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Wakālat al-JiddāwīLocation

Historical Background The City of Esna has been a famous trading center ever since the Ptolemaic era, due to its geographical location, which allowed it to be one of the cities on the international trading routes between Egypt and neighboring countries – as part of what was known as the Indian Ocean Economic System between the 13th and the 18th centuries. This allowed Esna’s markets to be full of foreign goods shipped to Egypt via Arabia, al-Quṣayr and Central Africa as well as manufactured products from Cairo, Syria and Europe, making it a cosmopolitan trade market for Middle and Upper Egypt.



Trading Routes

All of these products found their place in Esna through a lot of trade routes, and the most famous trading route that was connecting Egypt and Sūdān ever since ancient times was Darb al-Arba’in. Although this route had been traveled for centuries by the merchants and traders in huge caravans, it gained more attention from the commander of Egypt by the 18th century,  due to the impact that the caravans had on the economy at that time.