Asset Management and Wealth Preservation in Third/Ninth Century Baghdad: The Case of Ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ, the Jewelry Merchant

In an anecdote preserved in al-Tanūkhī’s Nishwār al-muḥāḍara , the Abbasid wazir Ibn al-Furāt (d. 312/924) asked a jewelry merchant named Ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ (d. 315/927) for advice regarding wealth management. This Ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ had become the richest man in Baghdad at the end of the third/ninth century, and his wealth would remain legendary for centuries. This article will pose several questions regarding the famous jewelry merchant: how was his career, and acquisition of wealth, reflective of the realities of the Abbasid economy of his era? What were his various methods of managing this wealth? Why did this particular man become a legend, such that later historians and biographers were fascinated by his riches, and his personality? This article will argue that the life story of Ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ — and his depiction as a historical character by later authors — came to symbolize the vicissitudes of the Abbasid Empire just as it began its final collapse.