Housing the stranger in the Mediterranean world : lodging, trade, and travel in late antiquity and the Middle Ages / Olivia Remie Constable.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Constable, Olivia Remie, author.

Series:

ACLS Fellows’ publications.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hotels--Mediterranean Region--History.

Hotels.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 427 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Summary:

The Greek pandocheion, Arabic funduq, and Latin fundicum (fondaco) were ubiquitous in the Mediterranean sphere for nearly two millennia. These institutions were not only hostelries for traders and travelers, but also taverns, markets, warehouses, and sites for commercial taxation and regulation. In this highly original study, Professor Constable traces the complex evolution of this family of institutions from the pandocheion in Late Antiquity, to the appearance of the funduq throughout the Muslim Mediterranean following the rise of Islam. By the twelfth century, with the arrival of European merchants in Islamic markets, the funduq evolved into the fondaco. These merchant colonies facilitated trade and travel between Muslim and Christian regions. Before long, fondacos also appeared in southern European cities. This study of the diffusion of this institutional family demonstrates common economic interests and cross-cultural communications across the medieval Mediterranean world, and provides a striking contribution to our understanding of this region.

Contents:

'Accepting all comers': a cross-cultural institution in late antiquity

The transition from Byzantium to the Daŕ al-Islaḿ

Commerce, charity, community, and the Funduq

Colonies before colonialism: western trade and the evolution of the Fondaco

Conquest and commercial space: the case of Iberia

Fondacos in Sicily, South Italy, and the crusader states

Changing patterns of Muslim commercial space in the later middle ages

Christian commerce and the solidification of the Fondaco system

The Fondaco in Mediterranean Europe.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 362-404) and index.

ISBN:

0-511-16290-1

1-107-14517-1

9786610437511

0-511-16370-3

0-511-49626-5

1-280-43751-0

0-511-16450-5

0-511-31264-4

0-511-16563-3

0-511-16526-9

0-521-10976-0

Publisher Number:

2027/heb30998 hdl