A History of Beer - Part 3
Alcohol-based hospitality has played a key role in the cultural fabric of Europe. As the English archaeologist Andrew Sherratt puts it, “Wine if the life-blood of the Mediterranean, and its proscription by a conquering Islam is eloquent testimony to its deep symbolic significance, both secular and religious.”
In his book The Story of Wine, Hugh Johnson calls Muhammad, the founder of Islam, “The man who was to have the most profound effect of any individual on the history of wine.” The Islamic ban on alcoholic drinks was not universally enforced; the ruling classes in particular took many liberties. Yet it discouraged the development of beer and wine witnessed in European monasteries. The Ottoman Empire finally chased wine out of some of its oldest-established strongholds in the Middle East. As the Ottomans swept through the Levant it almost ceased to be a useful source of wine for export, as it had been for many centuries.
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