ABSTRACT
Similarly, Islamic sea laws in the Indian Archipelago entitled the salvager to receive 10-33 per cent of the real value of the salvaged cargo, with the owner receiving the remainder.4 In contrast, the customary laws and codes of the Islamic Mediterranean permitted the salvager to charge the jetsam’s owners for his labour at the prevailing market wage and to exact freight charges if he transported the goods over a great distance but not to insist upon a share of the goods themselves.5 An exemplification of the theoretical pronouncements of Muslim jurists is found in one of the Geniza letters dated to 1139. Besides the commercial transactions mentioned in this letter, the recipient of the shipment describes at length how the ship’s captain had difficulty with the vessel so that it foundered against Bab alMandeb and goes on to recount the expenses incurred for the salvage:
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