Editing Economy of Egypt (section)

===Middle Ages===
{{Also|Egypt in the Middle Ages}}
Beginning in the early Islamic period, Egypt’s countryside was incorporated into a broader administrative and fiscal structure that facilitated the movement of goods and surplus to urban centers.<ref name=":4" /> By the 11th and 12th centuries, this integration had developed into a dynamic economic relationship between rural producers and commercial networks.<ref name=":4" /> Villages produced [[grain]], [[flax]], [[Indigo dye|indigo]], [[sugar]], and [[linen|linen textiles]], much of which was sent to [[Fustat]], the primary urban hub for redistribution.<ref name=":4" /> Documents from the [[Cairo Geniza]] reveal that rural merchants and producers were involved in long-distance trade linking Egypt to the [[Mediterranean]] and the [[Indian Ocean]].<ref name=":4">{{cite journal |last=Udovitch |first=A.L. |title=International Trade and the Medieval Egyptian Countryside |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |volume=96 |pages=267–284 |year=1998 |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/3882/96p267.pdf |access-date=2025-04-16 }}</ref>

The textile industry was a foundational component of Egypt’s economy during the Middle Ages, integrating agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce.<ref name=":5" /> Flax was widely cultivated, and its transformation into linen textiles constituted a major branch of productive activity.<ref name=":5" /> Textile production involved both privately organized enterprise and operations connected to government institutions. In addition to being a leading export commodity, textiles also circulated within the domestic economy as a means of exchange and a store of value.<ref name=":5" /> Egypt’s prosperity during this period depended not only on its role in international trade but also on the internal scale and organization of its textile production.<ref name=":5">{{cite journal |last=Frantz-Murphy |first=Gladys |title=A New Interpretation of the Economic History of Medieval Egypt: The Role of the Textile Industry 254–567/868–1171 |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |volume=24 |issue=3 |year=1981 |pages=274–297 |jstor=3631908 }}</ref>[[File:Mamluk Carpet, Egypt - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|229x229px|A [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk]]-era wool carpet from Egypt, {{Circa|1500}}–1550.]]Patterns of saving and investment during this period reflected a high degree of economic organization.<ref name=":6" /> Wealth was accumulated through land, textiles, and monetary holdings, and often reinvested into productive activities such as textile manufacture, agriculture, and trade.<ref name=":6" /> The integration of these practices into everyday economic life highlights the structured financial environment that characterized medieval Egypt.<ref name=":6">{{cite journal |last=Frantz |first=Gladys M. |title=Saving & Investment in Medieval Egypt |journal=Business and Economic History |volume=8 |year=1979 |pages=110–113 |jstor=23702597}}</ref>
In the fifteenth century, Egypt experienced a series of economic and financial crises under the [[Mamluk Egypt|Mamluk regime]], marked by inflation, currency instability, and fiscal disorder.<ref name=":7" /> Contemporary scholars such as [[al-Maqrizi]] and al-Asadi offered detailed assessments of the causes and proposed reforms.<ref name=":7" /> Al-Maqrizi identified the debasement of the currency and the overreliance on copper coinage as central problems, advocating a return to the use of gold and silver standards.<ref name=":7" /> Al-Asadi presented a broader analysis, attributing the crisis to both monetary mismanagement and deeper structural inequalities, including the concentration of wealth and administrative corruption.<ref name=":7">{{cite journal |last=Islahi |first=Abdul Azim |title=Economic and Financial Crises in Fifteenth-Century Egypt: Lessons From the History |journal=Islamic Economic Studies |volume=21 |issue=2 |year=2013 |pages=71–92 |url=https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/61798/1/MPRA_paper_61798.pdf |access-date=2025-04-16 }}</ref>