Summary
A traveller whose observations are quoted in Chapter 5 of Rediscovering Palestine on Jordan Valley nomads’ cultivation and on the Qilw trade between the Balqa bedouins and Nablus in 1812 (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 3985-4100, lines 4101-4215).
Details
- Burckhardt described how the nomads of the Jordan Valley cultivated wheat, barley and dhura, and noted that some tribes “belonged” to Nazareth and Jabal Nablus, linked to the urban centers in a subordinate manner (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 3985-4100).
- Witnessing the qilw process in 1812, he recorded that the Arabs of the Belka [Balqa], especially the Beni Szakher [Bani Sakhr], brought soap-ashes bought up by a Nablus merchant who had monopolized the trade, that heavy duties were exacted per camel load by the Adwan chief, his writer and slave and by the town of Salt, and that about three thousand camel loads a year reached the Osha market, with the merchant obliged to come in person to Salt each autumn under detailed customs of hospitality (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, Qilw, Jabal Nablus