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Banks—institutions whose primary concern was dealing in money—were not found in the mediaeval Islamicate world, according to the economic historian Abraham L. Udovitch. Yet financial instruments, such as deposits, credit, loans, and bills of exchange were actively utilised by people who operated as individuals or members of trading networks rather than as representatives of banking institutions. According to Islamic law (fiqh), both paying and accepting interest on money placed with another individual as a loan or a deposit are understood as conflicting …

Jewish names and naming patterns can be used as tools for describing Jewish demographic, economic, social, and cultural history. The formation of Jewish names in the medieval Islamic world followed many Islamic naming patterns. Individuals had both personal names and family names. The personal name (Ar. ism) was often supplemented or replaced in common parlance with a by-name (Ar. kunya). The ism was also often followed by a patronymic, which generally was constructed of ben/bar/ibn (“son of”) for a male or bat/bint (“daughter of”) for a female, followed by the father’s name. At times a n…