Political Economy as a Paradigm for the Study of Islamic History

Abstract

Two frameworks of interpretation of history and society have long struggled with each other in the West and in the Islamic world: one is the modernization theory of the American type, aligned at times with the older orientalism, the other is some form of political economy. In the 1970s, the theory of political economy made a belated arrival in American intellectual life and still has scarcely the prestige it has in France, Germany, Italy, or the Islamic countries.

Teaching the Politics of Islamic Fundamentalism

“…The field of Middle Eastern studies has always been dominated by perspectives that regard socioeconomic class as an epiphenomenon in the Middle East. It is argued that, unlike in the Western polities where feudal and capitalist classes have existed independently of the state and have tried to influence the state's policies to conform to their interests, in the Middle East, individuals and primordial groups (i.e., those related to kin, clan, or region) first gain hold of the state apparatus and then enrich themselves and become wealthy merchants, landholders, or capitalists (Bill 1972;Gran 1980). In the early 1970s, a small number of neo-Marxist and dependency school scholars specializing in the Middle East applied concepts of class and imperialism to account for politics in the region.…”

Teaching the Politics of Islamic Fundamentalism

“…The field of Middle Eastern studies has always been dominated by perspectives that regard socioeconomic class as an epiphenomenon in the Middle East. It is argued that, unlike in the Western polities where feudal and capitalist classes have existed independently of the state and have tried to influence the state's policies to conform to their interests, in the Middle East, individuals and primordial groups (i.e., those related to kin, clan, or region) first gain hold of the state apparatus and then enrich themselves and become wealthy merchants, landholders, or capitalists (Bill 1972;Gran 1980).…”

Universalism Versus Particularism: Ottoman Historiography and the “Grand Narrative”

“…In the modernization version, the experience of the West is the norm for historical progress and sets the standard for the rest of the world (cf. Gran 1980).…”