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Trades at village

Weaver

Each country house had a weaving loom, even modest and rudimentary. The mother wove, especially in winter, all kinds of fabrics to equip her family and to supplement the household pieces of furniture. The loom, heavy and stable, was installed in a corner, on a circular hole, jouret an-nawl.

Two wood pedals were fixed on the loom which the weaver alternatively activated with his feet to spread the threads on the screen.

Horizontal boards spread the wool, cotton, or silk chain which the shuttle weaves from left to right, while the comb packs the screen each passage.

Weavers could sell their fabrics in the nearby cities. There were commercial weaving centers which were held in Baskinta, Barja, Beit Chabab, Qornet Chehouan, Ain Aar, and especially in Zouk Mkayel and Deir el-Qamar.

The village of Zouk Mkayel , famous as of the XIXe century for its traditional craft industry, possessed more than three hundred looms to weave the finest fabrics.

In spite of its importance, weaving constituted one of the multiple usual activities of the peasant and was not, in itself, a fundamental basis of the economic life of the village.