Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

688 22c. the arabs
equipment, harness and so forth. Apart from exchanges (often quite
complex) of goods and services, bedouins played a major role in economic
development. There is evidence, for example, that parts of different tribes
concluded sharecropping agreements and worked together to promote and
protect agriculture. 60 Certain villages also specialized in serving the needs
of nomads, and oases and springs where herds could be watered attracted
settlements that thrived on trade with the nomads. Relations were further
dictated by the need of settled merchants to move their goods through
lands controlled by nomads, and hence to remain on good terms with the
tribes. 61
Arabian domestic trade thus consisted of caravans of camels organized
by settled merchants and protected and guided by bedouins who controlled
the lands through which the caravans passed. Seasonal fairs were
often held, especially around religious shrines, and security at such important
times was guaranteed by the declaration of sacred periods during
which no raiding or fighting was to occur. 62 The goods being traded were
for the most part not costly items, but rather the basic goods and commodities
that people needed to live. This in turn limited the distance and
duration that the caravans could travel, since the longer the journey was,
the more expensive the goods would be at their destination; 63 that is, the
longer the contemplated journey was in both distance and time, the more
precious the goods being carried would have to be in order to generate
sufficient income to make the journey feasible economically. The internal
trade of Arabia thus seems to have involved the transport of goods on
short or medium-length journeys, and it is probably this factor that
accounts for the proliferation of market centres. The sources present a
picture of lively markets dotting the steppe landscape of the peninsula;
wells, springs and small villages were all attractive sites for established
market activities, though the scale of such operations was probably
small. 64 In some cases, commerce was encouraged by banning private land
ownership within the market precinct (thus preventing dominance by a
few successful merchants) and suspending taxes and fees on traders and
visitors. 65
60 Al-Bakrī, Mu�jam mā sta�jam i.77–8. Cf. Kister (1979) 70 on similar arrangements at the time of the
Prophet. The same system is still widespread today.
61 See Simon (1989) 78–86; Morony (1984) 218–19; Donner (1989) 77–8; and for modern examples,
Jabbur (1995) 1–2, 5–8, 32–8, 250. Cf. also Nelson (1970).
62 Wellhausen (1897) 84–94; Brunschvig (1976) i.113–18; Crone (1987) 87–108.
63 Jones (1955) 164; Hendy (1986) 556–7. Cf. also Crone (1987) 7. Not all trade was profit-driven,
however; see Villiers (1940).
64 Lughda al-Is· fahānī, Bilād al-�arab e.g. 224, 227, 243, 333–4, 335, 345, 358, 361, 397;Muh · ammad ibn
H · abīb, Muh · abbar 263–8; al-Marzūqī, Kitāb al-azmina wa-l-amkina 161–70. Cf. also al-Afghānī (1960);
H · ammūr (1979). 65 Kister (1965); Dostal (1979); Lecker (1986).
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