Fakhr al-Dīn Sulaymān al-Kharrūbī

Fakhr al-Dīn Sulaymān belonged to a prominent Karimi merchant family, al-Kharrūbīs from Egypt which rise could be traced from the 13th until 15th century. The family originated from Kharrūb square in Fustat where carob (karrūb), after which they are named, was usually sold. The al-Kharrūbīs were part of the Karimi merchant guild comprised of Muslim merchants that traded spices, perfumes, sugar, pottery, textiles and other goods between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. The sphere of the Kharrubi’s activities were Fustat, Cairo, Mecca, Yemen and Syria. Except of spices they were also involved in sugar refining and sale as well.

His downfall was caused by monopolistic sugar and spice policies imposed by the sultan Barsbay in response to deficiency of state revenues. Heavily indebted, Fakhr al-Dīn Sulaymān was at the end imprisoned. The decline of the Kharrūbī family reflects the fate of all the Kārimī merchants, who had disappeared from the Egyptian markets by the middle of the fifteenth century.