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7. On the Politics of Inside and Out
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162 7 OnthePoliticsof InsideandOut Although much has been written about the status and social standing of Jewish and Christian communities under Muslim rule in the Arab world, little is known about the smaller and less widespread religious minority group, the Hindu and Jain Baniyans of the Arabian Peninsula. The Baniyans of Mocha appear in every account of the city, but often in murky terms, as transitory translators and conscientious intermediaries who served the needs of the city’s merchants. It is difficult to learn anything concrete about the community’s practices and social standing beyond the oft-repeated ethnographic observations and stereotypical descriptions left by their European clients, who focused on their keen business acumen, their exceptional compassion toward animals, their strict adherence to a vegetarian diet, and their staunch observance of nonviolence and rites of purification.1 In this chapter I explore the Baniyans as an economically central yet socially marginalized merchant community in multiethnic Mocha during the first half of the eighteenth century. Their social status and legal position in Qāsimı̄ Yemen were greatly intertwined with those of the Jewish community , although in Mocha their urban standing and residential practices differed significantly from those of the long-settled Jews. Each group was defined by its relationship to the city wall of Mocha, which marked the limits of the urban landscape and established distinct residential realms. Other hierarchical systems, too, were mapped in the urban matrix of the city, and the dynamics of the trade, together with occupational identities, economic On the Politics of Inside and Out 163 roles, and religious affiliations, had a strong effect on the definition of the social order of Mocha. The Baniyans of Mocha The Baniyans are a caste-vocational group that encompasses a number of Hindu and Jain subcastes as well as members of other, higher-caste merchant groups.2 Irfan Habib noted: “When one speaks of the Banya one means everyone who describes himself as such.”3 In the case of the early modern Indian Ocean, the economic cohesion and social solidarity offered by the Baniyan professional affiliation served the needs of many merchants, particularly abroad, allowing some Baniyans to cross strict and fixed notions of caste or sect divisions. Invariably associated with commerce, Baniyans from the northwest coast of India worked as trade brokers, commercial middlemen, and economic intermediaries around the shores of the southern Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf, in cities such as Massawa, Sawākin, Muscat, and Basra. It has been suggested that this group—referred to by the term “Bāniyān” or the collective designation “alHunu ̄d” in the Arabic sources—may have lived and worked in Yemen long before the Islamic conquest.4 The earliest historical documentation is considerably later, dating from the fourteenth century.5 The largest Baniyan communities of Yemen lived in the lowlands, in cities such as Mocha, Aden, al-Luh ˙ ayya, al-H ˙ udayda, Bayt al-Faqı̄h, Zabid, and al-Shih ˙ r in H ˙ ad ˙ ramawt, and in interior commercial hub cities such as Sanaa, Taizz, Ibb, and even the impregnable mountain city of Shahāra. Despite this geographic dispersal, the closely knit Baniyan community in Yemen was socially cohesive and maintained professional links throughout southern Arabia by way of a wide-reaching system of communication that forecast any political or commercial circumstances that might affect the trade.6 The Dutch often learned of a faraway plundered caravan or distant tribal unrest through “Baniyan letters.”7 Furthermore, a Baniyan agent in one city never hesitated to rely upon a contact in another city to expedite a trade transaction or facilitate a remote negotiation between a compatriot and a foreign merchant through a formal written recommendation. Although little is known of their precise responsibilities as brokers for Muslim merchants, European documentation provides details about the roles the Baniyans played as brokers and translators for the Western trading companies. In Mocha, each company hired a Baniyan broker for continuing [3.238.228.237] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 09:39 GMT) 164 On the Politics of Inside and Out service, thus assuring loyalty. If needed, extra Baniyan brokers could be hired on a freelance basis—for instance, to be sent as coffee purchasers to Bayt al-Faqı̄h. The Baniyans served as commercial go-betweens for their European clients by inspecting potential goods for sale, making bids, and arranging delivery of purchased items to them. Essentially, as soon as maritime...