Please join us for our upcoming seminar on: "Frankish Viticulture and Sugar Industry in the Latin East: between East and West" by Dr. Rabei Khamisy (University of Haifa).
Monday, November 30, 2020, from 17:30 to 19:00 (Israel time) via zoom.
ABSTRACT
As the Christian population increased in the Latin East following 1100, there was also a much-increased demand for wine. This led to a revolution in agriculture and industry related to wine production. The high number of texts mentioning vineyards is indicative of these activities. However, to date just 26 wine-presses identified as belonging to the Frankish period have been discovered, but they provide considerable information about the nature of wine production. It seems likely that during the Frankish period we are witnessing a kind of revolution in the technology of producing wine in the Levant. The Levantine technology in which the majority of the fermentation occurred outside the buildings continued to exist during the Frankish period, but the Franks who came from rainy areas brought new technology with them and continued to use it throughout the period of their rule, although the climate is different to that in Europe and they were aware of the Levantine technology.
The sugar industry in the other hand, was not known by Europeans before their arrival with the First Crusade, and despite this, they managed to develop it during just a few decades. Unlike the wine production, the Mamluk occupation of the Latin East did not religiously affect the sugar production, and the Muslims continued to use the Crusader production technology.
These two industries are good examples for the integration between East and West and their influences on each other.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Rabei Khamisy received his PhD from the University of Haifa, Department of Archaeology in 2012 (Summa cum Laude). After two years as a fellow researcher (Rothcsheld post-doctorate fellowship and VATAT post-doctorate fellowship) at the University of Cardiff, he is now a lecturer at the department of archaeology in Haifa, and a member of the Zinman Institute of archaeology. His current field work includes excavations in the Frankish sites Montfort castle (funded by the Israel Science Fund), Castellum Regis and Khirbat al-Manhata, as well as excavations in the Templar fort at Dor and surveys in Mount Carmel. His research deals with several fields: Frankish period archaeology and history, and Ayyubid/Mamluk documentation. In addition, he is currently publishing articles dealing with late Ottoman period history and anthropology.
The last major publications are an article about Baybars' strategy of war against the Franks (published with the JMMH 2018), an article about the 1202 earthquake (published with Levant 2018), an article about one family from Miʿilyā in the Ottoman period (published with MES) and an article about Frankish Viticulture (PEQ 2020). In addition, he assisted the edition of a book about Montfort, published with Brill.