not only in
relation to global routes and trade, but also in relation to the history of Egypt itself.
8
Ibid., I: vii.
9
Ibid., 5.
10
Miriam Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent: The Leading Elite in the Jewish Community of Alex-
andria in the Middle Ages (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2006; in Hebrew), pp. 28–44.
11
R.S. Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1976); S.D. Goitein, “Medieval Tunisia, the Hub of the Mediterranean”, in idem, Studies in Islamic
History and Institutions (Leiden: Brill, 1966), pp. 308–28; idem, Mediterranean Society, I: 32–3.
12
Goitein, Mediterranean Society, I: 279.
13
S.D. Goitein and Mordechai A. Friedman, India Traders of the Middle Ages: Documents From the Cairo
Geniza “India Book” (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 9–10.
14
8 Miriam Frenkel
Thus, Alexandria in the Middle Ages was a significant place in global and local
terms and, as such, deserves a study of its own, regardless of its illustrious past. An
extensive study, of the sort done by Roxani Margariti in her comprehensive source-
based book on Aden in the same period, is certainly a desideratum.15 Margariti exam-
ines geographical and ecological factors alongside human-made urban infrastructures
and institutions to reveal Aden’s unique character as a seaport on the Indian Ocean. A
monograph of this nature on Alexandria, based on a variety of sources including the
valuable Geniza documents, which would consider the geographical, ecological, topo-
graphical, economic, cultural and historical forces that shaped this Mediterranean
port city and gave it its unique character, is certainly required. Such a study is of
course beyond the scope of this article. What I would like to provide for the time
being is an overview of medieval Alexandria, based on the integration of archaeologi-
cal finds, Muslim historiography, and medieval travelogues, with Geniza documents.
While archaeological finds and Muslim historiography provide us with crucial infor-
mation regarding the city’s construction and edifices, it is mainly the Geniza docu-
ments that can turn a cartographic sketch into a vivid scene set in a dynamic city
and enable us to see the city through the eyes of its inhabitants.
A few words about the validity of using Jewish documentary material for the
reconstruction of an Islamic port city seem to be in place here. It should be remem-
bered that, under medieval Islam, non-Muslim monotheist minorities like the Jews
and the Christians enjoyed a special legal status as protected people, ahl al-dhimma.
This status enabled them to conduct their communal and religious life autono-
mously and at the same time to be embedded in Islamic society as organic parts
of the whole, sharing the same language and same patterns of culture as the rest
of society.16 This embedded status was manifested particularly in commerce, in
which Jews and Muslims shared the same practices and moralities and in many
cases were engaged practically in commercial partnerships.17 Hence, the Geniza
documents not only illuminate the medieval Jewish community of Alexandria, but
can also shed light on the whole fabric of life in this maritime port city.18 Being a
depository of writings, the Geniza contains letters, lists, accounts, legal documents
and other mundane writings. These apparently trivial documents have a significant
advantage over the formal, self-conscious Muslim chronicles, as they were produced
by contemporary people and can testify to the reality of daily urban life in
Alexandria.19
It is hoped that this combination of sources will produce a holistic picture that will
serve as solid ground for a future comprehensive monograph. Although mainly
descriptive, such infrastructural work is crucial for any future research.
This article begins with a short description of Alexandria’s geographical location,
continuing to a depiction of its environs and its infrastructure, especially emphasis-
ing the water system. The port, being of main importance for the city’s inhabitants as
15
Roxani Eleni Margariti, Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade; 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007).
16
Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), pp. 67–106; Mark
R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1994), 20, 107–9.
17
Goitein, Mediterranean Society, II: 293–9.
18
Mark R. Cohen, “Geniza for Islamicists, Islamic Geniza, and the ‘New Cairo Geniza’”, Harvard Middle
Eastern and Islamic Review 7 (2006): 129–45.
19
Goitein, Mediterranean Society, I: 1–28.
well as for its visitors, will receive a special discussion. The description will move
from the city’s outer circle to its inner areas and will discuss the various quarters
and neighbourhoods, the commercial centres, and the industrial zones, finally focus-
ing on the buildings, both public and private. It will conclude with a short discussion
of the way in which Alexandria was viewed by local Muslims and by European visi-
tors. On the basis of this overall description, it will be suggested that we should per-
ceive medieval Alexandria in terms of a gateway city that underwent significant
reorientation but succeeded in retaining its special status as such.
Location
Alexandria’s uniqueness lies in its very special geographical location, between

several areas with very different types of production. To its north lies the Mediterra-
nean Sea with its fish and the human-made facilities of the port. The advantageous
wide bay in which the city is situated is also home to a small island, where Alexan-
dria’s famous lighthouse used to stand. The jazı̄ra (island), as it is called in contem-
porary sources, protected the harbour from harsh winds and maritime currents. To
the east, Alexandria borders the very fertile Delta region, to which it is connected by
the upper edge of the western (Rashı̄d) arm of the Nile. A major canal, called in med-
ieval sources khalı̄j, or khūr, connected the city to the Nile and thence to the main
route of transportation towards the Egyptian hinterland and further into Africa.
To Alexandria’s south lies a large freshwater lake, known in the Muslim era as
Lake Maryūt (Mareotis). The lake, which was connected to the Nile by various
˙
canals, had very rich fauna and flora and was highly productive, especially as a
source of fish, reeds and vegetables. On the western side of the city, very close to
it, lies the barren and arid Western Desert. In his description of the medieval city,
William of Tyre wrote that this desert, “which was never inhabited, starts just
beyond the city walls”.20
Situated as it is between areas of differing types of production – sea, fertile land
and desert – and on a site of considerable significance for transport, Alexandria pos-
sesses the attributes of a gateway city that has the ability to control the flow of goods
and people and to provide services to its tributary areas. However, the advantages of
its longue durante geographical position depended upon human-made contingent
enterprises: The advantageous bay needed port facilities and the city itself depended
on the construction and upkeep of artificial canals to connect it to the Nile. The
deployment of technical and administrative apparatuses was hence crucial in deter-
mining the city’s status, or in other words: human endeavours were imperative for
the realization of its potential physical advantages.21
The city’s borders and its surroundings
The medieval wall surrounded only about half of Alexandria’s urban expanse in the
Hellenistic and Roman period, which means that the city had contracted
20
William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, trans. E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey, volumes
I–II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), II: 335.
21
For the implications of this situation in later periods, see: R. Ilbert, “Entre deux mondes: archives et
lectures d’une ville”, Révue de lʿOccident Musulman et de la Méditerrannée 46 (1987): 9–15.
10 Miriam Frenkel
significantly during the Middle Ages.22 Another indication of the reduced circum-
ference of the medieval city is the location of two artificial mounds, kūm al-dikka
and kūm al-nādūra, in the south-western part of the city, north of Bāb al-Akhdar,
˙
inside the walls, in what used to be a central zone of the ancient city. After ˙the
Muslim occupation, both places served as cemeteries until the end of the Fātimid
era and became garbage dumps from the time of the Ayyūbids onwards. The˙ very
existence of cemeteries, abandoned and turned into garbage dumps, in this formerly
central area indicates that it had become a peripheral zone of the medieval city, indi-
cating the shrinking borders of the inhabited space.23 The wall itself was crucial for
the city’s defence and was attacked repeatedly, especially from its northern side,
which faced the Mediterranean. It was restored several times, by al-Mutawakkil
(r. 232/847–247/861) during the ʿAbbāsid period, by Ibn Tūlūn (r. 254/868–270/
˙
884) and by Salāh al-Dı̄n in 570/1174.24

˙ ˙
The wall had five gates:
1. Bāb al-Sidra, to the south, was the city’s main entrance by land. The gate
served travellers to Fustāt and to the countryside in that direction. The
Geniza documents show˙ Bāb ˙ al-Sidra to be a central point of passage for
people, merchandise, information and ideas. In a letter from 545/1150, the
writer asks his brother in Alexandria to send a letter for him to Sunhūr, on
the way to Fustāt, through Bāb al- Sidra. The letter was to be sent with the
˙ ˙ “who pass there routinely”.25 In another letter from about
people of Sunhūr,
the same time, Makhlūf b. Mūsā apologises to his friend, Abū Ishāq Bar
Yahyā, that he could not come to meet him at Bāb Sidra before leaving˙ for
˙
Fustāt.26 In 605/1208, an Alexandrian cantor and teacher, Judah ibn al-
˙ ˙
ʿAmmānı̄, wanted to send some liturgical poems to a colleague in Fustāt. He
˙ ˙
did so via a mutual acquaintance who was heading for Fustāt and was supposed
˙ ˙
to fetch the written texts from Bāb al-Sidra.27 Bāb al-Sidra also served as a
checkpoint, where customs duties on merchandise sent to Fustāt were paid.
˙ ˙ there, as
Thus, for example, Saʿdān b. Thābit paid three quarters of a dinar
duty on a bale of cardamom.28
2. Bāb Rashı̄d, on the eastern side of the Alexandrian wall, was the passage
towards Rashı̄d and Fuwwa. Customs were collected at this gate as well. At
22
The medieval wall was excavated by the French expedition in 1798 and studied later by Mahmūd al-
˙
Falakı̄ in his publication from 1872. See M. Rodziewicz, “Le debat sur la topographie de la ville
antique”, Révue de l’Occident Musulman et de la Méditerrannée 46 (1987): 38–48.
23
Véronique François, “Les céramiques médievales d’Alexandrie: un témoinage archéologique dʿimpor-
tance”, in Alexandrie médiévale, I: 57–64.
24
For a detailed history of the Alexandrian wall in the Middle Ages, see: M. Husām al-Dı̄n Ismāʿı̄l, “The
˙
Fortification of Alexandria during the Islamic Period”, in Alexandrian Studies in Memoriam Daoud Abdu
Daoud, ed. Nabhil Swelim (Alexandria: Société Archéologique d’Alexandrie, 1993), pp. 153–61. On
Salāh al-Dı̄n’s restoration of the wall, see also: Shihāb al-Dı̄n Abū Shāma, Kitāb al-rawdatayn fı̄ akhbār
˙ ˙ ˙
al-dawlatayn, volumes I–II (Cairo: [n.p.], 1956), II: 486; Ibn Wāsil, Mufarraj al-kurūb fı̄ akhbār banı̄
Ayyūb, volumes I–III (Cairo: [n.p.], 1953), I: 199; Taqı̄ l-Dı̄n al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Kitāb al mawāʿiz wa-l-iʿtibār
˙
bi-dhikr al-khitat wa-l-āthār, volumes I–III (Beirut: [n.p.], 1959), II: 171.
25 ˙ ˙
Washington D.C., Freer Collection, Gottheil-Worrell GW XXXVI.
26
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 10 J 14.11.
27
28
Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Heb c 28 (cat. 2876); S.D. Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), no. 58.
the beginning of the fifth/eleventh century, Joseph b. Jacob al-Tarabulsı̄,

writing from Alexandria, informed his partner, Joseph Ibn ʿAwkal, ˙about ten
qı̄rāts charged for a bale at Bāb Rashı̄d.29 A special fee, called the “Rashı̄d”
after˙ the name of the gate, was charged just for passing through it.30
3. Bāb al-Bahr (the sea gate), to the north, led to the port.
˙ (the gate of spices) also called Bāb al-Qarāfa (the cemetery gate).
4. Bāb al-Bahār
This was the western gate through which convoys from inland and from the
Maghreb passed.
5. Al-Bāb al-Akhdar (the green gate) led to the city’s big cemeteries and was open
only on Fridays. ˙ 31
The last two gates are not mentioned at all in the Geniza and are only referred to
in sources from the Mamlūk period, which suggests that they were hardly in use
prior to that time. This indicates the change of orientation that Alexandria went
through during the Mamlūk period, when joining the inland convoy from Africa
through the Maghreb became an attractive alternative to travelling by sea (probably
to the detriment of the seaport), and when the cemeteries and pilgrimage sites
became major pilgrimage destinations, deserving a special entrance way for both
visitors from the local population and foreign pilgrims. The gates themselves still
preserved some elements of the ancient Roman and Byzantine wall,32 which travel-
lers like al-ʿAbdarı̄ described with great admiration:
One of [Alexandria’s] marvels and charms, which I have witnessed, is the

perfect state of its gates, since, despite their great height, their posterns
and their thresholds are all made of chiselled stone, the beauty and perfec-
tion of which arouses great astonishment. Each of its posterns is made of a
single whole stone and so are its thresholds. How astonishing is the way that
this stone was placed there in spite of its enormous size! The time that
elapsed has changed nothing in it and has not left its mark upon it. It
remains in its beauty and splendour. The posterns are a perfect piece of
art. They are inlaid with iron outside and in, in a perfect piece of artistic
craftsmanship.33
On the outskirts of the city, inside and outside the walls, there were agricultural
areas and gardens, which the city dwellers frequented for walks and recreation. In
a sermon about the Biblical verse “A garden locked is my sister, my bride” (Song
of Songs 4:12), delivered in one of Alexandria’s synagogues, when “young gents
started to go out on holidays to the gardens and wineries”, the preacher,
29
London: British Library Or 5542.22 (published in M. Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael [Jerusalem: Bialik
Institute, 1997], no. 169 [in Hebrew]).
30
Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Heb d 47.62, in which a merchant reports about paying the “Bāb
Rashı̄d” (Gil, In the Kingdom. no. 184).
31
Ibn Battūta, who visited Alexandria in 726/1326, mentions all of these gates. They are also mentioned
˙˙ ˙
by European travellers in the Mamlūk period. See: P. Kahle, “Die Katastrophe des Mittelalterichen Alex-
andria”, Mélange Maspero III: Orient Islamique (Cairo: IDEO, 1940), pp. 137–54.
32
Jean Gascou, “Les églises d’Alexandrie, questions de méthode”, in Alexandrie médiévale, I: 23–44, p. 28,
n. 30.
33
Abū ʿAbdallāh al-ʿAbdarı̄, Rihlat al-ʿAbdarı̄ al-musammā al-rihla al-maghribiyya (Rabat: [n.p.], 1968),
˙ ˙
p. 91.
12 Miriam Frenkel
R. Phineas, demanded that the public “stop the detested habit of frequenting the
gardens and water canals which are situated inside the Sabbath boundary line”.34
Another allusion to these gardens is to be found in a contract concluded in 496/
1103 concerning the renting of a vegetable garden “outside the city of Alexandria
on the western shore of the Khalı̄j Canal”.35 Zafı̄r al-Haddād, a sixth/twelfth-
century Muslim poet, also composed a moving poem ˙ about the beauty of a
garden on the shores of the Khalı̄j.36
The shores of Lake Maryūt, on the southern outskirts of the city, were also the site
˙
of abundant fruit gardens, especially in the vicinity of the village of Maryūt.37 These
˙
gardens were irrigated by the Nile and served as areas for fishing and recreation for
38
the city dwellers. The reeds that grew on the shores of the lake were renowned for
their use in the preparation of fine pens. In a letter from 452/1060, Nahray b. Nissim,
a Jewish merchant and scholar from Fustāt, asks his partner in Alexandria to send
him “some of the excellent reeds of Maryūt ˙ ˙ ”.39
˙
This area was intensively cultivated and renowned for its beauty. William of Tyre,
when describing the crusaders’ sack of Alexandria in 570/1174, explicitly expressed
his sorrow at the destruction of these beautiful gardens in the pillage:
Around the city, like a dense forest, there were blossoming gardens with all
sorts of fruits and medical plants in them. Only the sight of this charming
abode was enough to invite the by-passer to enter it and find repose and
peace of mind. Our soldiers raided these gardens in search for raw material
for their war machines … The gardens were destroyed and no trace of their
previous beauty has survived. After the peace treaty was signed, it was this
demolition that caused the city dwellers’ most difficult grief. They fre-
quently complained about it and felt deeply hurt because of it.40
In spite of the shrinking borders of the inhabited medieval city, it seems then that
life did not stop at the surrounding walls, but continued into the open outskirts of the
34
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS13 J 19.7. On R. Phineas
(documents dated to 591/1195- 609/1212), see Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent,121–7.
35
Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, David Kaufman Collection, DK 2.
36
Sālim, Tāʾrı̄kh al-Iskandariyya, 216.
37
Al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Khitat, I: 300.
38 ˙ ˙
For a comprehensive description of the shores, harbours and island of Lake Mareotis in Roman times,
see: Mieczyslaw Rodzievicz, “Mareotic Harbours”, in Alexandrie médiévale, II: 1–22, especially the
description of its picturesque landscape on pp. 5–6. Rodzievicz stresses the deterioration of this area
during the Islamic period, from the seventh/thirteenth century onwards, as part of the general decline
of Alexandria, which “lost its place as the first town of Egypt as well as the country’s major sea and
lake port” and attributes it to al-Mutawakkil’s building policy, which favoured the renewed port of
Rashid so that it “became the major port of Egypt until the nineteenth century” (ibid., 9). While Alexan-
dria certainly lost its former status as capital city, it remained the main port at least until the seventh/thir-
teenth century, as testified by so many Geniza letters. In addition, some of Alexandria’s centrality was
already lost before the Muslim occupation due to a series of strong earthquakes between 350 and 550
CE, which destroyed large parts of the city. See: Moustafa Anwar Taher, "Les séismes à Alexandrie et
la destruction du phare", Alexandrie médiévale, I: 51–6. As for the Lake Maryūt area, as seen above, it
˙
ceased to fulfil navigational functions, but retained its recreational characteristics. On the process of Isla-
misation in this district, see Christian Décobert, “Maréotide médievale: des bédouines et des chrétiens”,
Alexandrie mediévale, II: 127–67.
39
Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Heb c 13.20 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 673).
40
William of Tyre, History, II: 337.
city, which constituted an integral part of the city’s life. Moreover, the intensive use
of the western gate towards the end of the Ayyūbid period indicates a continuing
shift to the west of the city’s centre of gravity.
The water system
Medieval Alexandria received its water from two sources: rainwater that was gath-
ered in cisterns, and Nile water, which was brought into the residential houses
through a sophisticated system of underground water pipes dating from the Ptole-
maic period. The Muslim traveller Ibn Jubayr wrote during his visit to Alexandria
in 574/1178: “The water passes under the ground through all of Alexandria’s
streets and lanes and its wells adjoin each other”.41

Geniza documents also indicate a double system for conducting water to the city.
It seems that most houses were connected to an overall urban system, which directed
the Nile water to wells, but also had cisterns for storing rain water, which probably
served as an auxiliary source when the Nile water was low. A bill of rent for a house in
the neighbourhood of Nāhiyat Banı̄ Husayn specifies that the house possesses “a
cistern (sihrij), a well (biʾr)˙ and a garden
˙ (būstān)”.42 In a letter dated 535/1140,
˙
addressed to the Nagid Samuel b. Hannania, head of the Jewish communities in
Egypt, the Jews of Alexandria complained ˙ about the cruelty of the collectors of
the poll tax ( jizya) who raped women, destroyed houses and drained the
cisterns dry.43
Since the city was situated at some distance from the River Nile, it depended on
an artificial canal, which connected it to the river. The canal, which as we have noted
was called khalı̄j or khūr in medieval sources, was originally constructed in the Hel-
lenistic period, but since it tended to get clogged up from time to time it constantly
needed to be dredged and repaired. When the canal was in disrepair and the Nile did
not rise, the city dwellers suffered from a serious shortage of water and their distress
is clearly echoed in some Geniza letters. The Alexandrians were well aware of the
cause of their suffering: a letter describing the great famine of 596/1200 states
clearly: “No water reaches the wells”.44
Hibbat Allah ibn Jumayʿ, known as al-shaykh al-muwaffaq (d. 594/1198), a court
physician of Jewish origin in the Ayyūbid period, wrote a comprehensive treatise
about the ecology of Alexandria, in which a long chapter is devoted to the water
system and its deficiencies:
The Nile water, which is supposed to reach it (Alexandria) through the

khalı̄j, actually does not reach it, because of the way it is transformed
and damaged, because of the many things that mingle in it, ruin it and
also evaporate together with it. In ancient times, when the khalı̄j was con-
nected to the sea and flowed into it, all these things could join its current
so that its flow would be permanent. This was better and more
41
Muhammad Ibn Jubayr, Rihlat Ibn Jubayr (Beirut: [n.p.], 1964), p. 41.
42 ˙ ˙
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS Ar. 30.30. The bill dates
from 526/1132.
43
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 13 J 33.9
44
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA NS 19.10, published
in Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent, no. 16.
14 Miriam Frenkel
recommended than the situation nowadays, when it is obstructed or

almost stuck because it is hardly taken care of, and the flow of the
water that reaches it is heavy and obstructs the current, so that everything
that is in its path, all the rubbish and trash and animal urine and dung
(because the people of Alexandria wash themselves in the water and
clean their clothes and beasts and flax and wool and vegetables), is
immersed in the water, and it is in this state that the water enters the
pipes that are connected to the wells … the pipes themselves are open
to the wells, so that often insects of all kinds and grass that grows on
them enter the wells; thus whatever percolates the pipes enters the
wells too. … Most of the pipes that conduct the Nile water … are nowa-
days damaged and not taken care of. There is another issue that the
people of Alexandria are not aware of: most of the roads in that city,
under which the pipes run, used to be paved with solid, well-laid flint
stones, which prevented the percolation of rainwater with all its filth
into the pipes, but nowadays, most of the stones have been pulled out,
the earth around the pipes is permeable, and the water soaks through it
and penetrates the wells themselves.
I witnessed it myself this year, when the well in the house in which I was
staying was cracked before the rain arrived and its water filled the cistern.
Then it rained and two or three days after the rain, the water became
smelly and fetid … I asked the people in the neighbourhood (al-hāra)
about their wells and they told me that … it happens many times˙ that
in lands in the khalı̄j situated just above the city, which are irrigated by
water from the Nile, when they are saturated with water there are some
places that are opened so that the surplus water pours into the khalı̄j.
This is after the fall in the level of the Nile and in this way the
water of the Nile increases and is poured into the pipes, which are
connected to the wells. The people of Alexandria call it “the second
water” (al-māʾ al-thānı̄), and they choose to fill their cisterns at this
time. In this way the water of the Nile penetrates the wells with all its
dirt and filth and is mingled with the salty water, the harms of which I
have described above. With this water they irrigate and fill the cisterns
… and if rainwater is added to it, it becomes even more dangerous and
harmful.45
This double system was also observed by William of Tyre:
The city is situated about five to six miles from the river, but in times of
flood, some of the water is directed to the city by canals. This water is care-
fully preserved in large cisterns intended specifically for this purpose and
they supply water for the city dwellers for the whole year. Some of the
water is channeled through underground pipes in order to water the
gardens outside the city.46
45
Abū l-ʿAshāʿir Hibat Allāh b. Jumayʿ, Tabʿ al-Iskandariyya, ed. M.S. ʿAsiri and Saʿd ʿAbdallāh al-Bushrı̄
(Mecca: [n.p.], 1997), pp. 65–8. I am currently preparing an article devoted to this treatise and its author.
46
The canal brought drinking water and water for irrigation and also served as an
important route of transportation connecting Alexandria, Fustāt and the small
˙ ˙ point of depar-
towns in the Nile Valley. The point of entrance to the khalı̄j and the
ture from it were official passage stations, where passengers had to pay a special
customs duty called wājib al-khūr.47 The amount of this payment changed dramati-
cally according to the value of the merchandise they were carrying or the whim of the
customs officer. Saʿdān b. Thābit, for instance, paid sixteen dirhams for a bale of
spices in 524/1130,48 while thirty years later a single dinar was charged for similar
merchandise.49 The customs officers at these stations were notoriously harsh and
merciless: One merchant who could not pay the whole amount due was forced to
leave as a guarantee an enormous amount of kohl in which he had invested all his
money.50 Judah ibn al-ʿAmmānı̄, a prominent seventh/thirteenth-century Jewish
leader, tells in one of his letters about the tribulations of a poor wandering cantor,
Joseph al-Baghdādı̄, who suffered greatly from the tough attitude of the customs offi-
cers at the khalı̄j.51
The khalı̄j was open only during the flood and was closed off during the long
periods of low water (khasr al-khalı̄j).52 The opening and closing of the khalı̄j dic-
tated the city’s rhythm of life and dominated the minds of its citizens. Its closure
hung like a permanent threat over citizens and foreign traders alike, as manifested
in so many Geniza letters. “Travel is no longer possible because of the khalı̄j”,
wrote Abraham b. Abū Zikrı̄ from Alexandria,53 and Abū Nasr b. Abraham
˙
reported, in another letter from the beginning of the sixth/twelfth century, that he
would not be able to send a shipment of wheat until the reopening of the khalı̄j. 54
Judah b. Joseph ha-Kohen advised his commercial partner in Alexandria: “Come
to Fustāt as long as the khalı̄j is still open”.55 Abraham b. Fakhr in Alexandria
wrote to˙ ˙his son in Fustāt and explained that he could not come for a visit since
he “waits for the khalı̄j ˙ to˙ arrive in Alexandria, with God’s help”.56 Samuel bar
Aaron urged his partner to hurry to Alexandria to take his merchandise; “You
know”, he wrote, “the way will be soon blocked and the merchandise will be
stuck with me in Alexandria”.57
Attempts to cross the canal on foot at low water could be disastrous. Mūsā b. Abı̄
l-Hayy Khalayla remained stranded in the khalı̄j with a stock of flax for three days
˙ wrote to his partner, Nahrai b. Nissim: “I could not bring it to town because
and
of the difficulties of the winter, the mire and the slippery mud. The animals could
47
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, ULC Or 1080 J 178; Goitein, Letters, 258, n. 8.
48
Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Heb c 28.55; Goitein, Letters, no. 58.
49
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 10 J 31.6; Frenkel, The
Compassionate and Benevolent, no. 58.
50
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 12.434; Frenkel, The
51
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 24.67; Frenkel, The Com-
passionate and Benevolent, no. 39.
52
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS NS J 328.
53
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 2727.
54
55
56
57
16 Miriam Frenkel
not walk until the fourth day … I could not bring the merchandise to the trading
places because of the mud”.58
Perhaps more than anything else, the water system of Alexandria reflects the city’s
precarious situation. In a climate of scarce rain, with the desert to its west and the
water sources of the Nile and the lake at a considerable distance, Alexandria
depended heavily on the deployment of technical devices, such as the construction
of a sophisticated network of canals and pipes, and on administrative apparatuses for
its constant upkeep.
The port
The port of Alexandria constituted a major centre of activity in the city. From
Ptolemaic times there had actually been two ports, a western one and an eastern
one, separated by a long quay (heptastadium) that stretched from the lighthouse to
the shore. Originally, the eastern port surrounded another small inner port called
the “Royal Port”, which was designated for the king’s boats alone, but during the
Middle Ages it was no longer active. The eastern port was considered to be danger-
ous because of its narrow entrance and was intended for Christian and other non-
Muslim boats only. The western port was protected by iron chains and intended
for Muslim boats alone.59
The entrance to the port was available through the “Sea Gate”, which was closed
during the night, as testified in a letter sent from Alexandria:
As night came by, I could hear the sea roaring and I said to myself: “The
boats will probably not sail tomorrow”, but I woke up early in the
morning, at the time of the opening of the gate, to find that both boats
had already sailed through.60
A special official appointed by the government was in charge of the gate. In the
Hebrew documents he is called “Baʿal ha-Shaʿar”, probably a calque translation of
the Arabic term sāhib al-bāb. Everyone entering or leaving the port needed a permit
˙ ˙
that could be provided by the sāhib al-bāb alone. Joseph b. Yeshuʿah, the leader of
˙ ˙
the Jewish community in Alexandria, mentioned in a letter from 418/1027 a special
fee that the community had to pay “Baʿal ha- Shaʿar” for permission to let a ransomed
Jewish captive enter the port and sail back to his country of origin: “The days of sailing
have arrived, and the captive wished to return to his country, so we had to pay Baʿal
ha-Shaʿar two-and-a-half golden dinars”.61 This office of sāhib al-bāb was sometimes
˙ ˙
held by dhimmı̄s, as is evident from a sixth/twelfth-century letter by a Jewish govern-
ment official who was captured by pirates: “My father used to serve the sultanate in
58
Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 2805.6 A (Gil, In the Kingdom,
no. 455).
59
For a detailed description of life in the port, see Goitein, Mediterranean Society, I: 339–46; Claude
Cahen, Makhzūmiyyāt: Études sur l’histoire économique et financière de l’Egypte médievale (Leiden: Brill,
1977), pp. 57–155. For harbour chains, see Benjamin Z. Kedar, “Prolegomena to a World History of
Harbour and River Chains”, in Shipping, Trade and Crusade in the Medieval Mediterranean: Studies in
Honour of John Pryor, ed. Ruthie Gertwagen and Elizabeth Jeffreys (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), p. 3–37.
60
Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Heb d 66.54 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 704).
61
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 24.29. See also Cahen,
Makhzūmiyyāt, 285.
Alexandria. For about fifteen years he was in charge of the Sea-Gate and all merchants
arriving from Byzantium, from East and West, used to approach him”.62
Another post related to the port was that of kātib bāb al-bahr, probably an official
˙
who was in charge of writing down the many documents needed at the gate. In the
Geniza sources, he is mentioned quite frequently as a commercial partner with the
Jewish merchants at the port.63
The famous lighthouse of Alexandria, called in the documents variously manāra,
manār or fanār, which was reconstructed by the Fātimids, was still active and aroused
the admiration of historians, geographers and travellers.˙ 64
It seems that it retained its
status as the city’s symbol, and that whoever wrote about Alexandria found it necessary
to mention it at length. Even Benjamin of Tudela, the Jewish traveller of Spanish origin,
in his usual laconic style, gives a relatively long explanation about the way it functioned:
“To this day the lighthouse is a landmark to all seafarers who come to Alexandria; for
one can see it at a distance of a hundred miles by day, and at night the keeper lights a
torch which the mariners can see from a distance, and thus sail towards it”.65
The lighthouse served as a symbolic point of transition between the “territorial
waters” of Alexandria and the sea. Passengers whose ships managed to arrive
safely at the lighthouse saw this as a sign of a successful ending of their maritime
voyages. Judah b. Joseph wrote, standing on the deck of a ship at anchor under
the lighthouse: “I am under the lighthouse. Blessed is God for arranging everything
so successfully. May God give us a good ending and give [lit.: write for] me and all
the people of Israel peace”.66
Irresponsible sailors would throw the merchandise they were carrying in the ship
under the lighthouse while still sailing. Ephraim b. Ismāʿı̄l al-Jawharı̄ wrote from
Alexandria to his partner Joseph Ibn ʿAwkal: “I had no chance to ask for the commis-
sion fee since they threw all the cargo under the light house while sailing away … ”67
Ships waiting to sail also anchored at this point between the port and the sea,
as can be seen from a letter written in Alexandria in 449/1057: “The two ships
62
Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Heb c 28.35, published by Jacob Mann, The Jews in Egypt and in Palestine
under the Fatimid Caliphs, volumes I–II, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), II: 273–4, no. 13.
63
Strasbourg, MS Stras 4110.88 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 714).
64
Ahmad b. Yaʿqūb al-Yaʿqūbı̄, Kitāb al-buldān, (Leiden: Brill, 1891), p. 333; Abū ʿAlı̄ Ahmad Ibn
˙ ˙
Rustah, Kitāb al-aʿlāq al-nafı̄sa, volumes I–VIII (Leiden: Brill, 1881/2), VII: 37; Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄ al-
˙
Masʿūdı̄, Murūj al-dhahab wa-maʿādin al-jawhar fı̄ al-tārı̄kh, volumes I–IV (Cairo: I FAO, 1958), I:
375; Muhammad b. ʿAlı̄ Ibn Hawqal, Kitāb sūrat al-ard (Leiden: Brill, 1938), p. 151; Yāqūt al-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Hamāwı̄, Muʿjam al-buldān, volumes I–V (Beirut: [n.p.], 1955), I: 183; Ibn Jubayr, Rihlat Ibn Jubayr,
˙ ˙
14-15; al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Khitat, I: 155; ʿAbdarı̄, Rihla, 91–3; M. Asin Palacios, in “Una Description nueva
˙ ˙ ˙
del Faro de Alejandria”, Al-Andalus 1 (1933): 241–92, cites the description by Yūsuf al-Balawı̄ Ibn al-
Shaykh al-Malaqı̄, the Spanish pilgrim from Malaga, who visited Alexandria in 1166 and wrote a detailed
description of the lighthouse in his adab book, Kitāb alif bā’; E. Lévi-Provençal, in “Une description arabe
inédite du Phare d’Alexandrie”, Mélange Maspero III: Orient Islamique (Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéo-
logie Orientale, 1940), cites a long and detailed description by Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrı̄, preserved in the book
by the eighth/fourteenth-century Maghrebi writer, Muhammad al-Himyarı̄ al Sibtı̄, Kitāb al-maʿtar fı̄
˙ ˙ ˙
ʿajāʿib al-aqtar. The most up-to-date and comprehensive account on the lighthouse in the Muslim era is
˙
to be found in Doris Behrens-Abouseif, “The Islamic History of the Lighthouse of Alexandria”, Muqar-
nas, 23 (2006): 1–14, and it should be consulted for discussion of previous studies.
65
The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, ed. and trans. Marcus Nathan Adler (New York: JPS, 1907), p. 75.
66
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, ULC Or 1080 J 35 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 156).
67
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 10 J 19.19 (Gil, In the
Kingdom, no. 180; Menahem Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825–1068 [Jerusalem: Ben Tzvi Institute,
1991], no. 56 [in Hebrew]).
18 Miriam Frenkel
from al-Mahdiyya, which anchored under the lighthouse, had already sailed right
after Friday”.68 Likewise, Salāma b. Mūsā noted, in a letter written to Nahrai
b. Nissim: “We have set our minds to sail no matter what happens, so we are
staying now right beneath the lighthouse”.69
The port was active mainly during the sailing seasons, called in the Geniza letters
“the time of the opening of the sea”. Ships did not sail throughout the winter and the
port was hardly active. At this time of the year ships were dragged onto land for
maintenance. In spring, when the sailing season started, the repaired ships were
pushed back into the sea. Ephraim b. Ismāʿı̄l reports in a letter from Alexandria to
his partner:
The ships, my lord, are almost completed and there is nothing left to be
done on shore. Their water and their supplies are already on board and
now they are waiting for the military ships (ustūl) to be prepared and then
˙
they will be pushed into the sea and will sail away together with the small
boats (marākib). The military boats will be pushed into the sea tomorrow
since their maintenance was finished today as I am writing this letter.70
The departure of ships in spring as well as the arrival of new ships dictated the
rhythm of life for people in the port city of Alexandria.
It was not only people and goods that were departing and arriving through the
port, but also information of all kinds, which made its way by word of mouth as
well as by written letters. Upon the arrival of a boat, people would go down to the
port for taqāsı̄, the interrogation of passengers about the latest news. They would
˙
ask about acquaintances, family members, and commercial partners abroad and
would also check the letters that arrived by sea. The taqāsı̄ was a social gesture
through which people could manifest their concern and care ˙ for the people they
took the trouble to ask about. It was also a conventional way to strengthen social,
familial and financial ties between people. Close friends of an Alexandrian merchant
who travelled to Yemen were deeply offended when they found out that the only one
who bothered to ask about their friend was the Muslim ship owner:
By the Lord, oh brother, the Muslims here ask about you more than we do.
So much so that one day a man arrived at the port, a book merchant and a
close friend of my father and it was the Muslim ship-owner who asked him
(taqāsā) about you and brought us your letter.71
˙
Another Alexandrian, ʿAmram b. Joseph, whose old age and ill health prevented him
from going to the port himself, pleaded with a friend to go for him:
I keep asking Shaykh Abū l-Hasan ʿAllāl to send you my greetings in his
letters and to ask you to do me˙ a favour in accordance with your beneficent
68
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS NS J 324.
69
Kingdom, no. 747).
70
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 13 L 17.3 (Gil, In the
Kingdom, no. 181; Ben-Sasson, Jews of Sicily, no. 49).
71
Washington, D.C., Freer Collection, Gottheil-Worrell GW IX; Frenkel, The Compassionate and Ben-
evolent, no. 18.
manners with me and with anyone you are capable of helping, to make an
effort and interrogate (yataqāsı̄) for me and find out if any letter or news
has arrived for me, and if so, please write to me about it and you will get
a nice reward from heaven.72
The port was hence a central node of communication, not only for travellers and
merchants, but also for the people of Alexandria themselves. We may say that
because of this, more than any other factor, it was the heart of the city and dictated
the rhythm of its urban life.
Alexandria’s construction and appearance

Medieval Alexandria preserved the canonical orthogonal layout of the Hellenistic

city. Long, straight, broad avenues still characterised the city of Alexandria long
after they had vanished from the Islamic urban landscape, and caught the eyes of
foreign visitors, who describe this unusual look in their travelogues. Benjamin of
Tudela, who visited Alexandria in the sixth/twelfth century, noted that “the streets
are wide and straight, so that a man can look along them for a mile from gate to
gate, from the Rashı̄d Gate to the Sea Gate”.73
The colossal stone buildings, still preserved from ancient times, gave the city a
primeval splendour, which left an unforgettable impression on its medieval visitors.
Ibn Jubayr opens his chapter on Alexandria with the following words:
I shall start by mentioning the beauty of the city’s construction and the huge
size of its buildings. I have never seen a city whose streets are broader, whose
buildings higher, and that is more ancient and magnificent than Alexandria
… I have seen with my own eyes marble pillars and many planks, the height
and beauty of which are beyond any imagination. From time to time you
may find there pillars so high that the air cannot contain them. Nobody
knows what their use was, and for what purpose they were installed there.
I was told that in ancient times there were buildings built upon them for
the philosophers and rulers of that time, and God knows better. It seems
that they are intended for observing the stars.74
Al-ʿAbdarı̄ wrote a long eulogy to Alexandria in rhyming prose in which he noted

that Alexandria was “a city with a wide square, its pillars are perfect and its buildings
magnificent”.75
It was probably the effect of intense brightness shining from Alexandria’s exten-
sive stone surfaces under the strong Mediterranean sun that impressed visitors and
gave rise to numerous traditions concerning a shining city, which also shone at night
and whose citizens had to cover their eyes with black cloths to avoid being dazzled by
its intense brightness. The Muslim geographer Yāqūt al-Hamāwı̄, who described the
city at the beginning of the seventh/thirteenth century,˙ cites such traditions and
72
Kingdom, no. 676).
73
Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, 104.
74
Ibn Jubayr, Rihla, 14
75 ˙
Al-ʿAbdarı̄, Rihla, 90.
˙
20 Miriam Frenkel
adds: "As to its brightness, it exists even today”. He ascribes this to the whiteness of
its stone walls.76
A huge columned avenue called al-mahajja al-ʿuzmā (Broadway) crossed the city
˙ ˙ central avenue connected the
from the Western Gate to the Eastern Gate. Another
Northern Gate with the Southern Gate. The Kasbah neighbourhood, the main mar-
keting area, was located at the city centre, along al-mahajja al-ʿuzmā. It probably
˙
derived its name from its cane-like long and narrow shape.77 Its˙ shops and stalls
were situated along the central city line. The mahajja al-ʿuzmā, with its commercial
and industrial buildings, was connected to both ˙ports, the eastern and the western,
by two lateral streets.
In a revealing article, Doris Behrens-Abouseif has shown that, unlike other
Islamic cities at that time, which normally converged around one centre that was
the focus of religious, political, industrial and commercial activities, medieval Alex-
andria evolved around two foci: an industrial and commercial focus along the
ancient mahajja al-ʿuzmā, and a new politico-religious centre, which was created
˙ ˙
after the Muslim occupation and developed in the western part of the city around
the Western mosque known as Jāmiʿ al-ʿAttārı̄n, which was also the location of the
Byzantine fortress (hisn al-Iskandariyya ˙or ˙ al-hisn al-qadı̄m), still used by the
˙˙ ˙˙
Muslims as a military and administrative centre of power.78
The inner division of the city is difficult to reconstruct. Geniza documents refer to
terms such as nāhiyya, hāra, zuqāq and khutt, but there is hardly a way to determine
˙ ˙
their precise location.79 Moreover, the same˙˙term may sometimes refer to very differ-
ent sections of the city. The process of Arabisation that the city underwent during
the first centuries of Muslim occupation was manifested in the names given to
various areas, such as “Nāhiyyat Banı̄ Husayn”, still called after the tribes that orig-
inally settled there.80 ˙ ˙
Until the end of the fifth/eleventh century, the city was still divided along ethnic
lines. Entire areas were inhabited exclusively by members of certain Arab tribes. In
443/1051, for instance, the tribe of Banū Qurra, whose members settled in one of the
new quarters of Alexandria during the Muslim occupation, caused serious riots and
even took over the city for a while until expelled by the Fātimid wazı̄r al-Yāzūrı̄, to be
˙
replaced by the more loyal Banū Sunbas, originally from southern Palestine.81 Other
areas were inhabited by immigrants grouped together according to their country of
origin. This division was totally blurred from the end of the fifth/eleventh century.
76
Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, I: 185–6. The traditions are mentioned as early as the third/ninth century by
Ibn ʿAbd al-Hākim. See ʿAbd al-Rahmān al-Qurashı̄ Ibn ʿAbd al-Hakam, Futūh Misr wa-l-maghrib wa-l-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Andalus (Leiden: Brill, 1960), p. 42.
77
Ibn ʿAbd al-Hakam, Futūh Misr, 42; Jalāl al-Dı̄n al-Suyūtı̄, Husn al-mukhādara fı̄ akhbār Misr wa-l-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Qāhira, volumes I–II (Cairo: [n.p.], 1821), I: 37.
78
Doris Behrens-Abouseif, “Topographie d’Alexandrie médiévale”, in Alexandrie médiévale, II: 113–25.
79
Goitein, Mediterranean Society, IV: 13. For the various terms, see as follows: Hāra: Cambridge: Cam-
˙
bridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 254 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 532); London:
British Library, Or. 5542.9 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 488; Ben-Sasson, Jews of Sicily, no. 107). Nāhiyya:
˙
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS Ar. 30.30. Khutt: Cam-
˙˙
bridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection TS AS 150.1; TS 8 J 6.14; TS 10 J
15.5; Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 490.
80
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS Ar. 30.30, which is a bill
of rent for a house in Nāhiyyat Banı̄ Husayn. On the process of Arabisation, see Ibn ʿAbd al-Hakam, Futūh
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Misr, 130.
81 ˙
Al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Al-Bayān wa-l-iʿrāb ʿammā nazala fı̄ ard Misr min al-aʿrāb (Cairo: [n.p.], 1334), pp. 8–9.
˙ ˙
A bill of rent from 526/1132 found in the Geniza refers to a house in the same
Nāhiyyat Banı̄ Husayn, which belonged to the Christian Yuhannā b. Munajjā and
was˙ rented to a Jew
˙ by the name of Bishr b. Yehezqel. It had the ˙ house of a Christian
priest (qissı̄s) on one side and the house of a Jew called al-Kohen on the other.82
A family letter, also from the Geniza, was addressed to a Jewish woman, the mother
of a certain Berakhot b. Abraham, who lived in Khutt Biʾr Jabr, which used to be an
Arab quarter. Furthermore, the address specifies that ˙˙ the house was situated near
the Babylonian synagogue, and another note in Arabic letters clarifies, probably for
the Muslim letter-bearer, “the ‘church’ of the Jews” (kanı̄sat al-yahūd), which may
hint that there were also Christian churches in the same neighbourhood.83 A bill of
repudiation from the seventh/thirteenth century, given by the Jewish court of Alexan-
dria, refers to a house in the same quarter owned by a Jew, Abū l-Maʿānı̄ l-Masjūnı̄,
which bordered the house of a Christian priest by the name of Makārim. The bill
frees the house owner from the obligation to grant his neighbours pre-emptive
rights, which suggests that he intended to sell it to non-Jews.84
Taking this process into consideration, we have to assume that, although the
Jewish quarter of Alexandria (hārat al-yahūd) is often mentioned in Geniza docu-
˙
ments,85 it was actually a multi-ethnic quarter, which had retained this name from
antiquity. Houses in Alexandria changed hands easily between people of various
denominations. A legal query submitted to Maimonides concerns two Jewish
orphan girls, who owned a house in Alexandria and bought an adjacent house
from a Muslim.86 A letter from 468/1075 talks about a house in Alexandria in the
shared ownership of two Jewish brothers, Abraham and Mūsā b. Abı̄ l-Hayy Kha-
layla, and a Muslim, who is interested in buying some of the share of ˙the Jewish
brothers.87 Hārat al-Yahūd was inhabited by people of all ethnic origins, just as
Jews also lived ˙ in other parts of the city.88 Yet, as most of its inhabitants were still
of Jewish origin, it is no wonder that in most Geniza letters it is called simply “the
Quarter” (al-hāra) and when Mardūk b. Mūsā in his old age looked for a Jewish
˙
person to help him and look after his house, he searched for the right person first
of all in this neighbourhood, where it was most likely he would find a proper
Jewish person. As he puts it in his letter: “My children have left home … there is
nobody to give me a glass of water and I am very much in need of someone to
help me. I have looked in Hārat al-Yahūd, but could not find any proper
˙
person”.89 As the ancient construction of the city was basically preserved, we may
well assume that the place named Hārat al-Yahūd in Geniza documents corresponds
˙
82
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS Ar 30.30.
83
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 154 (2588).
84
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS AS 150.1.
85
For instance: Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 12.254
(Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 532); London: British Library, Or 5542.9 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 488; Ben-
Sasson, Jews of Sicily, no. 107); New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collec-
tion, ENA 2738.6 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 337).
86
R. Moses b. Maimon, Responsa, ed. Joshua Blau, volumes I–IV (Jerusalem: Mekitzei Nirdamim,1957–
1986), I: 55, no. 37.
87
Washington, DC: Freer Collection, Gottheil-Worrell GW 3; Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 469.
88
This was actually also the case in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. A. Cherikover, The Jews in Egypt in
the Hellenistic and Roman Periods in the Light of Papyrology (Jerusalem: [n.p.], 1963 [in Hebrew]), p. 21 and
n. 32.
89
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 12.254 (Gil, In the
Kingdom, no. 532).
22 Miriam Frenkel
to the original Delta Quarter of the Hellenistic period, equivalent to the neighbour-
hood near the sea mentioned by the first/seventh-century author John of Nikion,
who locates the ancient church of St Athanasius “near the sea, near the Jewish
Quarter”.90
Another quarter often mentioned in the Geniza documents is al-Qumra. This was
probably a central and well-known quarter, since people who lived there adopted the
nickname al-Qumrı̄.91 It was also busy and crowded, for when the Muslim auth-
orities at the time of Salāh al-Dı̄n wanted to punish and denounce a Jew for offend-
˙
ing Islam, they chose˙ al-Qumra as the place where he should be paraded and his
crime publicly denounced.92 Indeed, al-Qumra seems to have been the place
where everybody would meet, as exemplified in the words written by Abraham
b. Sahlān to his friend in Alexandria: “My heart did not stop worrying for you …
until Fasl arrived and told me he had met you safe and sound in al-Qumra”.93 Al-
Qumra was ˙ not only a residential quarter. Like many other quarters in the medieval
Islamic city, it was a blend of residential houses, inns ( funduq, pl. fanādiq) as well as
industrial and commercial buildings. This is well demonstrated in a letter by a man
who invites his friend to come and live in al-Qumra, promising that he will easily find
a living there, since the place lacks silk weavers, dyers and town criers.94 Another
letter, from the sixth/twelfth century, is sent to “Barakāt b. Hārūn b. al-Kūzı̄, at
the shop of the silk seller, al-Qumra, Alexandria”.95 Though al-Qumra was not a
Jewish quarter per se, it seems that many Jews lived there. A Jewish student came
to study in Alexandria and could easily find a place to stay in an inn at al-
Qumra,96 and another Jew invited his relative to come to Alexandria and stay in
the quarter. “Here, in al-Qumra”, he tells him, “you will easily find a living”.97
Al-Qarāfa, usually known as the area of ancient tombs running south to north of
the city outside its wall,98 turns out to have been a residential area, too, as indicated
in Jewish medieval sources. A religio-legal query sent to Maimonides mentions a bill
of sale of “the house of the judge in the port city, may God protect it, in al-Qarāfa”.99
The house belonged to the celebrated Jewish family of Ibn al-ʿAmmānı̄. It was a big
residential house, parts of which were therefore let out throughout the year. It may
be assumed, then, that this was a populated residential area and the affluence of the
owners, the Ibn al-ʿAmmānı̄s, and their influential position in the Jewish community
as well as at the sultan’s court, point to it being a prestigious neighbourhood, in spite
of its peripheral location and even though Yāqūt, in his geographical dictionary,
hardly mentions it.100 It may also be the same as the area called the neighbourhood
90
A. Calderini, Dizionario dei Nomi Geografici e Topografici dellʿEgypto Greco Romano, volumes I–III
(Milan: [n.p.], 1972), I: 101; Behrens-Abouseif, “Topographie”, 122; Cherikover, Jews in Egypt, 21.
91
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS NS J 36; Frenkel, The
92
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 16.263.
93
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 16.6.
94
95
96
97
98
ʿAlı̄ b. Abı̄ Bakr al-Harawı̄, Kitāb al-ishārāt ilā maʿrifat al-ziyārāt (Damascus: [n.p.], 1953), p. 47.
99
R. Moses b. Maimon, Responsa, I: no. 2.
100
For the social and economic status of the Ibn al-ʿAmmānı̄s, see Frenkel, The Compassionate and Ben-
evolent, 94–101; Yāqūt al-Rūmı̄, Muʿjam al-Buldān, volumes I–V (Beirut: Dār Sāder, [n.d.]), at the end of
˙
article “al-Qarāfa”, IV, 317.
of the catacombs (khutt al-dayāmı̄s), the site of a house referred to in a bill of sale
from 611/1214; the bill˙˙ indicates that Sitt al-Ukhuwwa bint Futūh sold one-eighth
of the house to her brother, Ephraim.101 ˙
Although it retained some topographical features of the ancient city, including the
classical orthogonal shape and the wide, straight streets, Alexandria’s topography
changed significantly in the Middle Ages. The canonical division into distinct
quarters was basically preserved, but medieval Alexandria was a cosmopolitan
multi-ethnic city with no clear separation between the various ethnic groups and
denominations. It seems that the medieval city did not just shrink, but rather
assumed new directions of development extending even beyond its walls.
The bazaar and other commercial centres
The main commercial area of Alexandria was located in the city centre, along its
central traffic line. The bazaar was divided into sub-sections, the names of which
could prima facie refer to a division according to the various branches of commerce:
the market of the goldsmiths (sūq al-saghāh),102 the market of the cobblers (sūq al-
˙
asākifa),103 the market of the money changers (sūq al-sayraf),104 and the market of
˙
the perfume-sellers (sūq al-ʿattārı̄n).105 But, as has already been shown by Goitein,
˙˙
the names do not necessarily indicate a strict professional division of the market,
and in each part of it various trades functioned side by side.106 On the one hand,
Hillel b. Bunyas al-ʿAttār (the perfume seller) testifies about a dispute between
two Syrian merchants, ˙˙ which he witnessed while sitting in his father’s shop
located indeed in the market of the perfume sellers (sūq al-ʿattārı̄n),107 but we also
have a letter by ʿAmram b. Nathan addressed to the shop ˙of ˙ Ismāʿı̄l b. Ibrāhı̄m
al-Tūnı̄ (the seller of tunafish), in the cobblers’ market (sūq al-asākifa).108
The shops (dakākı̄n) in the various markets had storerooms located in their base-
ments. This is well attested in a long court deed from 493/1100, which includes two
testimonies by merchants in the Sūq al-ʿAttārı̄n. Both give a very vivid description of
a dispute they witnessed between two other ˙˙ merchants:
101
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 8 J 6.14. For the necro-
polis and catacombs of Alexandria, see F. Dunand, “Pratiques et croyances funéraires en Égypte
romaine”, in Religion. Heidentum: Die religiösen Verhältnisse in den Provinzen (Forts.), ed. W. Haase [Auf-
steig und Niedergang der römischen Welt II, volume XVIII.V] 18.5, ed. W. Haase (Berlin: De Grüyter,
1995), 3216–32.
102
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 154 (2558), a letter
by Abraham b. Berakhot b. al-Hajja from Bush to the shop (dukkān) of Abū Zikrı̄ Judah b. Isaac in Sūq al-
Sāgha.
˙
103
104
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS Ar 30. 30, mentions a
man called Bishr b. Ezekiel, the town crier (al-munādı̄) in the market of the money changers (sūq al-
sayraf); Washington, D.C., Freer Collection, Gottheil-Worrell, GW IX; Frenkel, The Compassionate
˙
and Benevolent, no. 18; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS
20. 121; Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent, no. 34.
105
106
Goitein, Mediterranean Society, IV: 26–8.
107
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 8 J 4.15. A court deed
from 491/1098.
108
24 Miriam Frenkel
I was at Sūq al-Sayraf at the shop of R. Ezekiel. We were a group of Jewish

˙ Ezekiel and I were examining a notebook when the late
traders and others.
Abū l-Hasan passed by and said: “O Abū ʿAlı̄, please bring me your mer-
chandise˙ down to the storeroom, I am going to pack”. Ezekiel said:
“Come up here, your merchandise is ready”. The late Abū l-Hasan went
up and checked many bundles of silver bars, four bundles … Abū ˙ l-Hasan
collected them all and went down. After a short while, he went up again˙ to
the shop and said: “O Abū ʿAlı̄, I have weighed them and found that the
weight is right … ”.109
The testimony clearly shows that the shops themselves were situated at street level
while the storerooms, where the packing and weighing were done, were situated below.
Intensive commerce was also conducted in the various “houses”. The “house” (dār)
was actually a large complex of buildings, including workshops, shops and stalls, which
operated as a mini-bazaar and fulfilled a whole range of commercial functions, such as
money changing, and the conclusion of commercial partnerships and transactions. It
was there that customs and taxes were paid, merchandise was stored, and letters were
deposited.110 The various “houses” were named after the main merchandise that was
traded there. Thus we have, for example, the house of flax (dār al-kattān),111 the house
of precious stones (dār al-jawhar),112 and the house of almonds (dār al-lūz).113 There
were other “houses”, too, such as the new house (al-dār al-jadı̄da)114 and the blessed
house (al-dār al-mubarraka).115 Dar Manāk, the house most frequently mentioned in
the Geniza documents, served mainly as a customs house for export goods. The
special customs fee paid there, required for receiving a transit certificate, was called
haqq al-manāk or wājib al-manāk.116
˙
109
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 16.347; Frenkel, The
110
Goitein, Mediterranean Society, I: 194–5; IV: 26–7.
111
Philadephia: University of Pennsylvania, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Cairo Geniza Cpllec-
tion, Halper (formerly Dropsie) Collection, CAJS 390; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library,
Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 10 J 11.7; New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N.
Adler Collection, ENA 2738.6; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection,
TS 10 J 20.16; TS 12.379; TS 2.66; TS 8 J 22.8 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 337).
112
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 2805.17 (Gil, In the
Kingdom, no. 551).
113
Kingdom, no. 400). On the importance of the trade in almonds, see: Goitein, Mediterranean Society, IV:
246.
114
Compassionate and Benevolent, no. 59. In 538/1143 the estate of a Jewish merchant who had drowned
near the shores of Alexandria was transferred at this dār from the Muslim authorities (sāhib mawārı̄th
˙ ˙
al-goyyim) to the Jewish court.
115
Kingdom, no. 464).
116
Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Heb d 75.20; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-
Schechter Collection, TS Ar. 18 (1) (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 449); Cambridge: Cambridge University
Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 12.335 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 487); New York: Jewish Theo-
logical Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 3616.29 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 185);
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 2738.6 (Gil, In the
Kingdom. no. 337); Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 13 J
17.7 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 808). See on the meaning of the name, and the Greek origin of the
place, Goitein, Mediterranean Society, IV: 27.
The commercial centre of the Qalūs, mentioned only once in the Geniza docu-
ments, was intended mainly for commerce in flax and other voluminous goods. It
seems that it was not very active during this period, as Salāma b. Mūsā found it
necessary to explain to his addressee, Judah b. Sighmar, where it was located.117
Another commercial location was al-Saffayn (the two rows). The name indicates
its structure: a colonnade with shops˙ and warehouses between its two rows of
columns. It is referred to as a storage place,118 as well as a space where the
various activities of brokers and merchants took place, debts were collected,
accounts were calculated and transactions were concluded.119
There was no special industrial area in Alexandria as in other Islamic medieval
cities. Industrial activities were conducted in private houses. A mother in Alexandria
writes to her son in Fustāt asking him to buy her some silk, since “there is no silk left
˙ ˙ idle”. Her sister, the addressee’s aunt, asks for “red and
at home and the loom stays

yellow silk at the regular price”.120 It seems that the two sisters were running a silk
weaving mill in their private house in Alexandria. In a bill of divorce from 610/1213,
the husband takes upon himself not to leave the territory of Alexandria for four years
and to give his divorcee half the profit of the silk weaving mill.121 It seems that silk
weaving was a kind of family undertaking carried in domestic premises. Other indus-
trial activities, such as the processing of mother of pearl (sidf) for marquetry, were
˙
done in the commercial areas of the city, as indicated in a letter by Abraham
b. Farrāh who wrote in 447/1055 to a commercial partner about his intention to
buy “some ˙ of the mother of pearl produced at Dār Jawhar”.122 Other local industries
mentioned are manufacturing mats,123 weaving and spinning various textiles and
117
Leningrad: Institut Narodov Azii, INA D 55.14 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 745, Ben-Sasson, Jews of
Sicily, no. 11). See Goitein, Mediterranean Society, IV: 29.
118
Kingdom, no. 770), where a bale of pieces of leather is said to be stored in the saffayn.
˙
119
Ibid., where “the broker from the saffayn” (al-simsār alādhi fı̄ l-saffayn) is mentioned; Cambridge:
˙ ˙
Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 10 J 9.21 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no.
315), where “the bill of saffayn” (hisāb saffayn) is mentioned.
120 ˙ ˙ ˙
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Halper (formerly
Dropsie) Cairo Geniza Collection, CAJS 400.
121
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 24. 34. The document
dates from 610/1213.
122
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 2805 17 B (Gil, In
the Kingdom, no. 551).
123
Leningrad: Institut Narodov Azii, INA D 55.14 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 745), dated about 447/1055;
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS NS 320.13 (Gil, In the
Kingdom, no. 787), dated about 437/1045; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter
Collection, TS 8 J 23.8 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 341), dated 443/1051; Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 12. 388 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 512), dated about 447/
1055; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 12.254 (Gil, In the
Kingdom, no. 532), dated about 439/1047; Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Heb d 76.57 (Gil, In the
Kingdom, no. 523), dated about 457/1065; New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N.
Adler Collection, ENA 4020.21 + ENA 4100.24 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 533), dated Safar 439/
˙
August 1047; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 13 J 6.22
(Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 460), dated Safar 445/June 1053 (sent from Alexandria by sea for a synagogue
˙
and a graveyard in Jerusalem); Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection,
TS 13 J 18.4, beginning of fifth/eleventh century; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-
Schechter Collection, TS 13 J 26.8 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 566), dated Rajab 458/June 1066; Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 8 J 20.8, dated 534/1140 (an
order for a high-quality mat from Alexandria).
26 Miriam Frenkel
fabrics,124 dying textiles and colouring glass,125 and manufacturing shoes126 and
ceramics, mainly housewares.127
Medieval Alexandria appears to have been, then, a commercial city with trade
activities along its main road and at its entrance point, in the port. Although it
had some local industry, most of it was related to local products, such as mats
made of Maryūt reeds and local mother of pearl. Other industries are rarely men-
tioned and were probably home made products manufactured on a small scale.
Public buildings
The construction of public buildings is a way of shaping a city’s public sphere and
hence making a political statement. Each of the dynasties studied in this article
adopted a different policy towards public building.
The scant information we possess regarding public buildings in Alexandria
during the Fātimid era is derived from late and hostile Islamic sources.128 The
authors of these˙ sources, all of them Sunnı̄ Muslims, had no interest in describing
or referring to the building projects initiated and carried out by the Ismāʿı̄lı̄
Fātimid caliphs. This may be the reason why the only information we have concerns
˙
Sunnı̄ religious buildings, which were founded as a demonstration of subversion
against the Fātimid regime. These buildings, of course, are hardly representative
of the Fātimid˙ city. On the other hand, it is also plausible to assume that the
Fātimids, ˙who invested most of their efforts and resources in building their new
˙
capital in Cairo, neglected Alexandria to some extent.129
Two Sunnı̄ madrasas operated in Alexandria as early as the sixth/twelfth century.
The first was al-ʿAwfiyya, founded by the Fātimid wazı̄r Radwān b. al-Walakhshı̄ in
532/1138. It was named after the head of the ˙ Mālikı̄ school˙ in Alexandria, Shaykh
Abū Tāhir b. ʿAwf, who directed it and taught in it. This madrasa was on the
˙
main avenue of the city, al-mahajja al-ʿuzmā, and was probably situated in the mar-
˙
ketplace.130 It should be noted that ˙the Mālikı̄ school was deeply rooted in
124
Kingdom, no. 663), dated 449/1057; Oxford: Bodleian MS Heb. c 28.34 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no.
458), dated about 436/1045; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection,
TS 8 J 18.11 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 459), dated about 447/1055; Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS
Heb. d 66.91 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 416); Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schech-
ter Collection, TS NS J 137 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 438), dated about 472/1080; Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 8 J 25.13 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 436),
dated Jumādā I 472/November 1079; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Col-
lection, TS 8 J 27.5 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 424), dated about 457/1065; London: British Library, Or.
5566 D3 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 425), dated 457/1065; Cambridge: Cambridge University Library,
Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 13 J 15.19 (Gil, In the Kingdom no. 540), dated about 457/1065.
125
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 13 J 18.4, beginning of
fifth/eleventh century.
126
London: British Library, Or. 5566 D3 (Gil, In the Kingdom, no. 425), dated 457/1065, an order for a
pair of shoes (madās) from Alexandria.
127
Kingdom, no. 556), dated Rajab 458/June 1066, an order for jafna from Alexandria.
128
Yaacov Lev, State and Society in Fātimid Egypt (Leiden: Brill, 1991), pp. 6–7; Paula Sanders, Ritual,
˙
Politics and the City in Fātimid Cairo (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), pp. 10–11.
129 ˙
Sanders, Ritual, pp. 40–82.
130
Al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Iʿtiʿāz al-hunafāʾ bi-akhbār al-aʾimma al-Fātimiyyı̄n wa-l-khulafāʾ, volumes I–IV
˙ ˙
(Cairo: [n.p.], 1967), I: 139; Abū l-ʿAbbās Ahmad al-Qalqashandı̄, Subh al-aʿshā fı̄ sināʿat al-inshāʾ,
˙ ˙ ˙
Alexandria because of the Maghrebi immigrants who arrived in Egypt as early as the
fourth/tenth century and settled in the port city.131 The other madrasa was the
Madrasa al-Salafiyya. It was founded by the city’s governor ʿAlı̄ b. Salar in 544/
1149 and was named after Abū Tāhir Ahmad al-Silafı̄, the Shāfiʿı̄ scholar who also
served as a teacher there.132 ˙ ˙
Beside the madrasas, we know of three mosques. The Turtushı̄ mosque was
founded in 519/1125 by the Mālikı̄ scholar of Spanish origin, Abū Bakr al-
Turtūshı̄, known as Ibn Abı̄ Randaqa. It stood outside the city wall near the Sea
˙ ˙ 133 The outstanding location of this mosque was indicative. From its
Gate.
windows, Shaykh al-Turtūshı̄ could watch the port, the city’s focal point, where
most contacts with the˙ world
˙ of the infidels took place. For the ascetic scholar, who
perceived himself as the most zealous enemy of all non-Muslim foreigners, the
port, where all the corrupting goods and luxuries arrived, symbolised the essence of
corruption and vice brought about by Fātimid rule. Al-Turtūshı̄ himself explained
his residence in Alexandria by saying that˙ it was his way˙ to ˙mingle with the people
(mukhālatat al-nās) in order to guide those who had gone astray and to spread
˙
correct belief. Al-Turtūshı̄, besides writing ardent essays prohibiting the purchase
of any merchandise˙ from˙ Christians and Jews, was indeed very involved in the daily
activities of the port. He used to confront sailors, visitors and customs officers. The
very presence of the Mālikı̄ mosque at this sensitive location was no doubt also provo-
cative to the people who frequented the port.134 It was only much later, from the
seventh/thirteenth century onwards, that more religious buildings, most of them of
Sufi in character, would be established in this area, thus following al-Turtūshı̄’s
˙ ˙ 135
model, though probably for different reasons and on the basis of other calculations.
(footnote continued)
volumes I–XIV (Cairo: [n.p.], 1913), I: 458, X: 458. On Shaykh Abū Tāhir Ismāʿı̄l b. Makkı̄ b. ʿĪsā
˙
b. ʿAwf al-Zuhrı̄ al-Iskandarānı̄ (d. 584/1188), who taught Salāh al-Dı̄n, see Abū ʿAbdallah b. ʿUthmān
˙ ˙
al-Dhahabı̄, Al-ʿibar fı̄ khabar man ghabar, volumes I–IV (Kuwait: [n.p.], 1960), IV: 242; al-Suyūtı̄,
˙
Husn al-mukhādara, I: 214; Jamāl al-Dı̄n al-Shayyāl, Aʿlām al-Iskandariyya, fi al-Asr al-Islami (Cairo:
˙ ˙ ˙
Egyptian Society for Historical Studies, 1965), pp. 112–25. On both the shaykh and the madrasa, see
also the article by Paul Walker in this issue.
131
S. Labib, s.v. “Iskandariyya”, EI.
132
Al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Iʿtiʿaz, I: 144; on the Shāfiʿı̄ scholar, Abū Tāhir ʿImād al-Dı̄n al-Isfahānı̄ l-Silafı̄ (d. 576/
˙
1180, Alexandria), see Tāj al-Dı̄n al-Subkı̄, Tabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya al-Kubra, volumes I–V (Cairo: [n.p.],
˙
1324), IV: 45; and al-Suyūtı̄, Husn al-mukhādara, I: 165. On both the scholar and his madrasa, see the
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
article by Paul Walker in this issue. On the subversive anti-Ismāʿı̄lı̄ intent in building these two madrasas,
see al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Iʿtiʿaz, III: 167, 198; G. Vajda, “La Mashyaha d’Ibn al- Hattab al-Razi: Contribution a
lʿhistoire du Sunnisme en Egypte Fatimide”, BEO 23 (1970): 21–99; G. Leiser, “The Madrasa and the
Islamization of the Middle East: The Case of Egypt”, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt
22 (1985): 29–47.
133
Al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Iʿtiʿaz, I: 125. Abū Bakr Muhammad al-Turtūshı̄ (451/1059-520/1126) was a Mālikı̄
˙ ˙ ˙
scholar of Spanish origin, who settled in Alexandria and is known as the author of the book Sirāj al-
mulūk. On him, see al-Suyūtı̄, Husn al-mukhādara, I: 213; Jamāl al-Dı̄n al-Shayyāl, Abū Bakr al-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Turtūshı̄ al-ʿālim al-zāʿid al-thāʾir (Cairo: [n.p.], 1968); Joseph Drory, Ibn al-ʿArabı̄ of Seville: A Journey
˙ ˙
in Palestine (1092–1095) (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1993; in Hebrew), pp. 59–61; Yaacov
Lev, Saladin in Egypt (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 118, 119; and the article by Paul Walker in this issue.
134
M.I. Fierro, “La Polémique à propos de Rafʿ al-Yadayn”, Studia Islamica 65 (1987): 69–90, mentions
his clashes with the sailors at the port who wanted to throw him into the sea. Drory, Ibn al-ʿArabı̄, 60, men-
tions his disputes with the tax collectors at the port and his essays that condemned buying products from
Christians and Jews.
135
Christian Décobert, “Alexandrie au XIIIe siècle: une nouvelle topographie”, Alexandrie médiévale, I:
71–100.
28 Miriam Frenkel
The other two mosques were built inside the city, in the most crowded commer-
cial area, along the mahajja al-ʿuzmā. Masjid al-Muʾtamin was built by al-Muʾtamin
when he was still governor ˙ of the˙city,136 and Jāmiʿ al-ʿAttārı̄n was situated inside Sūq
˙˙ by Badr al-Jamālı̄ in 477/
al-ʿAttārı̄n, the market of the perfume-sellers. It was renovated
˙˙
1084, hence its second name, al-masjid al-jadı̄d (the new mosque). This mosque was
built in Maghrebi style with an ornamental garden in its courtyard.137 Jāmiʿ al-
ʿAttārı̄n is actually the only mosque we know of that was Ismāʿı̄lı̄ proper and served
˙˙imid rule in propagating its beliefs through the unique Ismāʿı̄lı̄ call to prayer
Fāt
˙
(adhān) and through the weekly sermon (khutba) preached there. These two Ismāʿı̄lı̄
symbols were indeed abolished immediately after ˙ the Ayyūbid conquest of the city.138
For the Ayyūbid period we have more sympathetic sources, mainly the travelogue
of Ibn Jubayr, the Muslim traveller who visited the city during Salāh al-Dı̄n’s rule
˙ ˙
and left a very enthusiastic account about it, and the books by al-Maqrı̄zı̄, written
during the Mamlūk period but containing earlier Ayyūbid writings. Both sources
report an impressive upsurge in public building, which probably changed the
city’s appearance dramatically. Here are Ibn Jubayr’s words:
This city actually owes its merits and glories to its ruler [Salāh al-Dı̄n],
˙ ˙ and pil-
meaning the madrasas, the lodges (mahāris) it has for all the students
˙
grims that arrive there from distant countries, where each of them finds a place
to stay and a madrasa in which he can study whatever he desires … The sultan
finds so much interest in the foreigners that frequent the city, that he has
ordered bathhouses to be built for them so that they can have a bath whenever
they need and wish and has allotted them a special hospital to treat the sick
among them and has appointed special doctors to be in charge of them.139
Al-Maqrı̄zı̄, who repeats these words, adds that the new buildings were all located in
the Western part of the city, near Bāb al-Qarāfa.140
The sources also tell us about the many new mosques that were built during the
Ayyūbid period, but the numbers they provide are heavily exaggerated. Ibn Jubayr,
for instance, reports about twelve thousand mosques.141 It is difficult to estimate
their true number. According to Ibn Jubayr’s description, the “mosques” were
rather complexes of three to four mosques situated very close to each other, each
mosque being an assemblage of edifices (murakabba), also including a madrasa, a
court and perhaps some other religious buildings.142 The most famous mosque
related to Salāh al-Dı̄n is the Western Mosque: Although he only renovated it, it
˙ ˙with his general policy of transferring the city centre to the western
was associated
side, where the first Muslims settled after the occupation, and away from the
Fātimid zones in the eastern part and along the mahajja. Significantly, the khutba
˙ ˙
136
Sālim, Tārı̄kh al-Iskandariyya, 228–9.
137
Muhammad b. Qāsim al-Iskandrāni Al-Nuwayrı̄, Kitāb al-ilmam bi Iʿlam fi ma jarat bihi al-Ahkām wa l-
˙ ˙
ʾUmūr al-Maqdiyya fi Waq ʿat al-iskandaı̄yya, ed. A.S. Atiyya, volumes I–IV (Hyderabad: [n.p.], 1970), IV:
˙
103.
138
Ibid.
139
Ibn Jubayr, Rihla, 15-16.
140 ˙
Al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Khitat, III: 169; idem, Al-sulūk li-maʿrifat duwal al-mulūk, volumes I–IV (Cairo: [n.p.],
˙ ˙
1956), I: 76.
141
Ibn Jubayr, Rihla, 17.
142 ˙
Ibid.
was transferred from Jāmiʿ al-ʿAttārı̄n to the newly renovated Western Mosque,143
which was renewed as a Mālikı̄ ˙mosque,
˙ and, as we have noted above, Abū Tāhir
b. ʿAwf was nominated as its head (nāzir). His descendants were to occupy this˙pos-
ition for many generations.144 ˙
As suggested by Behrens-Abouseif, it is plausible to assume that it was around this
mosque that Salāh al-Dı̄n installed all his new pious foundations, including madrasas
˙ the Syrian model of the Zangids.145 The new city centre in the
and hospitals,˙ after
east created by Salāh al-Dı̄n was also adjacent to the cemetery outside Bāb al-
˙ ˙
Akhdar with its numerous pilgrimage sites.146 Benjamin of Tudela mentions Alex-
˙
andria’s many inns ( fanādiq): “Every nationality has its own funduq”.147 Perhaps
these new inns functioned inside existing buildings and were not newly built,
which would account for the fact that they did not attract the attention of the
other writers who described Ayyūbid Alexandria.

The inn of the Jews (funduq al-yahūd) is mentioned only once, in a letter from 534/
1140 that refers to some merchandise belonging to Jewish merchants and kept in “the
inn of the Jews”, which was confiscated by the local governor (wālı̄) of Alexandria.148
It seems that these fanādiq, like other inns in port cities at other times and places, also
functioned as brothels. A Geniza letter from about 493/1100 mentions the arrest of a
respectable Jewish leader (zeqan ha-qehilot) who was caught in “one of the inns” (baʿd
˙
al- fanādiq) with “a slave girl who is worth a penny” ( jāriyya tuswā khurrūba) after
being tricked (ʿumila ʿalayhi hı̄la).149
˙
Synagogues
The Geniza documents indicate that between the fifth/eleventh and the seventh/thir-
teenth centuries there were at least two synagogues. Arakh b. Nathan informed the
Nagid, Mevorakh b. Saʿadya, that he had read his letters aloud “in the two synago-
gues together”.150 Saʿadya Bar Berakhot asked in a religious query submitted to Mai-
monides about the morning prayer (hashkama), which up to “this year” (597/1201)
had been conducted in both synagogues.151 The official in charge of the charity chest
wrote to Abraham Maimonides in a letter about news of a scandalous event that
spread around on Saturday “in both synagogues”,152 and when Samuel the judge
passed away at the end of the seventh/thirteenth century, the elders of the
143
Al-Nuwayrı̄, Ilmam, IV: 40, and see Behrens-Abouseif, “Topographie”, 116–17, who explains why al-
Nuwayrı̄’s version, which attributes to Salāh al-Dı̄n only the renovation of the Western Mosque, is more
˙ ˙
plausible than that of Maqrı̄zı̄, who claims that it was Salāh al-Dı̄n who actually built it.
144 ˙ ˙
Al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Khitat, I: 174; Sālim, Tārı̄kh al-Iskandariyya, 200.
˙ ˙
145
Behrens-Abouseif, “Topographie”, 118.
146
Ibid., 124.
147
Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, 106.
148
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 13 J 15.16, 20.
149
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 13 J 13.24; Olivia Remie
Constable, Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade and Travel in Late Antiquity and
the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 100–3.
150
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 24.21 (Frenkel, The
Compassionate and Benevolent, no. 38).
151
Maimonides, Responsa, I, no. 118. See also, ibid, no. 259, in which both synagogues, the big and the
small, are mentioned.
152
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 10 J 16.6 (Frenkel, The
30 Miriam Frenkel
community (zeqenim) consulted each other about the nomination of a new judge “in
both synagogues”.153 The Geniza sources mention “the big synagogue” (al-kanı̄sa
al-kabı̄ra) also called kanı̄sat al-Shāmiyyı̄n,154 which belonged to the Palestinian con-
gregation, and “the small synagogue”, also called kanı̄sat al-ʿIrāqiyyı̄n, which
belonged to the Babylonian congregation.155 Both were located in the mixed neigh-
bourhood of Biʾr Jabr. A letter from 553/1158 bears the address “Biʾr Jabr, the Baby-
lonian synagogue” in Hebrew letters and “the Jewish synagogue” (kanı̄sat al-yahūd)
in Arabic letters, probably to enable the Muslim letter-bearer to distinguish it from a
Christian church in the same neighbourhood.156 The two synagogues were situated
within walking distance of each other, since it is related that when a celebrated
foreign preacher arrived in Alexandria to deliver a sermon at the Babylonian Syna-
gogue on Sabbath, people of both congregations arrived to hear him preach.157
The synagogue was a large edifice with a spacious courtyard that could hold quite
a large congregation. The ancient Palestinian funeral custom of setting the coffin in
the synagogue courtyard, where benedictions and prayers over the dead were said,
was still followed in Alexandria.158 At the beginning of the seventh/thirteenth
century, a special vault was erected over the courtyard for this purpose.159
Churches and monasteries
There is no doubt that medieval Alexandria had lost its former centrality as the tra-
ditional seat of power of Christianity. Some of its churches were turned into
mosques, including St Athanasius, which became Jāmiʿ al-ʿAttārı̄n, while others
˙˙
just deteriorated gradually, like the churches of St John the Baptist and St Mary.
A few churches and monasteries survived, however. The Melkite churches served
not only the local Christian population, but also the European Catholic merchants
who frequented the city. The Church of St Nicholas, for example, was used by
Pisan traders, and the Church of St Mary was shared with the Venetians. About
five Coptic churches were still functioning, most of them outside the confines of
the city. The two active Coptic monasteries, Dayr al-Zuqaq and Dayr Asfal al-
Ard, were also situated outside the city’s borders.160
˙
Residential buildings
The wealth accumulated during the Fātimid period by the religious and commercial
˙
elite was manifested in the extravagant private houses built at this time. The elegance
153
154
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 13 J 1.7, a bill of repu-
diation from 424/1033.
155
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS NS J 183; TS G 2.102.
156
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 154 (2558).
157
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 16.149 (Frenkel, The
158
Maimonides, Responsa, II, no. 151.
159
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA NS 19.10 (Frenkel,
The Compassionate and Benevolent, no. 16). Goitein, Mediterranean Society, V: 550, n. 195, suggests that
this was an ancient Palestinian custom preserved by the Alexandrian community.
160
Maurice Martin, “Alexandrie chrétienne à la fin du XII siècle d’après Abū l-Makārim”, Alexandrie
médiévale, I: 45–9.
of these new buildings, their large dimensions, and especially their height, inspired
the poets of this era, who described these magnificent palaces and their splendid
gardens in their poems. Ibn Qalqas, an Alexandrian poet of the Fātimid period,
described the palace that belonged to the Banū Khālif, a wealthy family ˙ of Alexan-
drian qādı̄s. The extravagant palace of the qādı̄ Makı̄n al-Dawla was immortalised
161
in Muslim ˙ historiography thanks to the magnificent˙ fountain in its garden.162 The

Jewish elite also lived in fine palaces adorned with gardens and fountains. The cele-
brated Jewish poet of Spanish origin, Judah ha-Levi, described and eulogised in his
poems the palace and gardens of Aaron ibn al-ʿAmmānı̄, his host in Alexandria.163
Extravagant residential palaces were also built in Ayyūbid times, such as the famous
palace near the Sea Gate, which belonged to the qādı̄ of Alexandria, Abū l-Makārim
b. al-Habbāb (d. 597/1201).164 ˙
˙
The residential palaces of Alexandria had a unique architectural style. When

Taqı̄ l-Dı̄n ibn Ayyūb, Salāh al-Dı̄n’s brother, moved from Egypt to al-Hamāh in
Syria, he built there a big ˙
˙ elegant house “in the style of the Alexandrian˙ houses”.
Al-Nuwayrı̄ gives a very detailed description of this house, making it possible to
imagine the general appearance of the typical Alexandrian villa. The house had a
big guest hall (majlis), which could be closed by folding doors. Two narrow
closed chambers (akmām) were connected to the majlis. At the front of the house
(sadr) there was a ventilation system, which included a large chimney that caused
˙ wind to flow from the roof through the whole house (bahdanj).165 The entrance
the
to the house was through a large open space (qāʿa) in which two parallel stone
benches were built on either side (suffa). Adjacent to the house there was a small
shed made of light materials, called ˙ by al-Nuwayrı̄ “a temporary house”
(bayt ʿardı̄). At the front there were large windows that looked over the khalı̄j
gardens.166
Another description of an Alexandrian residence is to be found in the rental lease
of a house belonging to the Ibn al-ʿAmmanı̄ family, preserved in a legal query sub-
mitted to Maimonides. The bill contains a detailed description of all parts of this
four-storey house: “On the ground floor (sufl) is the women’s apartment
(hurumı̄yya) and another large room. Above it there are another three residential
˙
storeys. On the top floor there is a secret door (bāb al-sirr). A kitchen (matbakh) is
also mentioned”.167 Another very similar description is to be found in ˙a bill of
rent from the Geniza dated 526/1132. This house also had a large qāʿa and a
women’s apartment (qāʿa hurumı̄yya). It also contained a “new room”, a cistern
˙
(sihrı̄j), a well (biʿr) and a garden (būstān).168
˙
Of course, not all the residential houses in Alexandria were so spacious and soph-
isticated. The houses described above were exceptional and outstanding. Other
houses were more modest and simple. A bill of lease from 523/1129, for instance,
describes a house composed only of a living room (qāʿa) and an upper part
161
Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Maqarrı̄, Nafh al-tı̄b min ghadab al-Andalus al-ratı̄b, volumes I–IX (Cairo:
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
[n.p.], 1949), IV: 24; Sālim, Tārı̄kh al-Iskandariyya, 215.
162
Al-Maqrı̄zı̄, Iʿtiʿaz, II: 381; III: 91.
163 ˙
Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent, 94–101.
164
Sālim, Tārı̄kh al-Iskandariyya, 252–3.
165
Goitein, Mediterranean Society, IV: 65–78.
166
Nuwayrı̄, Ilmām, IV: 49.
167
Maimonides, Responsa, I, no. 2.
168
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS Ar. 30.30.
32 Miriam Frenkel
(ʿuluww).169 But it was the elegant edifices that gave the city its magnificent appear-
ance that caused all its visitors to marvel, and they served as models for other houses
that imitated their style on a more modest scale.170
Renting houses in Alexandria was common, as can be deduced from the many
bills of rent preserved in the Geniza and from the many references to rented
houses in letters. A few examples will suffice:
Nathan b. Nahrai reports to his cousin Nahrai b. Nissim, who lived in Fustāt and
owned a house in Alexandria, that he had succeeded in extracting the rent due ˙ ˙ for
the house from the lady who lived there by threatening to rent it to someone
else.171 A court deed from 496/1103 concerns a settlement between Makkı̄ b. Abı̄
Sahl, who rented the house he had sold to two partners, for three dinars a year. If
he were to repay the whole value of the house, which was sixty dinars, within ten
years, the house would be returned to him. Otherwise, the partners would be entitled
to sell it to anyone.172 Yet another court deed, from 560/1165, deals with a debt of
eight dinars for the rent of a house. The tenant who owed it passed away and the
owner of the house demanded the debt from someone else.173
The Jewish community of Alexandria itself owned houses and apartments, most
of them pious foundations, the rents of which enabled the community to fund com-
munal affairs and to support the needy people of the community.174
Not only houses were rented, but also shops and storerooms, which were in
demand particularly by foreign merchants who were in need of space for their mer-
chandise and sometimes had to spend long months in the port city. Japheth Bar
Shelah, for example, wrote in 548/1153 to a fellow merchant: “If you need an apart-
ment or˙ a storeroom (makhzan) or anything to put your shirt there, let me know and
I’ll rent a place for you”.175
Alexandria: a gate to the splendours of the East
As depicted above, travellers and visitors to Alexandria from all over the Islamic
world viewed it mainly as a glittering symbol of a golden past. At the same time,
they could not avoid seeing its many deficiencies. The passage into the city
through the busy crowded port was an unpleasant experience, as described by Ibn
Jubayr:
The first thing we noticed on the day of our arrival was that the sultan’s
employees boarded the boat in order to record everything it was importing.
All the Muslims on the boat were called, one by one, and their names,
appearances and places of origin were carefully registered. Each one was
169
New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA 2806.2.
170
For instance: New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, E.N. Adler Collection, ENA
2806.2, a bill of rent for a cheap house rented for only seven dirhams a month, but which also had a
qāʿa and an ʿuluww.
171
Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Heb.d.91.
172
Jerusalem: National Library, NUL 3 (40 557.3).
173
174
For instance: Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS Ar. 53.67,
a letter from 635/1238 in which the writer, who was in charge of the rent from the tenants in the houses
belonging to the community of Alexandria, accuses the addressee of withholding the rent.
175
Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection, TS 16. 344.
asked about the goods and cash he was carrying … on the shore there were
police officers who were in charge of transmitting everything brought by the
boat to the dı̄wān. The passengers were summoned one by one and were
made to display their goods. The dı̄wān was suffocating and overcrowded.
All the passengers’ belongings were inspected, large ones as well as tiny
ones. Goods were rummaged through and entangled, hands went into
people’s belts, searching for what might be found there. Afterwards, the pas-
sengers were forced to swear that they had nothing more than what was
found. During this time, many goods were lost because they passed
through so many different hands. The crowding increased and then, after
much humiliation and degradation, everybody was released.176
Yet, for European travellers Alexandria was believed to be the entrance to the afflu-
ent Islamic world. For them, the port with its overwhelming abundance of diverse
goods was an object of admiration and wonder. Benjamin of Tudela wrote in his
travelogue:
Alexandria is a commercial market for all nations. Merchants come thither

from all Christian kingdoms … and merchants of India bring thither all kind
of spices, and the merchants of Edom buy of them. And the city is a busy
one full of traffic.177
William of Tyre, who was born in Jerusalem but was of west European origin and
identified with the Christian culture of Europe, wrote in the same spirit:
Whatever Alexandria lacks, she receives in plenty by boats arriving from

over the sea. This is why Alexandria is famous and known as the maritime
city that receives more merchandise of every kind than any other port city.
Everything lacking in our part of the world: spices, pearls, oriental treasures,
vessels from foreign countries, reaches the port from India, Sheba, Arabia,
Ethiopia, Persia and its environs … A multitude of people from East and
West arrive there and Alexandria is a public meeting place for both
worlds.178
The Alexandria’s enchantment of Western visitors was manifested in the behaviour

of the crusader soldiers, who occupied it for a short while in 562/1167, as described
by William of Tyre:
The Christians loved to walk around in the city, which was till then the
ultimate object of their desires. They watched the ports and the walls,
collected popular stories and information in order to weave them
into astonishing stories to tell their friends upon returning to their
countries of origin and to refresh the minds of their listeners with
pleasant talk.179
176
Ibn Jubayr, Rihla, 13.
177 ˙
Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, no. 106.
178
179
Ibid., 338.
34 Miriam Frenkel
Conclusions
After the detailed description provided so far, it is difficult to characterise Alexandria

in the fifth/eleventh-sixth/twelfth centuries as a “peripheral” or “provincial” city, as
some scholars have previously suggested. It may be more appropriate to view it as a
gateway city. The concept of “gateway city” was first developed by urban geogra-
phers such as R.D. McKenzie, E.L. Ulman, and especially A.F. Burghardt, in a
modern American context, but it seems also to be applicable to medieval cities
like Alexandria.180 Gateway cities, as defined by these geographers, in contrast to
“central cities”, develop between areas of differing intensities or types of production
on a site of transportational significance and command the connection between the
tributary area and the outside world. They are characterised by long-distance trade
connections and are committed to transportation and wholesale trading, but have to
import most manufactured items from an external “central city”. Situated between
the Delta, the desert and the sea, enjoying significant transportational advantages,
functioning as the main provider of services to its hinterland, controlling the long-
distance flow of goods, people, services and information, but dependent upon the
central city of Fustāt-Cairo for the supply of most commodities and manufactured
products, medieval ˙ ˙Alexandria seems to display most of the characteristics of a
gateway city. The population of Alexandria has not been discussed in this article,
but it should perhaps be mentioned as being also characteristic of a gateway city.
Alexandria was already described by Goitein as “a city of loose mores”181 with a
“cosmopolitan and pleasure-loving” society182 and by Udovitch as a city of “unruli-
ness and unrest”.183 This should not necessarily be attributed to its being a place of
transition, as suggested by Goitein and Udovitch, but to its general position as a
gateway city – as Burghardt has put it: “gateway cities become famous as boom
towns … they become the gathering place for pushers, boosters, those who wish to
become rich quickly”.184
The status of gateway city is not permanent. Gateway cities arise and may, in
certain circumstances, also lose their position as such, especially when they face
competition from other cities. The rise of Fustāt-Cairo as Egypt’s capital and
central city in the fourth/tenth century no doubt ˙affected
˙ the status of Alexandria,
but did not relegate it to being a peripheral town. It seems that, despite the
growing centrality of Fustāt-Cairo, Alexandria succeeded in retaining its transporta-
˙ ˙ as a gateway city. Although its boundaries inside the
tional nodality and its status
walls seem to have become smaller, city life actually extended beyond the walls
towards the Khalı̄j and the Qarāfa area. New public buildings were erected by the
Ayyūbid rulers and, despite the scarcity of information about the Fātimid era,
even the hostile and tendentious later Islamic chronicles attest to some public ˙ build-
ing projects initiated by the Fātimid rulers. The ongoing prosperity of the city is also
manifested in its lavish private ˙ houses, which became renowned for their
180
R.D. McKenzie, The Metropolitan Community (New York: Russel & Russel, 1933, repr. 1967); E.L.
Ulman, American Community Flow: A Geographical Interpretation of Rail and Water Traffic Based on Principle
of Spatial Interchange (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1957); A.F. Burghardt, “A Hypothesis
about Gateway Cities”, Association of American Geographers, 61.2 (1971): 269–85.
181
Goitein, Mediterranean Society, V: 314.
182
Ibid., 249.
183
184
Burghardt, “Hypothesis”, 282.
outstanding extravagance. But although the city was far from being provincial, it
certainly went through a gradual change of orientation from east to west. In the
fifth/eleventh century, Alexandria was mainly oriented to the Delta and the Nile
valley towards Fustāt-Cairo, as is clearly evidenced in the Geniza documents, but
˙ ˙ century onwards its orientation changed gradually to the
from the sixth/twelfth
west, towards the desert and the land trade route from Africa and the Maghreb.
This reorientation – the city’s shifting centre of gravity from east to west, discernible
in the Ayyūbid period, and the opening of a new gate to the West for the land
convoys from Africa – was manifested in significant changes in the city’s topography.

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Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval

Medieval Alexandria – Life in a Port City

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Medieval Alexandria – Life in a Port City

ABSTRACT The article presents an overview description of medieval Alexandria, based on

the integration of archaeological finds, Muslim historiography, and medieval travelogues,

© 2014 Society for the Medieval Mediterranean

spectacular history of medieval Alexandria based mainly on medieval Islamic chron-

Alexandria’s uniqueness lies in its very special geographical location, between

The city’s borders and its surroundings

884) and by Salāh al-Dı̄n in 570/1174.24

the beginning of the fifth/eleventh century, Joseph b. Jacob al-Tarabulsı̄,

One of [Alexandria’s] marvels and charms, which I have witnessed, is the

The water system

streets and lanes and its wells adjoin each other”.41

The Nile water, which is supposed to reach it (Alexandria) through the

recommended than the situation nowadays, when it is obstructed or

This double system was also observed by William of Tyre:

Alexandria’s construction and appearance

Medieval Alexandria preserved the canonical orthogonal layout of the Hellenistic

Al-ʿAbdarı̄ wrote a long eulogy to Alexandria in rhyming prose in which he noted

The bazaar and other commercial centres

I was at Sūq al-Sayraf at the shop of R. Ezekiel. We were a group of Jewish

at home and the loom stays

other writers who described Ayyūbid Alexandria.

Churches and monasteries

in Muslim ˙ historiography thanks to the magnificent˙ fountain in its garden.162 The

The residential palaces of Alexandria had a unique architectural style. When

Alexandria: a gate to the splendours of the East

Alexandria is a commercial market for all nations. Merchants come thither

Whatever Alexandria lacks, she receives in plenty by boats arriving from

The Alexandria’s enchantment of Western visitors was manifested in the behaviour

After the detailed description provided so far, it is difficult to characterise Alexandria

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