Blacksmithing in Islamic Sources: A Social History Approach

Blacksmithing, as an instrumental skill since the dawn of humanity, supplied the necessary instruments in the daily life as well as military and civil activities. Examining a wide range of historical, literary and social sources, the present paper draws the scheme of blacksmithing in the structure and context of the traditional Muslim world. The method employed for this purpose is ‘thick description’. This task is undertaken by depicting the general scheme of the profession and investigating the phenomenal aspect of that, such as its various functions, the instruments, the workplace, professional ethics, monitoring and payment of the professional, main and subsidiary income and professional base and social status. Despite the high diversity of productions and demands of various groups of society,the profession was not high-paying and those belonging to this guild were the lower classes in the Muslim world.