Fakhr al-Din ‘Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Ayyub ibn Musafir al-As‘ardi

Al-Asardi was a wealthy merchant who operated in official service from outside the Mamluk domain and developed his trading business thanks to a personal relationship with the sultan. He was born in a town to the south of Amid in al-Jazirah and spoke Arabic fluently. Fakhr al-Din participated in commerce between Cairo and the province of Charkas to the north of Tabriz. It is unknown whether he traded other goods besides slaves. He built a beautiful trading center in Damascus which is evidence that his business activities encompassed both Egypt and Syria. It is unknown whether his heirs inherited slave-trading business.