Location, Location, Location

[syrakusos]

Once upon a time, people actually got along, based pretty much on trade and commerce. Then, someone got morality and it felt good because that moral high ground offers a vista of people beneath you while at the time putting you a least a meter closer to God. The thing was though, he was so happy with the moral high ground that others wanted some, too. Some tried to push him off and take it for their own. Others found their own high grounds elsewhere. Some people built tremendously high moral mountains from baked brick, all adorned and ornamented with axioms and theorems and treatises. Some people just piled up other people, usually dead, sometimes only dying, and stood on them. It looked a lot like the views from other moral high grounds and with enough bodies, it was almost like the moral ziggurats that the other guys built.

Moral high grounds being nonetheless limited, most people got along without them.

Nellie Hanna wrote Making Big Money in 1600: the life and times of Isma'il abu Taqiyy about a merchant in Cairo. I read about it in The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times, Landes, Mokyr & Baumol, eds., in the chapter about the Middle East by Timur Kuran. Kuran also referred to the Geniza [Genizah] without explaining it, so I had to look that up. The "genizah" is a room in a Jewish temple where lumber is stored. (So, I have read.) In Cairo, at what had to be a large temple, they stored court records. When you go to court, you swear to God that you are telling the truth - common old custom, apparently. So, all these papers have GOD written on them and the Jews have good evidence that God does not want his name tossed out or recycled or shredded into packing. So, they kept everything. From about like 1000 CE (can't say Anno Domini any more) to about 1900, they were in this room. Then - like Troy, Knossos, and the Parthenon - they were discovered by British archaeologists and taken to the UK to be "studied." (Always reminds me of the scene in Sleeper where Miles takes the centerfold.) Well, it is an ill wind that blows no man good, and now we have about 19 thousand of these 92 million scraps translated and they reveal a rich complex and fascinating daily log of peaceful, profitable interactions among the merchant folk of Cairo, mostly about 1000-1300 CE (or 378 to 678 AH or 4760-5070 Absolute Kelvin Years.) The same story comes from Nellie Hanna about Abu Taqiyya: not only were Jews convenient intermediaries between Muslims and Christians, it was possible for Christians to come to Cairo to do business -- though a bit harder for Muslims to goto Europe and have a good time.

Today, Jews, Muslims and Christians all seem a lot unhappier with each other, probably because they are unhappier with themselves. One thing I figured out is that with most living things, if you whack at them, they whack back. Even a tree if you chop it down will fall right on you and kill you if you let it. You have to watch out. With bees and bulls, it's even worse. One time, I found these little yellow jackets in a post... Well, anyway, if you find the here and now depressing, I recommend a trip back in time.

In the world of Abu Taqiyya, women had rights. They sued their brothers and fathers in court. They managed the wealth the inherited. Their brothers would find them so darned clever and reliable that they gave them management of the household trusts ("waqf") that served as corporations - shariah law did not recognize non-corporeal beings, which is odd for a religion with angels, but that's another issue entirely. Women in Cairo would have been the envy of their sisters in England or France, if the Europeans had known about them.

Many of the Genizah documents were studied and published by Shelomo Dov Goitein (April 3, 1900 — February 6, 1985) who wrote an impressive series academic journal articles. Use Google Scholar. Enter Shelomo Dov Goitein (or SD Goitein) and just read the titles. He wrote a bit on Islam, as well as a lot on Jewish culture, and, interestingly, the intersection of them. And it was not just Muslim women who had all the perks. A bit harder to find via Google Scholar is this essay:

Jewish Business Woman of the Eleventh Century by S. D. Goitein in The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 57, The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Volume of the Jewish Quarterly Review (1967), pp. 225-242.

Merchants Make History by Ernst Samhaber was not the most famous book of its time. Like The Romance of Commerce by H. Gordon Selfridge, it can be read on Google Books (though not in its entirety). You can probably have it ILLed by your library if you prefer the book. I was lucky enough to find them used, so I own them for my bookshelf. Samhaber says, "A good merchant does not argue religion with his client." As long as we argue religion, we forego the profits that come from trade.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Michael E. Marotta

[kluss]

Once upon a time, people actually got along, based pretty much on trade and commerce. Then, someone got morality and it felt good because that moral high ground offers a vista of people beneath you while at the time putting you a least a meter closer to God. The thing was though, he was so happy with the moral high ground that others wanted some, too. Some tried to push him off and take it for their own. Others found their own high grounds elsewhere. Some people built tremendously high moral mountains from baked brick, all adorned and ornamented with axioms and theorems and treatises. Some people just piled up other people, usually dead, sometimes only dying, and stood on them. It looked a lot like the views from other moral high grounds and with enough bodies, it was almost like the moral ziggurats that the other guys built.

Moral high grounds being nonetheless limited, most people got along without them.

Nellie Hanna wrote Making Big Money in 1600: the life and times of Isma'il abu Taqiyy about a merchant in Cairo. I read about it in The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times, Landes, Mokyr & Baumol, eds., in the chapter about the Middle East by Timur Kuran. Kuran also referred to the Geniza [Genizah] without explaining it, so I had to look that up. The "genizah" is a room in a Jewish temple where lumber is stored. (So, I have read.) In Cairo, at what had to be a large temple, they stored court records. When you go to court, you swear to God that you are telling the truth - common old custom, apparently. So, all these papers have GOD written on them and the Jews have good evidence that God does not want his name tossed out or recycled or shredded into packing. So, they kept everything. From about like 1000 CE (can't say Anno Domini any more) to about 1900, they were in this room. Then - like Troy, Knossos, and the Parthenon - they were discovered by British archaeologists and taken to the UK to be "studied." (Always reminds me of the scene in Sleeper where Miles takes the centerfold.) Well, it is an ill wind that blows no man good, and now we have about 19 thousand of these 92 million scraps translated and they reveal a rich complex and fascinating daily log of peaceful, profitable interactions among the merchant folk of Cairo, mostly about 1000-1300 CE (or 378 to 678 AH or 4760-5070 Absolute Kelvin Years.) The same story comes from Nellie Hanna about Abu Taqiyya: not only were Jews convenient intermediaries between Muslims and Christians, it was possible for Christians to come to Cairo to do business -- though a bit harder for Muslims to goto Europe and have a good time.

Today, Jews, Muslims and Christians all seem a lot unhappier with each other, probably because they are unhappier with themselves. One thing I figured out is that with most living things, if you whack at them, they whack back. Even a tree if you chop it down will fall right on you and kill you if you let it. You have to watch out. With bees and bulls, it's even worse. One time, I found these little yellow jackets in a post... Well, anyway, if you find the here and now depressing, I recommend a trip back in time.

In the world of Abu Taqiyya, women had rights. They sued their brothers and fathers in court. They managed the wealth the inherited. Their brothers would find them so darned clever and reliable that they gave them management of the household trusts ("waqf") that served as corporations - shariah law did not recognize non-corporeal beings, which is odd for a religion with angels, but that's another issue entirely. Women in Cairo would have been the envy of their sisters in England or France, if the Europeans had known about them.

Many of the Genizah documents were studied and published by Shelomo Dov Goitein (April 3, 1900 — February 6, 1985) who wrote an impressive series academic journal articles. Use Google Scholar. Enter Shelomo Dov Goitein (or SD Goitein) and just read the titles. He wrote a bit on Islam, as well as a lot on Jewish culture, and, interestingly, the intersection of them. And it was not just Muslim women who had all the perks. A bit harder to find via Google Scholar is this essay:

Jewish Business Woman of the Eleventh Century by S. D. Goitein in The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 57, The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Volume of the Jewish Quarterly Review (1967), pp. 225-242.

Merchants Make History by Ernst Samhaber was not the most famous book of its time. Like The Romance of Commerce by H. Gordon Selfridge, it can be read on Google Books (though not in its entirety). You can probably have it ILLed by your library if you prefer the book. I was lucky enough to find them used, so I own them for my bookshelf. Samhaber says, "A good merchant does not argue religion with his client." As long as we argue religion, we forego the profits that come from trade.

hmm what abut tribes ?

(read the maker of the end of history book new book maybe )

and clans did they not survive other then trade ? was selfsufficent (did make or build or growh or hunt what they needed? or tramps and drfiters ? nomades that survieved outside the culture? (like hakim bey taz and paz books )

or the irnony that the big free trade dream called dubai now days was before called the pirate coast ?`

[kluss]

Once upon a time, people actually got along, based pretty much on trade and commerce. Then, someone got morality and it felt good because that moral high ground offers a vista of people beneath you while at the time putting you a least a meter closer to God. The thing was though, he was so happy with the moral high ground that others wanted some, too. Some tried to push him off and take it for their own. Others found their own high grounds elsewhere. Some people built tremendously high moral mountains from baked brick, all adorned and ornamented with axioms and theorems and treatises. Some people just piled up other people, usually dead, sometimes only dying, and stood on them. It looked a lot like the views from other moral high grounds and with enough bodies, it was almost like the moral ziggurats that the other guys built.

Moral high grounds being nonetheless limited, most people got along without them.

Nellie Hanna wrote Making Big Money in 1600: the life and times of Isma'il abu Taqiyy about a merchant in Cairo. I read about it in The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times, Landes, Mokyr & Baumol, eds., in the chapter about the Middle East by Timur Kuran. Kuran also referred to the Geniza [Genizah] without explaining it, so I had to look that up. The "genizah" is a room in a Jewish temple where lumber is stored. (So, I have read.) In Cairo, at what had to be a large temple, they stored court records. When you go to court, you swear to God that you are telling the truth - common old custom, apparently. So, all these papers have GOD written on them and the Jews have good evidence that God does not want his name tossed out or recycled or shredded into packing. So, they kept everything. From about like 1000 CE (can't say Anno Domini any more) to about 1900, they were in this room. Then - like Troy, Knossos, and the Parthenon - they were discovered by British archaeologists and taken to the UK to be "studied." (Always reminds me of the scene in Sleeper where Miles takes the centerfold.) Well, it is an ill wind that blows no man good, and now we have about 19 thousand of these 92 million scraps translated and they reveal a rich complex and fascinating daily log of peaceful, profitable interactions among the merchant folk of Cairo, mostly about 1000-1300 CE (or 378 to 678 AH or 4760-5070 Absolute Kelvin Years.) The same story comes from Nellie Hanna about Abu Taqiyya: not only were Jews convenient intermediaries between Muslims and Christians, it was possible for Christians to come to Cairo to do business -- though a bit harder for Muslims to goto Europe and have a good time.

Today, Jews, Muslims and Christians all seem a lot unhappier with each other, probably because they are unhappier with themselves. One thing I figured out is that with most living things, if you whack at them, they whack back. Even a tree if you chop it down will fall right on you and kill you if you let it. You have to watch out. With bees and bulls, it's even worse. One time, I found these little yellow jackets in a post... Well, anyway, if you find the here and now depressing, I recommend a trip back in time.

In the world of Abu Taqiyya, women had rights. They sued their brothers and fathers in court. They managed the wealth the inherited. Their brothers would find them so darned clever and reliable that they gave them management of the household trusts ("waqf") that served as corporations - shariah law did not recognize non-corporeal beings, which is odd for a religion with angels, but that's another issue entirely. Women in Cairo would have been the envy of their sisters in England or France, if the Europeans had known about them.

Many of the Genizah documents were studied and published by Shelomo Dov Goitein (April 3, 1900 — February 6, 1985) who wrote an impressive series academic journal articles. Use Google Scholar. Enter Shelomo Dov Goitein (or SD Goitein) and just read the titles. He wrote a bit on Islam, as well as a lot on Jewish culture, and, interestingly, the intersection of them. And it was not just Muslim women who had all the perks. A bit harder to find via Google Scholar is this essay:

Jewish Business Woman of the Eleventh Century by S. D. Goitein in The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 57, The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Volume of the Jewish Quarterly Review (1967), pp. 225-242.

Merchants Make History by Ernst Samhaber was not the most famous book of its time. Like The Romance of Commerce by H. Gordon Selfridge, it can be read on Google Books (though not in its entirety). You can probably have it ILLed by your library if you prefer the book. I was lucky enough to find them used, so I own them for my bookshelf. Samhaber says, "A good merchant does not argue religion with his client." As long as we argue religion, we forego the profits that come from trade.

hmm what abut tribes ?

(read the maker of the end of history book new book maybe )

and clans did they not survive other then trade ? was selfsufficent (did make or build or growh or hunt what they needed? or tramps and drfiters ? nomades that survieved outside the culture? (like hakim bey taz and paz books )

or the irnony that the big free trade dream called dubai now days was before called the pirate coast ?`