Title
Housing the stranger in the Mediterranean world : lodging, trade, and travel in late antiquity and the Middle Ages / Olivia Remie Constable.
ISBN
9780521109765 (pbk.)
0521109760 (pbk.)
9780521819183
0521819180
Imprint
Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Language
English
Description
xii, 427 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Call Number
TX910.A1 C67 2003
Dewey Decimal Classification
647.94/0091822
Summary
The Greek pandocheion, Arabic funduq, and Latin fundicum (fondaco) were ubiquitous in the Mediterranean sphere for nearly two millennia. These institutions were not only hostelries for traders and travelers, but also taverns, markets, warehouses, and sites for commercial taxation and regulation. In this highly original study, Professor Constable traces the complex evolution of this family of institutions from the pandocheion in Late Antiquity, to the appearance of the funduq throughout the Muslim Mediterranean following the rise of Islam. By the twelfth century, with the arrival of European merchants in Islamic markets, the funduq evolved into the fondaco. These merchant colonies facilitated trade and travel between Muslim and Christian regions. Before long, fondacos also appeared in southern European cities. This study of the diffusion of this institutional family demonstrates common economic interests and cross-cultural communications across the medieval Mediterranean world, and provides a striking contribution to our understanding of this region.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
'Accepting all comers': a cross-cultural institution in late antiquity
The transition from Byzantium to the Daŕ al-Islaḿ
Commerce, charity, community, and the Funduq
Colonies before colonialism: western trade and the evolution of the Fondaco
Conquest and commercial space: the case of Iberia
Fondacos in Sicily, South Italy, and the crusader states
Changing patterns of Muslim commercial space in the later middle ages
Christian commerce and the solidification of the Fondaco system
The Fondaco in Mediterranean Europe.
