Cities · a Light

Manuals told inspectors exactly how bakers water the dough

The muhtasib was the official who walked the markets. His brief covered weights and scales, adulterated bread, milk and saffron, blocked streets, unsafe buildings, the cleanliness of butchers and the honesty of money changers. Manuals were written to train him. Al-Shayzari's twelfth century handbook and Ibn al-Ukhuwwa's fourteenth century one from Egypt go trade by trade, explaining how each is cheated: how a baker adds water to increase weight, how a miller mixes in cheap grain, how a cloth seller stretches a bolt. They also cover schoolteachers, and instruct the inspector to test physicians against the questions in Hunayn ibn Ishaq's textbook before letting them practise.

Hisba manuals · 12th to 14th centuries