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The Regime and the Urban Wheat Market: the Famine of 662/1263-64

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The Regime and the Urban Wheat Market: the Famine of 662/1263-64 YAACOV LEV BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY The Regime and the Urban Wheat Market: The Famine of 662/1263–64 in Cairo* FAMINES AND THE CAIRO WHEAT MARKET THE NILE'S ANNUAL CYCLE The typology of famines in Muslim Egypt is rather simple since famines occurred either as the result of speculation, meaning the withholding of supplies, or as a result of the Nile not rising enough. When the Nile failed to reach its plenitude the effect was twofold: on the year it occurred (the current year) and, of course, the next one. It must be emphasized that the price and availability of grain in the current year were determined by the flow of the Nile in the preceding year, which might have been normal. The shortages that were likely to occur in the current year came about as the result of buying for the future or hoarding in preparation for an impending shortage. In this case the famine took place because of a disturbance in the workings of the market mechanism, and not necessarily as a result of speculation or actual shortage. These observations become clear when one examines the annual flow-regime of the Nile and the resultant availability of grain in Cairo. The annual rise of the Nile used to begin during the Coptic month of Ba’u≠nah (8 June–7 July) and intensified during Ab|b (8 July–6 August). The beginning of the rise during Ba’u≠nah made it possible for boats loaded with grain to sail from both Upper and Lower Egypt toward Cairo. During Misra ≠ (7 August–5 September, to which five to six extra days are added since Misra≠ is the twelfth Coptic month), the rising water of the Nile made the canal of Alexandria navigable and boats began sailing toward Cairo with grain and other agricultural products such as flax and sugar cane as well as timber and iron brought to Alexandria by Italian merchants for the government. The Nile usually reached plenitude, i.e., sixteen cubits as measured at the Cairo Nilometer, during Misra≠. The new agricultural year began during Tut≠ (11/12 September–9/10 October) when the seeds needed for the planting of wheat and barley were delivered to the falla≠h˝|n but the actual sowing only began in Upper Egypt during Ba≠bah (11/12 October–9/10 November). The annual rise and subsequent decrease in the level of the Nile came first in Upper Egypt while, in other parts of the country, the preparation of the land for the sowing of Middle East Documentation Center. The University of Chicago. *I am grateful to David Jacobi of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, for his valuable criticism and suggestions. Article: http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MSR_VIII-2_2004-Lev.pdf Full volume: http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MamlukStudiesReview_VIII-2_2004.pdf High resolution version: http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MamlukStudiesReview_VIII-2_2004_26MB.pdf ©2004 by the author. (Disregard notice of MEDOC copyright.) This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY). Mamlūk Studies Review is an Open Access journal. See http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/msr.html for information. 150 YAACOV LEV, THE REGIME AND THE URBAN WHEAT MARKET grain and barley was done during Kiyahk (10/11 December–8/9 January). The harvest and threshing of the grain were completed shortly before the beginning of the rise of the Nile in Ba’u≠nah.1 If we shift our attention back to Cairo we can note two parallel events that always took place in the capital: the observation of the rise of the Nile and the arrival of freshly-harvested grain to the ports. Progress in the rise of the Nile indicated what the fortunes of the next agricultural year would be, whereas the amount of grain available was determined by the previous year's river-flow. Whatever the quantities of grain that arrived in Cairo were, the fluctuations in the market were related to the observation of the rise of the river—which ultimately determined the intensity and volume of the demand. It must be pointed out that the rise of the Nile was measured and announced on a daily basis and the attempt of the first Fatimid caliph in Egypt (973) to ban this, in order to prevent panic, failed.2 The suppression of information was an ill-conceived idea since it created panic. The rise was public knowledge and clearly observable even without the measurements made at the Nilometer. HOW THE CAIRO WHEAT MARKET WORKED When grain arrived at the grain ports (sa≠h˝il pl. sawa≠h˝il, meaning docks or wooden jetties) of Cairo it was taxed.3 This taxation is widely documented for the whole period of the Middle Ages. Ostensibly the government thus had a powerful tool in its hands to combat rising prices and to prevent the starvation of the worst-off segments of the urban population. Abolition of taxes, even temporarily, could have been an effective tool to combat both a brief (or artificial) crisis or a real and acute shortage by encouraging more affordable prices and delaying the worst of the famine for a while. Medieval regimes, however, were very reluctant to abolish 1This section is based on the agricultural calendars of Ibn Mammat|,≠ al-Makhzum|,≠ and al-Maqr|z|. These texts have been edited, translated into French, and annotated by Charles Pellat, Cinq calendriers Égyptiens (Cairo, 1986), 7, 15, 19, 65, 75, 79, 95, 99, 101, 105, 113, 123, 125, 127, 129. For the distinction between winter crops (wheat, barley, beans, and flax) and summer crops (watermelons, beans, cotton, and sugar cane), see Hassanein Rabie, "Some Technical Aspects of Agriculture in Medieval Egypt," in The Islamic Middle East, 700–1900, ed. Abraham L. Udovitch (Princeton, 1981), 68–71. 2Al-Maqr|z|, Itti‘a≠z˝ al-H˛unafa≠’ bi-Akhba≠r al-A’immah al-Fa≠t¸im|y|n al-Khulafa≠’, ed. Jama≠l al-D|n al-Shayya≠l (Cairo, 1967), 1:138; Na≠s˝ir-i Khusraw, Book of Travels (Safarna≠mah), translated into English by W. M. Thackston, Jr. (New York, 1986), 41. 3In eleventh-century Cairo there were two main grain ports. One, sa≠h˝il Maqs, served for unloading the grain designated for the consumption of the Fatimid palace, while the other, sa≠h˝il Mis˝r, served the capital and its population. Grain shipped from Upper and Lower Egypt arrived at sa≠h˝il al-Sa‘|d and sa≠h˝il Asfal Ard˝ while barley was unloaded at sa≠h˝il al-sha‘|r. See al-Musabbih˝|, Akhba≠r Mis˝r, ed. Ayman Fu’a≠d Sayyid and Thierry Bianquis (Cairo, 1978), 39, 73, 78, 87, 94. Article: http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MSR_VIII-2_2004-Lev.pdf Full volume: http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MamlukStudiesReview_VIII-2_2004.pdf High resolution version: http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MamlukStudiesReview_VIII-2_2004_26MB.pdf MAMLU±K STUDIES REVIEW VOL. 8, NO. 2, 2004 151 taxes on grain. For example, in 1025, taxes on grain were only lifted at the height of the famine but this was too late and too little to have any real effect on the prices.4 Another tool in the hands of the government was the declaration of maximum prices (tas‘|r) for grain, flour, and bread. This policy was usually implemented more readily and at earlier stages of any evolving crisis yet, as far as can be ascertained from the sources, this always had a negative effect on the market and brought sales to a standstill.5 The government had two further means in its hands to combat shortages in grain and high prices: importation or the sale of grain from its own stocks. The importation of grain into medieval Egypt is a complex and little-researched topic and the evidence collected and discussed by Eliyahu Ashtor is inconclusive. We do know that grain was imported to Egypt during periods of shortage at the end of the thirteenth century, and even during normal years, but whether the Mamluk authorities or private merchants were behind the imports during the years of shortage remains vague.6 As has been demonstrated by Benjamin Arbel's work on Venetian Cyprus in the fifteenth–sixteenth centuries, grain was traded in the eastern Mediterranean and the flow of the trade was determined by regional shortages with grain surplus countries exporting to places affected by poor harvests. Other forces were, however, also at work and price differences were a powerful inducement for the exporting of grain from Mamluk Egypt or Venetian Cyprus (even during 4For taxation of grain in the Fatimid period, see ibid., 75. For the Mamluk period, see al-Nuwayr|, Niha≠yat al-Arab f| Funu≠n al-Adab, ed. al-Ba≠z al-‘Ar|n| and ‘Abd al-‘Az|z al-Ahwa≠n| (Cairo, 1992), 32:227; al-Maqr|z|, Kita≠b al-Sulu≠k li-Ma‘rifat Duwal al-Mulu≠k, ed. Muh˝ammad Mus˝t¸afá Ziyadah and Sa‘|d ‘Abd al-Fatta≠h˝ ‘A±shu≠r (Cairo, 1943–72), 2:2:538, 3:3:972–73; Ibn Iya≠s, Bada≠’i‘ al-Zuhu≠r f| Waqa≠’i‘ al-Duhu≠r, ed. Muh˝ammad Mus˝t¸afá (Cairo, 1963), 3:315, 331. 5For legal and theological aspects of tas‘|r, see D. Gimaret, "Les theologiens musulmans devant la hausse des prix," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 22 (1979): 330–39. For practical aspects, see Adam Sabra, Poverty and Charity in Islam: Mamlu≠k Egypt, 1250–1517 (Cambridge, 2000), 138, 146. 6Eliyahu Ashtor, "The Wheat Supply of the Mamlu≠k Kingdom," Asian and African Studies (Haifa) 18 (1984): 283–85, 287.
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