Makhlūf b. Mūsā al-Yatīm
Description / Bio
Trader of the late eleventh and early twelfth century. He seems to have been an early entrant into the India trade, as he is mentioned as a seasoned India trader in T-S 12.392 (PGPID 9690). Makhlūf had legal disputes with Ibn Yijū in which he also involved Maḍmūn. Ultimately, Maḍmūn paid Makhlūf 300 dinars on behalf of Ibn Yijū and Makhlūf dropped his claims. Makhlūf apparently served as overseer of the ships for the sultan, a role that he describes with some consternation in a long letter that also includes extensive complaints about his son, who in his telling is a good-for-nothing determined to squander all of his father's wealth (PGPID 3570). In general, he tends to be unusually frank in situations where social niceties and tact might call for a more restrained approach. Even Makhlūf's peers seem to have understood him as a bit of a character: In the case with Ibn Yijū, Maḍmūn notes that he received no fewer than 20 letters from Makhlūf and dismisses him as a senile old man (PGPID 5448). In another letter, he graphically describes the pain from a toothache, comparing it to the labor pangs of childbirth (PGPID 2841).