This paper focuses on thirteen merchants who bore the title of khawājā, as recorded by Ibn al-ʻAjamī, a unique civil historian who made his living as a weigher. Thus, it attempts to clarify the historical realities and characteristics of wealthy merchants based in Ottoman Cairo around the turn of the 17th century. These merchants were diverse in family origin, and their merchandises included Egyptian agricultural products and agro-processed goods, as well as coffee, spices, and textiles. Delving fully into the inner workings of their commercial operations or details of the commercial partnerships they formed is difficult, because of the nature of narrative history. However, the cases discussed in this paper shed new light on various aspects of khawājā merchants in the largest trading city in the Ottoman Arab world, such as their charitable activities, their relationships with other influential urban people, the confiscation of their estates, their movements and expulsions, and the incidents caused by the domestic slaves they owned.
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