Christian Latins in Muslim lands lived segregated in national trading compounds

Evidence

Latin communities were organised in fondacos, equivalent to the national factories of a later age; the word is from fundugq, a khan or public hostel. … Each trading nation, Venetian, Pisan and so on, had its own; wandering Franks, such as pilgrims, if they had no national fondaco of their own, would be the guests of whichever seemed most suitable. There was no question of individuals living independently in Muslim parts of the town. Renegades will have been largely cut off from their former co-religionists, although, as we have seen, the dependants of the bread-winner might continue to live with him. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2130

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘fondaco’ from Arabic funduq, a khan/hostel, and equates it with later national trading factories.
• XREF: The residential/trading segregation of Latins in Muslim cities parallels the vault’s account of how civilizational boundaries get physically institutionalized — compare Anidjar on the Jew/Arab divide as a constitutive structure of ‘the West.’
• SEED: The fondaco as a concrete micro-institution of inter-civilizational separation could anchor an essay on how cosmopolitan trade coexists with strict social segregation — spatial segregation as enabling contact.