UNDER THE CABBASU> CALIPHATE 25
Jewish bankers, tliat was carried out with, all the elements
of an almost modern banking technique- And this more than
a fall -nrn'llftTmfnrn ago ! Without going into details about this
document, attention must be called to some particulars that
are of importance for the history of finance generally,
namely:—
(a) The negotiation of a state loan as such.1
(b) The payment of interest.2
(c) The pledging of uncashed letters of credit as security.
(d) The state's entering into an agreement with a Jewish
banking house.
Mercantile Transactions
In reviewing the financial transactions of these court
bankers as represented by our authorities, one must ask :
How were they enabled to meet the very considerable money
requirements of the State ? For even if we admit that the
guarantees and securities they received, as, for instance, the
1 The method of avoiding a financial crisis by taking up a loan seems to
have become usual only at this period. A history of government loans in
'Abbasid times, which ought to be -written, would comprise aH the methods
of raising money <J*J&\ J^ JP (cf. Misk., 164, 213, 220 ; EcL, iii, 159,
259 ff.). This method was also employed later on in the reign of the Caliph
ar-Radi by the Vizier Ibn Muqla (on thin Vizier, v. the study of A- H. Harley
in bulletin of the. School of Oriented Studi&s, London, 1923-5, iii, pp. 213 ff.)»
who obtained a loan (^ JO from the merchants, bnt was not able to pay
it back, so that he had to give them bills on certain revenues and sell them
cixnm lands (Jdisk., 329 ; cf. Mi&k., 299). This is the origin of Islamic
feudalism, as "will be shown elsewhere. For loans in the Egypt of that
period, cf. C. H. Becker, Beitrdge zur Geschichte, Aegypiens vnter dem Islam,
Strassburg, 1900, pp. 38-9, 56 ; Mez, ibid., 123, 450.
* "Ali b. £Isa was probably the first to obtain a loan by paying interest.
C£. v. Kremer, JEinnakmebvdget, pp. 7, 24, 63. The usual interest rate was
a dirham for each dinar, at which rate Abu Bekr b. Qaraba granted a loan
to the Vizier (Misk., 213, 220). According to Tan., i, 204, a money-changer
charges a commission rate of 1 dirham per dinar. On the relation between
dirham and dinar cf. El. W. Hofmeyer, Beitrdg& zur arabischen Papyrus-
forschung, Islam, iv, 1913, pp. 100 fF. ; further instances in the books of
the Arab geographers ; cf. also Misk., 39S, 3 ; 417, 5.