Recent trends in Middle East economic history: Cultural factors and structural change in the medieval period 650–1500 (Part one)

Abstract

Economic historians have returned in recent years to blaming the prolonged economic decline of the Middle East on cultural factors. At the root of the problem, as they see it, were economic institutions rendered inefficient by the religion of Islam and Islamic law, and they have used evidence from the Islamic medieval Middle East as support. This paper reviews the various strands of the argument and critically assesses its use of historical evidence. It concludes that the evidence does not support the postulate that cultural factors generated a dysfunctional Middle Eastern economic system and offers an alternative analysis. It shows that empirical evidence ignored by the cultural factors argument points to growth promoting structural change and corresponds to what we would expect based on economic theory.

Structural change and economic development in the Islamic Middle East 700–1500: Population levels and property rights

“…4 I have examined this literature on previous occasions. See Shatzmiller (2011) and Shatzmiller (2018b). 5 Compare Findlay and Lundahl (2006), Findlay and O'Rourke (2009, pp.…”