Food in the Frankish Levant: a Case Study of Cultural Borrowing

Abstract

The Crusader movement called for the liberation of the Holy Land and the expulsion of non-Christians. Yet in reality, the Frankish states of Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli and Jerusalem, established as the result of the Crusades, were to become heterogeneous societies, with a plurality of ethnic and religious groups ruled by a Latin Frankish elite. In recent decades, historians, art historians and archaeologists have turned much attention to the study of influences and cultural borrowing in artistic, architectural, religious, military, governmental, administrative and intellectual activities that resulted from almost two centuries of co-existence of the Latins with the local population in the Levant: Eastern Christians, Muslims, and Jews. This article strives to contribute to this ongoing discussion by analyzing some aspects of everyday life in the Frankish Levant, focusing mainly on foodstuffs and food habits. The study of preservation of culinary traditions, consumption of new food products, as well as technological and administrative changes related to food production, are valuable tools in understanding coexistence and cultural borrowing in the Frankish Levant.