The Commercial Network of Gujarat in the Light of the Jewish Documentary Geniza (Eleventh–Twelfth Centuries)
The Commercial Network of Gujarat in the Light of the Jewish Documentary Geniza (Eleventh–Twelfth Centuries)
This chapter explores the significance of the Gujarati ports by situating these in the broader background of the maritime commerce in the Indian Ocean (particularly the western sector) during 900–1500 CE phase in the light of epigraphic and textual sources and the letters of Jewish traders. In the background of the western sea-board of the subcontinent, the primacy of Stambhatirtha/Khambayat as a port (velakula) is explained by highlighting its impressive hinterland and foreland. How feeder ports like Somanatha (Sumnat), Ghogha, Sanjan and Diu contributed to the pre-eminence of Cambay is discussed. To what extent the agrarian prosperity in Gujarat was conducive to the maritime trade in this region is a point of enquiry. The chapter argues that the Gujarati ports became the focal point not only for the exchange of commodities, but also for cultural transactions.
Keywords: Gujarat, Cambay, Bharuch, Ghogha, Somanatha, Ghogha, Sanjan, Diu, ships, ports, geniza documents, Jewish merchants, velakula
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