An illegal practice (particularly an exploitative commercial arbitrage) in which a city dweller purchases goods from a Bedouin (desert dweller) or a villager at a far lower price before the latter enters the market. Thereafter, the buyer brings those goods into the market and offers them for sale at much higher prices. In so doing, the town dweller takes advantage of the Bedouin’s or villager’s ignorance or unawareness of the market price. Before the advent of Islam, people used to practice this form of manipulative trade by buying off full caravan loads before the caravan arrives in the marketplace. Shari’a prohibited this exploitative act.
In essence, talaqqi al-rukban (تلقي الركبان) is a type of monopolistic collusion.
