1. MedievWorld1_fm_4pp.qxd

752 windmills

less freedom to dispose of their material life, mostly by
stipulating that most donations could only be made in life.
At death certain limiting procedures were defined to pro-
tect and clarify male succession.
The church saw the will and last testament as an
opportunity to offer the faithful a way of ensuring their
salvation and remitting guilt for past sins. It supported
the use of wills, and by the 13th century friars and other
clerics were notorious for attending the deathbed of the
sick and dying to promote pious bequests to the institu-
tions of the church.
In civic law and familial terms the will was a device
to try to enforce one’s posthumous desires about primar-
ily movable property in the context of the web of regula-
tion established by customary law, Roman law, and
interpretations of these in the context of many legal
regimes and systems.

ISLAM

In ISLAMthere was diversity in concept and procedure
according to various schools of law and between the
SUNNIand SHIAsystems. The QURANprovided the legal
doctrines behind the rules for treatment of heirs and

donations after death. Muslim women had clear rights of

inheritance, but they were more limited under Sunni

Islam. A WAQFor foundation was often used for estate

control and pious objectives.

See alsoNOTARIES AND THE NOTARIAL SYSTEM.

Further reading:Dorothy Whitelock, ed. and trans.,

Anglo-Saxon Wills (Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1930); Steven Epstein, Wills and Wealth in Medieval

Genoa, 1150–1250(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer-

sity Press, 1984); Michael M. Sheehan, The Will in

Medieval England, from the Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons

to the End of the Thirteenth Century(Toronto: Pontifical

Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1963).

windmills SeeMILLS, WIND AND WATER.

wine and winemaking In the Middle Ages as now

wine was the fermented juice made primarily from

grapes. In the early Middle Ages its cultivation and pro-

duction expanded from the regions around the Mediter-

ranean into northern Europe. Often it even supplanted

other beverages such as barley beer, and its use rivaled

Gathering grapes and pressing them for wine, the harvest in the month of October (15th century), Castello del Buonconsiglio,
Trent, Italy (Scala / Art Resource)