This talk explores the commercial legacy of the Ḥibshūsh family, a prominent Yemenite Jewish dynasty central to Red Sea basin trade from the 1880s to 1970s. Through a global micro-historical study, we examine the intricate Jewish-Arab commercial networks that transcended geopolitical boundaries across Yemen, Mandatory Palestine, Israel, and Ethiopia. Focusing on the Ḥibshūsh firm's extensive connections with the Muslim Bukārī family's import-export company in Ḥudaydah, I gain novel insights into Jewish-Muslim relations from a transnational, commercial perspective. This case study illuminates behavioral patterns among Jewish and Muslim merchants, revealing fraternal and affectionate relationships that extended beyond business ties. The lecture demonstrates how these networks, particularly in coffee, grain, and textile imports, persisted until the 1970s, offering an alternative view of Jewish-Muslim relations in Yemen and the broader Red Sea region.

Menashe Anzi is a Senior Lecturer in the Jewish History department at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. His areas of specialization include the history of Yemenite Jews, the relationship between Jews and Muslims in Islamic cities, and the trade networks and Jewish migration along the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.  His book The Ṣanʿāʾnis: Jews in Muslim Yemen, 1872–1950 (2021, Zalman Shazar Center, in Hebrew), has won him the Ben-Zvi Institute prize for 2022.