Available From UC Press

Egypt's Mediterranean

Muslim Merchants and the Business of Empire in the Eighteenth Century

Zoe Ann Griffith

Egypt's Mediterranean explores the intersections of commerce and statecraft in the eighteenth-century Ottoman Empire through the lives of overlooked intermediaries who lived and worked on Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Egypt's port cities mediated the geographic distance and economic scales between the province's agricultural landscape, its Red Sea connections, its hegemonic capital city, and its position within the wider Ottoman realm, while Ottoman Muslim merchants acted as linchpins of imperial governance in Egypt, mediating the state's access to Egyptian wealth. Drawing on Arabic, Ottoman, and French sources, Egypt's Mediterranean foregrounds the role of Muslims and Islamic law in Mediterranean history, decentering European capital and actors in an interconnected story of imperial realignment and changing fortunes on the eve of modernity.

Zoe Griffith is Assistant Professor of History at Baruch College, CUNY.

"Focusing on the Egyptian port city of Rosetta, Zoe Griffith refutes the widespread claim that European merchants monopolized commerce in the Mediterranean. She demonstrates convincingly and elegantly the centrality of Rosetta's Muslim businessmen to intra-Ottoman trading and fiscal connections. An admirable first book."—Francesca Trivellato, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ

"In lively and often lyrical prose, Griffith pushes past historiographic frontiers of mobility, capitalism, the Mediterranean trade, and more, into spaces that remain largely unexplored. Resting on an impressive foundation of archival work that spans multiple countries, languages, institutions, and documentary traditions, Griffith's study is the first of its kind. A highly original contribution."—Joshua M. White, author of Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean

"A powerful tour de force, highly original and incredibly rigorous. Synthesizing multiple strands of history and historiography, Griffith builds a compelling and eloquent argument for the very real connections—on the level of political economy and social formation—between Egypt and the central lands and imperial governance of the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century. This will become a classic and touchstone for the next generation of scholars across fields."—Christine M. Philliou, author of Biography of an Empire: Governing Ottomans in an Age of Revolution

296 pp.6 x 9Illus: 12 b/w illustrations, 5 maps, 1 table

9780520416635$95.00|£80.00Hardcover

Apr 2026