Mediterranean Encounters, Economic, Religious, Political, 1100-1550 (review)

Reviews Abulafia, David, Mediterranean Encounters, Economic, Religious, Political, 1100-1550, Aldershot, Ashgate Variorum, 2000; cloth; pp. xvi, 352 (in various pagination); R R P £57.50; ISBN 0860788415. David Abulafia is a distinguished scholar in the field of Mediterranean studi This is the third collection of his articles to be published by Variorum which usefully brings together material published over the last decade in a variety of sometimes obscure collections of conference papers which would otherwise be fairly inaccessible, particularly to the Australasian scholar. In the introduction Abulafia, w h o has for 20 years been substantially revising aspects of Braudel's overarching survey of the Mediterranean as fundamentally a unity, explains the rationale for dividing these papers into three groups, thefirstdevoted to trade across the Muslim-Christianfrontier,the second to the impact ofMediterranean merchants on the wider European world, the third more focussed on his primary love, the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples. Inevitably, these divisions are somewhat artificial as the papers represent chips off the scholarship of a formidable expert, shaped to the particular needs of time and audience. Each has its o w n individual interest, particularly as Abulafia's background gives him a distinct perspective on the various cultural groups who came into contact and sometimes conflict in the Mediterranean. Understandably, he is least comfortable with the paper which takes him out of the Mediterranean to the cold northern waters of Southampton and the unfamiliar politics of the Elizabethan and Jacobean courts. As well as his knowledge of the major Iberian and Italian kingdoms, Abulafia has researched the history of a large number of the lesser kingdoms of 216 Reviews the Mediterranean especially Sardinia and Majorca on which he has already published a substantial book. The papers collected here do much to elucidate the separate history of these kingdoms and help to explain some of the complexities ofthe political structures underpinning life in the Mediterranean. The papers on the economy range from a reassessment of the role of the well-known Italian banks - such as the Bardi, Peruzzi and Acciaiuoli - to studies of trade. While his conclusion that their power came in large part from their political links is hardly startling, his analysis ofthe way in which 'Black' Guelph banks could maintain ties with political powers w h o were usually in conflict with one another is illuminating. H e seeks to rescue the trade in bulk essentials such as grain, indigo and cotton from the general perception that trade was focussed on luxury goods such as spices. H e is also committed to restoring a religious element to the commercial activities of the various parties involved in international trade which he presents as putting a new complexion on the participation in the crusades ofthe major trading states. H e also downplays the extent to which economic contact led to a great intellectual understanding of unfamiliar cultures. His close understanding of Jewish life and thought gives him a particular insight into the tensions between Jew and Muslim which are often ignored in more twodimensional discussion of inter-cultural friction. M u c h of these insights can only be teased out of detailed study of the fragmentary remains of merchants' accounts and state tariff lists. Abulafia is understandably furious that forgery, in the form of a travel diary attributed to one Jacob of Ancona, has been allowed to muddy the waters. His painstaking uncovering of the improbabilities ofvarious aspects ofthe diary, stripping away the layers of deception, leaves no doubt of its spurious nature. Some ofhis broader-brush reflections on the relationship between monarch and economic matters and between monarch and minority groups in the kingdom during the Middle Ages are stimulating. Abulafia deftlyfitsthem into the more familiar political rivalries of the principal families of the kingdoms and the destructivefightsfor territory. M y personal preference is for the careful studies of the Jewish communities in the Mediterranean, which clarify for m e the relationship in the Middle Ages between the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities and the divergence in their scholarly traditions. His study of the role which fifteenth century Jews played in humanist developments in the Aragonese court, where there was considerable cultivation of learning, comes...