That Most Precious Merchandise

That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260–1500 is a book by Hannah Barker, published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2019.

Drawing on both Latin and Arabic sources, the author presents a study of the medieval slave trade between the Black Sea area and Italy and the Near East. The book looks into the role major Italian trading powers such as Genoa and Venice played in the slave trade, as well as the Mamluk sultanate, which held control over Egypt and the Levantine coast.

The book was awarded the Paul E. Lovejoy Prize in 2019 by the Journal of Global Slavery.

Structure
The book contains normal front material and an introduction followed by seven chapters and a conclusion, with a bibliography and index.
 * Introduction
 * 1) Chapter 1: Slavery in the Late Medieval Mediterranean
 * 2) Chapter 2: Difference and the Perception of Slave Status
 * 3) Chapter 3: Societies with Slaves: Genoa, Venice, and the Mamluk Sultanate
 * 4) Chapter 4: The Slave Market and the Act of Sale
 * 5) Chapter 5: Making Slaves in the Black Sea
 * 6) Chapter 6: Constraining Disorder: Merchants, States, and the Structure of the Slave Trade
 * 7) Chapter 7: Crusade, Embargo, and the Trade in Mamluk Slaves
 * Conclusion, bibliography, index

About the author
Hannah Barker is an author, historian, and associate professor of history at Arizona State University. Their research focuses on late medieval Mediterranean and the Black Sea history. They earned their Ph.D. in history from Columbia University.

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