The southern Levant in the global history of sugar

The 12th–14th centuries AD was a period of profound transformation in the southern Levant, not only politically and socially, but also agriculturally. Although sugar cane had been introduced to the region centuries earlier, it was during this period that the production of cane sugar boomed, supplanting other cash crops in virtually every place where it could be grown. Sugar was a critical element of the Levantine economy during this period, and the Levant, in turn, was a key node in the expansion of cane sugar westward into the Mediterranean and later the Atlantic. Like many perishable goods, however, it is easier for archaeologists to identify evidence for its production than its distribution or consumption. It is, however, these latter aspects that provide the most potential insight into how sugar transformed the Levant and the regions connected to it. This paper seeks to better understand this impact by exploring the factors that explain the boom in sugar production in the southern Levant around the turn of the 13th century, how this boom affected regional systems of trade and provisioning, the relationships between rural areas where sugar was grown and urban centres where it was sold, and the role the medieval Levant played in the transformation of cane sugar into a global commodity.