Comercio mudo / Silent Trade en el Islam
ISSN: 1139-9996
Year of publication: 2010
Issue Title: Miscelánea de historia y cultura material de al-Andalus: Homenaje a Maryelle Bertrand (textos reunidos por C. Cressier, I. Montilla, J. R. Sánchez y A. Vallejo)
Issue: 7
Pages: 421-427
Type: Article
More publications in: Cuadernos de Madinat al-Zahra: Revista de difusión científica del Conjunto Arqueológico Madinat al-Zahra
Abstract
Several type of silent trade definition, making a clear distiction between silent trade itself and commerce par depot/in absentia and its requirements. Pre-islamic Arabia practiced different residual forms of wordless trade (all forbidden by Sari'a). Later, "intersocietal foreign economical exchanges" existed within the Dar al-Islam social and cultural borders. The most extreme in absentia trade form is basically documented in Africa, beyond Sahara desert (Gold), and in Russian steppe limits (furs). The absence of a seller-buyer visual contact has created strange ideas about the other group essence. It is asserted the changes had been made with non-human beings: animals, spirits, genies, demos, ghosts. It is documented the historical presence of silent trade since Herodoto "beyond Hercules Columns", through Asia and America, where it was still working in 2007.