How the Merchants of Ifriqiya Coded Commerce Before Silicon

Re:How the Merchants of Ifriqiya Coded Commerce Before Silicon by steve_gh on Thursday April 17, 2025 @04:14AM (#43714255)

This is the most interesting thing I have seen on HN in a while. If I could up vote it harder, I would.

TL;DR. Medieval North African merchants had a formal language for encoding and communicating trade instructions and decisions

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Re:How the Merchants of Ifriqiya Coded Commerce Before Silicon by hillac on Friday April 18, 2025 @10:17PM (#43733669)

I think the whole thing is a made up ai hallucination. I was suspicious because it sounded llm'ish, and after googling I can't find any other sources on Al-Khatt al-Tujjari or Sifraniyah.

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Re:How the Merchants of Ifriqiya Coded Commerce Before Silicon by fxtentacle on Saturday April 19, 2025 @07:23AM (#43735685)

I concur: earlier article from the same "author": https://medium.com/@macvsogjc/phoenica-toward-a-programming-...

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Re:How the Merchants of Ifriqiya Coded Commerce Before Silicon by mallomarmeasle on Saturday April 19, 2025 @07:25AM (#43735696)

I do not feel like the author's profile is going to change your mind on that: https://medium.com/@macvsogjc/about

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