MEDIEVAL TRADERS AS INTERNATIONAL CHANGE AGENTS: A COMMENT

The objective of this comment is to qualify a contention published in this journal that "the actual nature of accounting in Islamic lands seems to be a mystery" [Parker, 1989: 112]. The qualification is based on answers to the following research questions concerning fragments of business records kept by Medieval traders and bankers which were deposited in the Geniza[h] (storeroom) of the Ben Ezra Synagogue at Fustat (Old Cairo). First, do extant translations of Old Cairo Genizah fragments reveal sufficient details of the form and content of accounting used in the Medieval Muslim Empire in order to sustain a claim that the mystery has been solved? Second, is there a need for additional research and translations of Genizah fragments by scholars versed in accounting history?