ABSTRACT
The end of the Fatimid rule in Egypt corresponded to a progressive worsening of the economic conditions in that country and an increase in resentment for the use of Christians in public service. Except in urban areas, in both Muslim and Christian lands, the majority of the subjects belonging to another religion were farmers, and their status and living conditions did not change significantly after the conquest of their land. In the eighteenth century, several Syrian Catholic merchants successfully moved to Lebanon and Egypt. The wealth, the range of action, and the number of Christians involved in commercial activities increased considerably from the end of the eighteenth century. Heir to that of classical antiquity, Islamic medicine enjoyed a great respect in the Middle Ages that the faithful of both religions widely used Muslim doctors in the Christian kingdoms of the Mediterranean, especially in the fields of surgery and obstetrics.
