Palmyra (Tadmur): Wool Manufacturing

Date: early nineteenth century

The process of wool manufacturing involves the collaboration of Bedouin shepherds who shear the goats, and women, who use a distaff (meghezel el souf) to wind the wool for spinning. Sometimes, camel hair is also manufactured in this way. Unique to Palmyra is the involvement of men in winding the wool as well as women – Burckhardt noted that he also saw men using the distaff. Also mentioned are: provision bags, camel bags, tent-covers (rowáks), and bonnets (mèaraka).

Citation: Burckhardt, John Lewis, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, collected during his Travels in the East, by the late John Lewis Burckhardt (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831. Reprinted, New York and London: Johnson Reprint Company, 1967), pp. 67-69.