" Ifrîqiyan Muslim Merchants in the Mediterranean at the End of the Middle Ages "
Résumé
The western Mediterranean witnessed a constant increase in maritime trade from the eleventh century. The Christian involvement in that field has been studied without due regard for Muslim merchants and shipping, who seem to have suddenly disappeared from the region. However, the evidence assembled here, though rather limited, reveals that the Muslims Ilfrîqiya continued to trade with other Muslim ports of the Maghreb, as well as with Christian cities such as Majorca and Valencia. They mostly used Christian ships and to a lesser extent Muslim vessels. The paper reviews the various factors held responsible for the decline in their activity and for their secondary role in that context, and offer a new explanation of that process.