Back to People

Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī

מטא-דאטא

Gender
Male
Social roles
  • Jewish community member
  • Merchant
Other name
Yiṣḥaq Nafūsī

Description / Bio

Indian Ocean trader. He did not leave any letters himself (i.e., that he wrote or sent), but he is known from the letters of others. A letter from Yosef b. Avraham b. Bundār (Moss. la. 18) describes Yiṣḥaq's extraordinary ventures and tremendous losses around 1133 CE. That year, Yiṣḥaq lost a shipment of hides and flax worth 1700 Malikī dīnārs that he had sent on a ship traveling from Aden to Oman. Another shipment of hides he took from Aden to al-Tīz (Chabahar) was confiscated by local officials. And he lost a shipment of durra (Sorghum bicolor), iron and textiles that he had sent from Bharuch. Of these three shipments, it seems Yiṣḥaq personally accompanied the shipment to al-Tīz since another letter (T-S AS 155.101) mentions his travel there. The shipment of flax is noteworthy as the only known instance of flax being sent east from Egypt. Animal hides are exported from the Red Sea region here in huge quantities.

Alan Elbaum, Pratima Gopalakrishnan, and Marina Rustow, "Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/yishaq-al-nafusi/, accessed February 9, 2026.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/yishaq-al-nafusi/