Finance
For
commerce and trade to work in the vast distances of Muslim
land extending from the far east of Asia to Western Europe
and Africa, Muslims introduced concepts of municipal administration
and invented the check, called the suck, and
the banking institutions. A check was issued in Baghdad
for certain commodity and cashed in Indonesia. Other Arabic
words reflecting the lasting influence of Muslims on commerce
are: traffic (from tafriq meaning distribution),
magazine (from Makhzan meaning store), mancus
a term used for coin (from manqush meaning encrypted),
almanac (from al-Manakh meaning the climate), average,
caliber, coffer, cipher, gabelle
(from jabee meaning tax collector), nadir, zenith,
zero and risk.
The
development of partnerships and joint stock companies
was another direct outcome of this financial invention
of the check. Example from the 9th and 10th centuries
are the partnerships between the Muslim Damascus, Syria
and Christian merchants of Italy and the cities of North
Africa.
Abu
al-Qasim M. ibn Hauqal in his book, Book of Routes
and Kingdoms, recorded his visit to two Italian municipalities
about the year 977 and that were dealing with the North
African cities of Ajdabyiah in Libya and kairouan and
Sijilmassa in Maghreb (Morocco.) Kairoun was the largest
municipality and seat of government of Maghreb. Sijilmassa
was the terminal for caravans to the gold-exporting areas
of the Senegal. Ibn Hauqal wrote of private accounts of
the citizens of Sijilmassa in the amount of
400.000 dinars.
Arabia Felix, fertile Arabia, from the 7th to the 9th
century was the exchange point for many items: linen and
glass from Egypt and Syria were traded for cotton, silk
and spices from India China and Indonesia.
Other
were at the heart of this enormous trading were horses,
tigers, panthers, epony, coconuts, rubies, silk, chinaware,
paper ink, incense, grapes, rose water, pearls, quail,
curtines, carpets, fine mats, sugar, tea and coffee.
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