The Trade Life in Aden City from the Perspective of Ibn al-Mucawir in the Period of the Ayyubids

Abstract

Aden city constitutes first meeting place of the trade ships that come from India, China and East Africa and also Mediterranean and Basra Gulf during the Middle Ages. Because of this, this city was an important harbor city of the Arabic Peninsula with Jeddah and Cdr on the Red Sea and Muscat on the Oman Sea. Also the trading caravans that come from the east countries by overland route bring every kind of goods to this city. Aden is a center in which every kind of international goods are stored. Because of the busy trading activities, Aden city has become one of the busiest harbors of the world in the long time from its founding until today. As an important harbor city of Yaman, in this paper, the trade capacity of Aden, taxes that were taken from trading, money ops and international trading activities in Aden are dealt with from the perspective of a famous historian in that period especially in the period of the Ayyfibids.