ABSTRACT
The booming transit trade could not stop the decline of old Alexandria but did assure its continuous existence; it prevented collapse and facilitated the transformation to a new Alexandria. Alexandria is located at the western fringe of the Nile Delta near the estuary of the Canopic branch of the river Nile. A former island had been connected by a bridge to the mainland in antiquity. The Latin merchants thus enjoyed a favourable status inscribed in Mamluk decrees or privileges. These documents were regularly renewed after the coronation of a new ruler, but at the same time they routinely invoked continuity. Indeed, the success of the Latin merchants' commercial insertion in the Mamluk empire relied on the long tradition and continuity of intercultural trade, as well as the personal endorsement of the tradition by the actual ruler who formally granted the privileges.
