Braudel's distinction between “meat eaters” and “bread eaters” may be applied, although in somewhat attenuated form, to the realities of Ottoman Jerusalem. There was, however, a third element of equal importance in the daily diet of those days. This was, as may have been surmised from earlier textual references (see above, p. 56) as well as from acquaintance with Middle Eastern cuisine – olive-oil. In the economy of sixteenth-century Jerusalem, however, it also served as raw material for the production of soap, and in this chapter we shall elaborate on both uses of this commodity.

Soap-factories

When the Ottomans conquered Palestine the production of soap in Jerusalem was already a well established economic institution. Evidence from Mamluk times and even earlier indicates that olive oil extracted in the rural hinterland (particularly in the villages north of Jerusalem – bilād Banī Zayd – and jabal Nablus) was regularly brought into town. The local population used some of it; the rest served as raw material for soap, most of which was produced in Jerusalem itself.

In light of the general economic decline in Palestine during the late Mamluk period it would be reasonable to assume that soap production in Jerusalem was disrupted, as were other economic sectors.