ABSTRACT
Several documents found in the Cairo Geniza indicate the presence of Genoese in Egypt from the establishment of the Fatimid dynasty in 969. In all likelihood, some of these were the victims in 996 of the slaughter of western merchants, accused by the local populace of having set fire to the Fatimid fleet commissioned against Byzantium. In the thirteenth century, the Genoese were granted a funduq (lodging house for merchants) but the part they played in the crusades slackened the trading exchanges. In 1261, the treaty of Nyphaeum established an alliance between Genoa and Byzantium and granted Genoese merchants freedom of trade in the Black Sea. From the twelfth century on, Genoese merchants engaged in business in the Maghreb and on the Iberian Peninsula, establishing commercial communities in the major ports of Tunis, Ceuta, Sevilla, Cadiz and Lisbon.
