ABSTRACT
Little attention has been devoted to Byzantine seaborne trade with Egypt after the loss of the Empire's eastern provinces to the Arabs in the seventh century. The neglect of Byzantine foreign trade is also shared by western medieva-lists, whose study of Mediterranean commerce since the eleventh century has been largely dominated by a eurocentric approach and a bipolar perspective. Trade and shipping in that region have been mostly, if not exclusively viewed in the context of relations between West and East, with a focus on the expansion of the western maritime powers in the eastern Mediterranean, as well as on the impact of that process. Trade between Byzantium and its former eastern provinces lost in the seventh century continued in the following period, despite occasional disruptions and interruptions caused by armed struggle between the Empire and the Muslims. The Amalfitans were the first Westeners to intrude into seaborne commerce between the Empire and Egypt.
