Summary
The natural alkaline soda made from the burned ashes of the barilla plant, the second most important raw material of Nablus soap after olive oil, gathered in huge quantities by bedouins on the east bank of the River Jordan and carried to Nablus in large caravans — in Chapter 5 of Rediscovering Palestine, the everyday relationship that tied bedouins to Jabal Nablus in a subordinate but mutually dependent manner more thoroughly than any other (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 3891-3984, lines 4101-4215).
Details
- Qilw was the largest single production cost after oil: approximately 70 percent of the 21,500 piasters advanced for the Yusufiyya factory’s non-oil inputs in 1826, and 64 percent of total capital in 1855-1856 (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 3891-3984).
- Until caustic soda was introduced in the 1860s, bedouins of the Bani-Sakhr, Huwaytat and Adwan tribes gathered barilla in the valleys of M’an, especially around Salt and Tadmur (Palmyra), burned it in towering summer stacks, and carried the ashes and coals to Nablus in large caravans; each tabkha of soap required at least 7 camel loads, or qintars, of qilw (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 4101-4215).
- John Lewis Burckhardt witnessed the trade in 1812 and recorded the duties exacted per camel load and the Nablus merchant’s reciprocal obligations at Salt; caravan shaykhs expected a percentage commission plus gifts in kind — for every 100 camel loads, money plus one large basket (quffa) of rice, one ratel each of tobacco, sugar, soap and coffee, a cloak, a pair of boots and a fur saddle blanket, according to Ihsan Nimr as presented by Doumani (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 4101-4215).
- Demand for qilw supplies to Nablus tripled over the course of the nineteenth century (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 4101-4215).
Related pages
Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, Talal Asad, John Lewis Burckhardt, Jabal Nablus, Salam