Lorenzo Bondioli

Lorenzo Bondioli's research on the political economy of medieval Islamic empires focuses in particular on the interplay of labor, capital, and fiscal structures in Egypt in the Fatimid era (tenth to twelfth centuries CE), when the country simultaneously presided over an Afro-Asian empire and functioned as a key engine of Mediterranean and Western Indian Ocean trade. Cairo Genizah and Arabic papyrus and paper documents form the bedrock of this research. He currently is collaborating on editions and translations of previously unpublished medieval Egyptian fiscal documents, as well as writing a series of articles on the place of medieval Islam in the longue durée history of capitalism and on the role of capital in non-capitalist societies.