Go-Getters: Wuhsha

Wuhsha (c. 1095) was a successful broker and banker based in Cairo at the turn of the 12th century. Documents recovered centuries after her death reveal her unusually vast wealth and independence as a businesswoman in medieval Jewish society. 

For Further Reading:

• Wuhsha Al-Dallala

• A Jewish Business Woman of the Eleventh Century  

• Wuhsha the Broker Jewish Women in the Medieval Economy Henry Abramson 

• Wuhsha the Broker: Excavations from the Cairo Geniza - Unpacked 

• Medieval Lives 6: Wuhsha the Broker — Human Circus

This month we're talking about Go-Getters. Women who purposefully—or accidentally!—acquired life-changing wealth, good fortune, or influence.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
is Wamanica. This month, we're talking about go getters, women
who purposefully or sometimes accidentally, acquired life changing wealth, good fortune,
or influence. Today we're talking about a woman who shocked
historians with a wealth and independence she wielded as a
businesswoman in eleventh century Egypt. Let's talk about Wuksha the Broker.

(00:30):
Wuksha's story actually starts hundreds of years after her death.
In the late twentieth century, a scholar from Cambridge University
traveled to Cairo to explore a vast trove of documents.
It's called the Cairo Geniza, and it consists of holy writings, contracts,
court records, and other official documents that a local synagogue

(00:51):
preserved for centuries. These documents have helped historians construct a
picture of what Jewish society was like during the medieval
period in Egypt, and one of the most colorful figures
that historians have discovered is Wuksha the Broker. Her name
was actually Karima about Amar. Wuksha is more of a

(01:11):
term of endearment. It translates to one without whom one
feels lonely. That's how she's mostly referred to in old
records in court documents. There's a lot we don't know
about Wuksha, like what year she was born or what
her childhood was like. We do know she was the
daughter of a banker from Alexandria. We also know that
she eventually moved to modern day Cairo, where she was

(01:33):
briefly married to a man from Sicily. The couple had
a daughter before divorcing in ten ninety five. The many
documents in which Wuksha's name appear indicate that she was
a successful business woman. It was not totally uncommon for
women to work as brokers or bankers during the era,

(01:54):
but the enormous wealth Wuksha was able to amass as
an unmarried woman in the industry was highly unusual. She
had investments in various merchant ventures, and she made a
lot of money providing loans and retaining collateral. We can
also piece together bits and pieces of Uksha's personality and
place in Jewish society by studying the chiro geniza. In

(02:16):
one document, she answers a court summons over a small
claim a business associate had made against her. Usho waves
away the debt equal to about twenty dollars today. She complains,
what do I owe that he should make such a
claim against me? All that is due to him for
me is five kiats for five kirats. He makes such

(02:36):
a fuss. Despite her professional prowess, Wuksha had a complicated
personal life. After her divorce, she had an affair with
a man named Hassoun. They claimed to be married in
a Muslim court, but the couple did not have a
union recognized by Jewish court. They also had a sun together.
There's evidence that Uksho went to court to ask a

(02:58):
friend for advice about the sticky sit situation. She was
living with Hassoon at the time, but she was worried
that someday, when their son was older, he'd be denied
the right to marry a Jewish woman if Hassuon denied
that he was the father. She needed a way to
prove paternity to ensure her son could not be shunned.
Her friends suggested that Wusha carry out a clever little ruse.

(03:22):
She told two other friends to show up to her
apartment uninvited. When they arrived, they caught Hassoon living in
the same apartment as Wusha. Their eyewitness testimony provided the
necessary evidence of her son's paternity. Wusha's plan had worked,
but her extramarital affair with Hassoon did not go totally unpunished.

(03:44):
There's another record of Wulsha visiting a synagogue on Yom
Kipur the day of Atonement. When the head of the
synagogue realized she was there, he publicly shamed her by
kicking her out of the temple. Our best evidence of
Wusha's considerable wealth comes from her will. Historians believe it
was written sometime around eleven hundred CE, when her son

(04:04):
was still quite young. The document reveals that by that
time in her life, Wuksha had roughly seven hundred dinars
to her name. For reference, a middle class family often
earned twenty four dinars a year. In her will, Wuksha
was very generous with how she portioned out this fortune.
She left considerable amounts to close family members, with about

(04:26):
half of her assets going to her young son. She
laid out plans for his education should she pass away
before he reached adulthood. Wuksho was also very charitable, donating
to the poor and even leaving money to the same
synagogue she'd been expelled from Perhaps she felt it was
all water under the bridge, or maybe Wuksha wanted to

(04:46):
have the last word by offering riches she knew the
temple would not refuse. She did not leave a penny
to her former lover and father of her son, but
did choose to forgive the considerable debt he owed her.
Seems that Wusha was aware of her complicated reputation among
Cairo's Jewish population and that she was interested in leaving

(05:06):
behind a strong legacy. Her will also included plans for
an expensive and impressive funeral, setting aside much more money
for the ceremony than was typical of the period. This
ensured she would be properly respected after death for her
successes in business. By producing this will, Wusha might also
have been trying to assert her status while still alive

(05:28):
by cleverly demonstrating the immense wealth she had at her disposal.
We don't know exactly when or how Wulsha died, probably
sometime in the early twelfth century. However, we can guess
that she did manage to cement some semblance of legacy.
Many other documents in the Cairo Geniza identify her relatives,

(05:48):
even distant ones through their connection to the famed Wusha
the Broker. All month, we're talking about go getters. For
more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram. At Womanica
Podcast asked Special Things to lose Kaplan, my favorite sister
and co creator, talk to you tomorrow