1. The development of silk manufacturing in Thebes

In the mid-11^th century, Thebes was an important administrative and commercial centre. Its economic significance attracted many foreigners, such as Venetian merchants and Armenians; thus the population of the city as well as its size quickly increased. Apart from the utilization of its fertile plain, another source of wealth for almost two centuries was the development of silk industry. The systematic cultivation of mulberry trees in the area of Moreokampos, north of the city, greatly attributed to the development of silk farming; thus they were able to produce raw silk within the confines of small-range industry. The abundance of water in the area was also a great advantage. Apart from the two springs, two rivers surrounded the Kadmeian hill, where the city was built: Dirki to the west and Isminos to the east. The water has been found rich in calcium and magnesium, and this resulted in high quality textiles, according the poems of John Tzetzis: “φύσει των σφων υδάτων διαύγειαν και στίλψιν δε και πολύ το λείον δωρούνται τοις υφάσματι της εν Θηβών τη χώρα”.

In addition, the area was rich in the plants that were used for dyes, such as prinokokki and rizari. It is not known when they started using the purple colorant, a very expensive substance made from various marine mollusks. However, the fact that the surname Vlattas (from the vlattia, the purple silk textiles) is mentioned four times in the statute of the religious brotherhood of the Theotokos Nafpaktiotissa, founded in Thebes in 1048, reveals that they were dealing with purple colorant already from that time.

It is believed that they were transporting the purple to Thebes from Athens, where we find the oldest reference to a konghalarios (a fisherman of marine molluscs) on an inscription dating to 1061. It is also likely that murex purple was brought in from the coasts of Boeotia, in the area of the Corinthian gulf, even though there is no such evidence for the period under study. In any case, at the time of Pausanias (2^nd century AD), more than half of the inhabitants of ancient Boulis, built on a hill over the Zeltsa bay, were purple fishers. In Thisvi, 38 km southwest of Thebes, a field has recently been found that is full of purple molluscs. The fact that twelve thousand molluscs produce enough dye only for the hem of a simple dress indicates how valuable it was. This explains why the purple textiles were only woven in workshops intended exclusively for imperial use.

2. Jewish presence in Thebes

Jews were traditionally very skilful in dying and processing raw silk. In the mid-6^th century, Cosmas Indicopleustes writes in his Christian Topography: “και την υάκινθον την πορφύραν και το κόκκινον το νηστόν...έως της σήμερον ημέρας τας πλείστας των τεχνών τούτων παρά Ιουδαίους ως επί το πλείστον ευρήσεις”.

The earliest source on Jews moving from Egypt to Thebes is a letter from Geniza, Egypt, dating to 1135 AD. During the 12^th century Thebes surpassed the capital itself in fame as a silk-producing centre. Byzantine sources of the period, such as Niketas Choniates and John Tzetzes, admire the “weaving elegance” of the textiles and the “proficient dying” of the female weavers in Thebes.

As a result, western sources reveal that after the Normans of Sicily stormed Thebes in 1147, they snatched not only gold-woven textiles but also skilled female weavers, as well as Jewish silk craftsmen. Silk industry was already active in Sicily, and silk products were being exported since the early 11th century. However, this violent move (of the craftsmen) aimed at improving the quality of local production.

Despite the Norman pillage, however, Thebes quickly recovered and its silk industry continued to grow, with the Jewish community’s contribution.

Around 1160, the Spanish-Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela began travelling around Europe, Africa and Asia, possibly with the aim to locate Jewish communities within the Byzantine Empire. In his Travels he writes: “Thence [from Corinth] it is two days’ journey to the great city of Thebes, where there are about 2000 Jews. They are the most skilled artificers in silk and purple cloth throughout Greece. They have scholars learned in the Mishnah and the Talmud, and other prominent men, and at their head are the chief rabbi R. Kuti and his brother R. Moses, as well as R. Chiyah, R. Elijah Tirutot, and R. Joktan; and there are none like them in the land of the Greeks, except in the city of Constantinople.”

Niketas Choniates writes about the later demand (1196-7) of the Emir of Ankara to Alexios III Angelos who was attempting peace, to receive each year 40 measures of silk textiles “from the ones that were being prepared in the workshops of Thebes exclusively for the use of the emperor”; this is indicative of the high quality of Theban silk.

3. Silk trade

After the Frankish conquest, the silk industry passed from the hands of the local aristocracy to the skilled Venetian merchants, as well as to the Genoese. The latter started being active in Thebes from that period onwards, after the 1240 treaty that Genoa signed with Guy I de la Roche, lord of Athens and Thebes for the free export of silk textiles. Theban products, especially samite, were the only ones in the entire Byzantine Empire with a known and declared origin.

The lifestyle of the local knights called for an increased demand for silk textiles. For instance, for the coronation of the young duke of Athens, Guy II de la Roche, that took place in Panagia Loggia in Thebes in 1294, the guests, the clergy, barons and knights have been notified six months in advanced in order to purchase precious garments for them and their entourage. The twenty pieces of samite that Guy sent to the papal court in Rome in 1300 were obviously a product of Thebes.

The production and export of Theban silk to the West, even in Egypt, continued after the Catalan conquest of 1311. The last reference comes from 1387, and mentions satin (silk and cotton) red curtains, sent to France for the rooms of King Charles VI.

The technology that was developed in the West after the 14th century, especially the production industries of Venice and Lucca put Thebes out of the picture.

4. The Jewish workshops

An area west of Kadmeia, where the name Evraika (Jewish area) survives even today, appears to be connected with the processing and dying of silk by the Jews. Firstly, its location outside the settlement, on a hill, next to the stream of Dirki is consistent with the restrictions on the dyers’ workshops found in the Exabiblos.

The abundance of water required is ensured not only by a built-in pipeline on the northern side of the site, but also from many wells. The number of carved pools on the rock, mostly circular in shape, with or without waterproof lining, shows the successive stages of processing silk or dye, until it was clean enough or, in the case of the dye, until it reached the correct colour.

Hearths, where pots have also been found, were used to boil the mordant or dye. The threads were then laid out to dry, as indicated by holes on the rock from constructions with pegs inserted in the rock. Similar facilities from the Hellenistic period were found in the site of Rachi at Isthmia; they were identified as dyer’s workshops. In the medieval town of Fez in Morocco they are in operation to this day near running water.

According to excavation finds, especially coins, the site was in operation from the early 11^th century to 1382, especially during the 12^th and 13^th centuries. This period is consistent with the information provided by written sources on the production of Theban silk which continued almost until the end of the 14^th century, despite the historical calamities of the city.

What remains today from the Jewish presence in the city are seven funerary inscriptions. The first dates to the 1330s, the second to 1337/8, the next two, belonging to two brothers, sons of Absalom, to 1554, the fifth belongs to little Elijah, son of the rabbi Yuda Manidi and dates to 1537, while the last two are undated.