Manufacturing and Labour/the Formation of the Classical Islamic World 12 (The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, V. 12)

Manufacturing involves the processing of raw materials, and animal and agricultural products into desired, usable forms. In the early Islamic world this included smelting and smithing metals, making pottery and glass, producing cheese and leather, grinding grain, pressing olives, winemaking, refining sugar, weaving animal plant fibres, and making paper. The literature focuses on identifying the products themselves, on the techniques of producing them and on the artisans who made them. Most economic production in early Islamic times involved low status occupations. The literature on labour tends to focus on the legal and social status of manual laborourers, on the proliferation of occupations and specialization connected to the division of labour. The labour force itself has distinctions, between skilled craftsmen and craftsmen of moderate or no means. The articles in this collection cover Iraq, Egypt and Ifriqiyya; while Iran, Syria, Arabia and the western Maghrib and Andulas are largely unrepresented.