Los cambistas en la Córdoba califalLa doctrina de ‘Abd al-Malik B. Habīb sobre la usura y su aplicación en el zoco por Ibn ‘Abd al-Ra’ūf

Resumen

The increasingly frequent conversions to Islam along the ninth and tenth centuries CE in al-Andalus were accompanied by the increase in the number of specialists in Islamic law. These specialists were trained to guide the new Muslims and inform them of the 'Islamic' ways of doing things. ʻAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb (d. 238/852) was one of those first experts and, fortunately, some of his works have been preserved. Ibn Ḥabīb introduced a large amount of legal material in al-Andalus that served Andalusi Muslims to know how they should act in different situations. Specifically, his booklet on usury (ribā) was used to regulate the activities carried out in the market. An evidence of this are the frequent allusions to Ibn Ḥabīb and his doctrine in the ḥisba treaty written by the jurist and muḥtaṣib Aḥmad b. ʻAbd al-Ra'ūf between the end of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth century. The study of both works reveals that money changers were observed with suspicion because their transactions used to be regarded as usurious. In his treaty, Ibn ʻAbd al-Ra'ūf points out the condition of nonMuslims (dhimmīs) of these money changers, while Ibn Ḥabīb in his Kitāb al-ribā, makes no mention of their religious ascription. Why does Ibn ʻAbd al-Ra’ūf point to the religious condition of these money changers? In this contribution I will try to answer this question through the analysis of Ibn Ḥabīb’s and Ibn ʻAbd al-Ra'ūf’s texts, as well as the historical context.