UC San Diego

The period between the fragmentation of the ‘Abbāsid empire in the 10th century AD and the formation of the Mamlūk state in the 13th century was one of considerable social, economic, and political change in the Levant. The period is marked by competition and shifting alliances among centralizing polities and autonomous local elites, a situation that makes archaeological investigation both difficult and rewarding.

This dissertation examines the tension between autonomy and centralization within the Ayyūbid polity (ca. 1186-1263 AD) through the lens of industry, focusing specifically on copper production. The Ayyūbid copper production system in southern Jordan is reconstructed using data from systematic archaeological excavations and surveys in the arid lowlands of Faynān, including new excavations at two early 13th century copper production sites: Khirbat Nuqayb al-Asaymir (KNA) and Khirbat Faynān. The analysis takes a Braudelian approach, situating the 13th century copper industry within long-term (primarily economic), medium-term (primarily political), and short-term (primarily social) changes in the Faynān region, and southern Jordan more broadly. The primary conclusion of this work is that the short-lived revival of copper production was part of a broader reorganization of the southern Levantine agricultural regime toward industrial-scale production of cane sugar. This reorganization took place, first, under the rule of the Ayyūbid princes of al-Karak in central Jordan, who adopted a local provisioning strategy that provided them considerable autonomy from the regional centers of Cairo and Damascus. Copper production in Faynān ended in the late 13th century, as the region came under the control of the Mamlūk state, and the Levantine sugar industry was integrated into a production system more dependent on Cairo.