Research Catalog

The merchant houses of Mocha : trade and architecture in an Indian Ocean port / Nancy Um.

Title: The merchant houses of Mocha : trade and architecture in an Indian Ocean port / Nancy Um.
Author: Um, Nancy.
Publication: Seattle : University of Washington Press, ©2009.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Not available - Please for assistance.	Text	Request in advance	NA2543.M47 U4 2009	Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 270 pages : illustrations, maps; 23 cm.

Summary

"Gaining prominence as a seaport under the Ottomans in the mid-1500s, the city of Mocha on the Red Sea coast of Yemen pulsed with maritime commerce. Its very name became synonymous with Yemen's most important revenue-producing crop, coffee. After the imams of the Qasimi dynasty ousted the Ottomans in 1635, Mocha's trade turned eastward toward the Indian Ocean and coastal India. Merchants and shipowners from Asian, African, and European shores flocked to the city to trade in Arabian coffee and aromatics, Indian textiles, Asian spices, and silver from the New World. Nancy Um tells how and why Mocha's urban shape and architecture took the forms they did. Mocha was a hub in a great trade network encompassing overseas cities, agricultural hinterlands, and inland market centers. All these connected places, together with the functional demands of commerce in the city, the social stratification of its residents, and the imam's desire for wealth, contributed to Mocha's architectural and urban form. Eventually, in the mid-1800s, the Ottomans regained control over Yemen and abandoned Mocha as their coastal base. Its trade and its population diminished and its magnificent buildings began to crumble, until few traces are left of them today. This book helps bring Mocha to life once again."

Series Statement

Publications on the Near East

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books
Publications on the Near East, University of Washington.

Subject

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

committed to retain

Contents

The Mocha trade network -- The Yemeni coffee network -- A littoral society in Yemen -- Merchants and Nākhūdhas -- the urban form and orientation of Mocha -- Trading spaces -- On the politics of inside and out -- Conclusion : the end of the Mocha Era -- Appendix A. The Imams of Qāsimī Yemen and the governors of Mocha -- Appendix B. Archival and museum sources consulted.

ISBN

9780295989105
0295989106
9780295989112
0295989114

LCCN

2008051590

OCLC

268797375
SCSB-10195110

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library