Ḥalfon b. Maḍmūn
Description / Bio
Nagid; shipowner; son of Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan
Life events
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Sinking of the Kūlamī near Aden ()
A new ship outfitted for a trip to Kūlam (and named Kūlamī after its destination) sank four days into its journey off the coast of Yemen. The ship owner was the Nagid Ḥalfon, son of Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan. The Kūlamī sailed alongside another India-bound ship (the Barībatanī). An account of the shipwreck is provided by Saʿīd b. Marḥab (PER H 161), but the evidence is circumstantial: He reports that the sailors of the Barībatanī heard the screams of the Kūlamī's soldiers on the fourth night after they set out from Aden, and saw no trace of the ship the following morning. Pieces of wood, seemingly from a new ship, washed up on the nearby shores of Abyan and Shihr. Since there were no other new ships on the India route that year, the detritus hints at the misfortune that befell the Kūlamī. Moreover, Saʿīd b. Marḥab writes, the region of the sea where the Kūlamī disappeared is known for treacherous waves and plentiful sharks, such that any ship that sinks does not resurface.
Select bibliography
- S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Akiva Friedman, India Book 2: Madmun, nagid of Yemen, and the India trade: Cairo Geniza documents (in Hebrew) (Ben-Zvi Institute, 2010).
- S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Akiva Friedman, India traders of the middle ages : documents from the Cairo Geniza : India book (Brill, 2008), vol. 1.