The Crusades, the Genoese and the Latin East - DSpace at ...

The pope also renewed the general embargo on trade in war materials with the enemy. In
a recent paper on the supply of war materials to Egypt David Jacoby argued that in the late
twelfth and during the thirteenth centuries the Egyptians were dependent on the western supply of
war materials, because of the European hegemony of shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. 316 Under
the threat of excommunication, Innocent banned in 1215 the selling of arms, war materials and
ships to the Saracens. Innocent, therefore, made a very clear distinction between the general trade
with the Saracens, which was only boycotted for the immediate period of the crusade, and the
embargo on arms, which was comprehensive and already issued by the papacy in 1162,1179 and
1195317 In Jacoby's words, innocent `issued once more the customary ban on the sale of war
materials, adding a prohibition against delivering ships to the Muslims or assisting them in the
construction of war engines. '318 Jacoby concluded his article by saying that `Christian merchants
and ship operators were not willing to forgo this lucrative trade, even at the risk of having their
goods occasionally seized or paying heavy fines when the traffic was banned by western or
Frankish authorities. ' 319
how does this presentation of the commercial relationships correspond to
the organisation of the Fifth Crusade?
It is interesting to note that Abulafia and Cahen examined trade between Alexandria and
the west in this period reached somewhat different conclusions. They based their study on Arabic
sources and primarily on the fiscal treaties known as the Minhädj by al-Makhzümi: `Le Minhcidj
d'al-Makhzümi, redige sous le regne de Saladin d'apres une documentation essentiellement
fatimide, nous permet maintenant de mieux comprendre les renseignement epars dans les actes
italiens qui commencent a la meme epoque ä se multiplier. '32Ö Abulafia showed that local
production dominated in the list of exported articles in al-Makhzümi to the west: `flax and cotton
were seen by the twelfth-century writer al-Makhzumi as prime exports of
Egypt. '321
Moreover, Jacoby did not discuss the crusades and their commercial implications in his
article, which was limited to Egypt and the supply of war materials. However, the arguments
presented reveal that the role of Egypt in western trade was important and should be, therefore,
examined in the particular circumstances that preceded the Fifth Crusade. The commercial
relationship between the western powers and Alexandria had grown more intensive with the
316 David Jacoby, `The Supply of War Materials to Egypt in the Crusader Period', Jerusalem Studies in
Arabic and Islam 25 (2001), p. 103.1 would like to thank Prof Jacoby for a copy of this article.
317
1bid, p. 109.
318
Ibid, p. 114.
3191bid, p. 129.
320 Claude Cahen, Orient et occident au temps des croisades (Paris, 1983), p. 134. The treaties were also
analysed by Cahen in: `Douanes et commerce dans les ports mediterraneens de I'Egypte medievale d'apr8s
le Minhadj d'AI-Mukhzumi', Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 7 (1964), pp. 217-325.
321 David Abulafia, `Industrial Products: the Middle Ages', in Simonetta Cavaciocchi (ed. ), Prodotti e
techniche d'Oltremare nelle economie europee, secc. XIII XVIll (Florence, 1998), p. 339.
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