Framings of Capitalism and the Archaeology of Sugar in the Islamic Mediterranean

Abstract

Seeking to widen the constellation of pasts in studies of capitalism, this article contributes to interventions into the dominant narratives and frameworks in the history of capitalism. It discusses Western historiography and historicism in relation to the role that Islamic cultural geographies and sugar, as an iconic commodity, have played in the history of European capitalism and colonialism. This alternative rendition of sugar brings together significant archaeological and historical sources of sugar production in Egypt and Syria-Palestine during the medieval and Ottoman periods. Islamic sugar production and markets are discussed in relation to Western framings of historical capitalism, global commodities, unequal exchange, and capital accumulation. Questioning modernity’s framing of history and capitalism, this article offers a view of more diverse and changing configurations of interaction, and suggests a shift in analytical emphasis to market exchange in the past in order to make comparisons between commercial and market-oriented societies.