⚖️🪙📃 My ai art recreation with gouache ink texture of an anonymous color pencil illustration.
A money exchange outlet, 12th century Tangier, Morocco, overlooking the Strait of Jabal al Tareq (Strait of Gibraltor):
In medieval Muslim era from North Africa to Persia, money changing and early banking business was done by specialized professionals called sarraf. They operated within a highly advanced commercial network, laying down the groundwork for modern banking long before European institutions emerged.
Merchants could write a payment order—a á¹£akk (root
of modern word "cheque")—directing their sarraf to pay a third party from their deposited funds.
The sarrafs pioneered advanced financial mechanisms that bypassed
physical cash transport and complied with Sharia commercial laws (such as
prohibitions against riba, or usury). To
avoid the danger of carrying heavy chests of gold or silver over treacherous
caravan routes, merchants would deposit money with a local sarraf in cities like Cairo or Baghdad. The Sarraf would issue a suftaja
(letter of credit), which the
merchant could safely carry and cash out with an affiliated money changer upon
reaching their destination e.g., Damascus or Isfahan.
Medieval Islamic markets saw
a massive influx of local and foreign coinage. A major task of the sarraf was verifying a coin's precious metal alloy content
to determine its true market value against the standardized gold dinar.
Since charging interest is prohibited, sarrafs financed trading expeditions by acting as silent
partners, sharing in the actual profits or losses of the trade venture. This was known as Mudaraba & Musharaka
(Profit sharing partnerships).
Through the annals of history, Fatimīd Cairo, Abbasid Baghdad and the later Ottoman markets had their unique systems of regulating the money changers.
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