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Europe, the Middle East and the Shift in Power: Reflections on a Theme by Marshall Hodgson

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Charles Issawi
Charles Issawi
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Extract

Suppose there are two lines on a graph, close together and moving in thesame general direction and that at one point one of them begins to divergefrom the other. After some time the gap between them will have widenedvery considerably. This simple image would command general agreementas an illustration of the different paths taken by Western and MiddleEastern or Islamic civilizations in the course of the last thousand years.

Type
The Meetings of East and West
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , October 1980 , pp. 487 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1980

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References

1 Hodgson, , vol. 2, p. 3.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., vol. 3, p. 11.

3 Ibid., vol. 3, p. 180.

4 Ibid., vol. 3, pp 46–133; Hodgson quite rightly draws attention to the “Arabist” bias ofWestern Orientalists which makes them equate “Middle Eastern” or “Islamic” civilizationwith “Arab.” Needless to say, this particular bias is shared by the Arabs themselves, whotend to think that after about 1200 A.D. the Middle East entered into a prolonged decline.Perfectly correctly, Hodgson stresses the immense importance of the Persian and Turkishcontributions from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. This fact inevitably com-plicates the analysis in this paper, since Europe has to be compared and contrasted with tworather different entities, the “Arab” world of the seventh to twelfth centuries and the “Iranian-Ottoman” world of the eleventh to eighteenth centuries.

Since both Europe and the Middle East consisted of regions with vastly different degreesof development, throughout this essay comparison has been between best and best, thehighest points in the Middle East being compared to the corresponding ones in Europe.

5 Ibid., vol. 2, p. 571; see also 3, p. 176.

6 Ibid., vol. 3, p. 182; italics in original.

7 As Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilization in China (Cambridge, 1954–) has reminded us, China's contribution to technology and science has been immense. Theargument developed in this paper is not intended to apply to it.Google Scholar

8 “The Expansion of Technology, ” in Cipolla, Carlo M. (ed.). The Fontāna Economic History of Europe (London, 1972) vol. l, p. 144;Google Scholar see also White, Lynn, Medieval Technologyand Social Change (Oxford, 1965);Google ScholarSinger, Charles (ed.), A History of Technology (Oxford, 1956, 1957), vols. 2 and 3;Google ScholarDaumas, Maurice (ed.), Histoire générate des techniques (Paris.1962, 1965), vols. 1 and 2; and the Cambridge Economic History of Europe (hereafter citedas CEHE), vols. 1–t.Google Scholar

9 Noettes, Lefebvre des, La force motrice animale a travers les ages (Paris, 1924).Google Scholar

10 Watson, And rew, “The Arab Agricultural Revolution and its Diffusion, ” Journal ofEconomic History, vol. 34, 1974, pp. 8–35. and a forthcoming book by the same author;Watson points out, however, that the Europeans were rather slow in adopting many of thesecrops.Google Scholar

11 Slicher van Bath, B. H., Yield Ratios, 1810–1820 (Wageningen, 1963), p. 16 ff.Google Scholar

12 Issawi, Charles, Economic History of the Middle East 1800–1914 (Chicago, 1966), p. 377Google Scholar; Issawi, Charles, Economic History of Turkey, 1800–1914 (Chicago, 1980), pp. 214–15.Google Scholar

13 Dols, M. W., The Black Death in the Middle East (Princeton, 1977) p. 271.Google Scholar

14 Watson, , op. cit.Google Scholar

15 White, , op. cit., p. 155.Google Scholar

16 Ta'rikh, Al-Tabarf, de Goeje, M. J. et al. , (eds.) (Leiden, 1879–1901) vol. 1. p. 2, 722.Google Scholar

17 Ubbelohde, A. R., Man and Energy (London, 1963) pp. 50–51.Google Scholar Tower windmills, which gradually replaced post windmills in Europe, were much more powerful. The Edin-burgh Museum has a huge waterwheel built in 1826 and used until 1965 for barley milling, cotton spinning and ragbreaking for paper. It had a capacity of up to 150 horsepower. Onthe other hand, windmills seem to have disappeared at an early date in the Middle East, and al-Jabarti mentions the ones put up by the French in Cairo in 1798–1799 as an unfamiliarphenomeon, ‘al-Jabarti, Abd al-Rahmān, ‘ajāib al athār ftal-tarajim wa al-akhbār (Beirut, 1978), vol. 2, p. 231.Google Scholar Earlier some seven or eight windmills had been set up in Alexand ria by Europeans. Girard, P. S., cited in Issawi, Economic History of the Middle East, op. cit., p. 377.Google ScholarAl-Jabarti, also mentions wheelbarrows as something unfamiliar. op. cit., vol. 2, p. 232.Google Scholar

18 Cipolla, Carlo M., Clocks and Culture (London, 1967), preface.Google Scholar

19 Kellenbenz, Hermann, “Technology in the Age of the Scientific Revolution, ” in Cipolla, (ed.) Fontana Economic History, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 180.Google Scholar

20 Faludy, George, Erasmus (London, 1970), p. 257.Google Scholar

21 For a very good recent account, see Hill, Donald R., The Book of Knowledge ofIngenious Mechanical Devices by Ibn al-Razzàz al-Jazarī (Dordrecht, 1974), an edition of anearly thirteenth century manuscript.Google Scholar

22 Ashtor, Eliyahu, “L'apogèe du commerce venitien, ” Venezia Centro di Mediazione (Florence, 1977), vol. 1, pp. 318–21.Google Scholar

23 At this point it might be of interest to speculate on whether the technological advancesof the Middle East and Europe were in any way connected with their population trends. TheArab Agricultural Revolution of the seventh to eleventh centuries may well have beenstimulated by, and certainly made possible an appreciable growth in, population, and so wasthe corresponding European upsurge. The Black Death drastically reduced the populationsof both regions, but recovery came much earlier in Europe than in the Ottoman Empire; asfor the Arab countries, no long term upward trend seems discernible in them until thenineteenth century. It is therefore possible that Europe's greater technological inventive–ness may have owed something to its population pressure. See Issawi, Charles, “Area and Population of the Arab Empire: an Essay in Speculation, ” in Udovitch, A. L. (ed.), Land, Population and Society (in press).Google Scholar

24 Quoted in Retti, Ladislao, The Unknown Leonardo (New York, 1974), p. 6. This book, based on two notebooks discovered in Madrid in 1965, gives an idea of the breadth and depth of Leonardo's observations.Google Scholar

25 Permission was given to print books in Hebrew, Greek and Western scripts, and many were produced.

26 See Nashaat, M. A.. “Ibn Khaldun, Pioneer Economist, ” L'Egypte Contemporaine, vol. 38, 1944;Google ScholarIssawi, Charles, An Arab Philosophy of History (London, 1950),Google Scholar introductionand chs. 3 and 4; Boulakia, Jean David, “Ibn Khaldun, a Fourteenth Century Economist, “ Journal of Political Economy, vol. 79, no. 5 (09.–10. 1971).Google Scholar

27 Ed. Gamal al-Shayyal (Cairo, 1940).

28 See lengthy extracts from Oresme, and Bodin, in Monroe, A. E., Early Economic Thought (London, 1924).Google Scholar

29 Thomas, Lewis, A Study of Naima ed. Norman Itzkowitz (New York. 1972), p. 112.Google Scholar

30 Annals of the Turkish Empire, trans. Fraser, Charles, vol. 1 (London, 1832), pp. 371and 377.Google Scholar

31 Op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 307–440.Google Scholar

32 Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 316, 320, 363–64, 385, 387, 399, 416.

33 Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 179–287.

34 Ibid., vol. 2, 193, 196–97, 209–10, 216–18, 231–32, 246, 249.

35 See translation of relevant passages in Issawi, Charles, Economic History of the MiddleEast, pp. 380–83.Google Scholar

36 For the Turks, see Mardin, Serif, The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought (Princeton, 1962);Google Scholar for the Arabs, Khurf, Ra'if, al-fikr al-'arabi al-hadith (Beirut, 1943), translationforthcoming;Google Scholar see also Lewis, B. and Holt, P.; Historians of the Middle East (London, 1962).Google Scholar

37 Thomas, , op. cit., pp. 82–93.Google Scholar

38 Naima, , op. cit., p. 9.Google Scholar

39 Al-Jabartī, , op. cit., vol. 2, 230–44.Google Scholar

40 Keene, Donald, The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720-1830 (Stanford, California, 1968), passim.Google Scholar

41 The connection was clearly grasped by Sir William Petty, who has been called by Marx “The founder of political economy“. In his Political Arithmetic, written probably in 1672, he says, “Instead of using only comparative and superlative Words and intellectualArguments, I have taken the course … to express myself in terms of Number, Weight or Measure.” Quoted in Roll, Eric, A History of Economic Thought (London, 1961), p. 100.Google Scholar

42 Of course this argument from silence is by no means conclusive. The fact that nodocuments have survived does not prove that they did not exist. But in a society whoseliterary output was so enormous and those historians were so numerous and prolific and often close to official circles, it is difficult to believe that if significant information on suchmatters as population or production or foreign trade had existed, some of it would not havebeen picked up by scholars like Ibn Khaldūn, al-Maqrfzi or al-Qalqashand f. On thequestions that did interest medieval Middle Eastern governments, taxation and the army, much information and quite a few figures are available. A clear idea of the extent and limitations of economic data available for what was the most advanced and most tightlygoverned Middle Eastern country is given by Rable, Hassanein, The Financial System ofEgypt A. H. 564–741/A.D. 1169–1341 (London, 1972); see especially chapter 1, “A CriticalSurvey of Sources.”Google Scholar

43 See the long extract in Lopez, Robert S. and Raymond, Irving W., Medieval Trade in theMediterranean World (New York, 1955), pp. 71–74; compare with a similar one for Milan in1288, pp. 62–66, and contrast with the Arabic description of Fez in the fourteenth century, pp.74–75.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., pp. 359–77.

45 Ibid., pp. 255–65.

46 For Europe, , CEHE, vol. 3, pp. 230–80;Google Scholar for the Middle East, The Encyclopedia of Islam, sv. “Sinf”; Cahen, Claude, “Y a–t-il des corporations professionelles dans le mondemusulman classique?” in Hourani, A. H. and Stern, S. M. (eds.), The Islamic City (Oxford, 1970), pp. 51–64;Google ScholarBaer, Gabriel. Egyptian Guilds in Modern Times (Jerusalem, 1964);Google Scholaridem, “Administrative, Economic, and Social Functions of Turkish Guilds, ” IJMES, vol. 2, no. 1(01 1970);Google Scholaridem, “Guilds in Middle Eastern History, ” in Cook, M. A. (ed.), Studies inthe Economic History of the Middle East (London, 1970);Google ScholarLewis, B., “The Islamic Guilds, ”Economic History Review, (1973);Google ScholarIssawi, C., Economic History of Iran (Chicago, 1971), pp.284–92.Google Scholar

47 Contrast Goitein, S. D., A Mediterranean Society (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967), vol. 1, pp. 301–53,Google Scholar with Lane, F. C., Venice, a Maritime Republic (Baltimore, 1973), pp.118–34;Google Scholar see also an unpublished paper by Udovitch, A. L. (presented to Spoleto Conference, 1977.)Google Scholar

48 Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., sv. “Karimi.”

49 The most detailed study is that of Raymond, And rè, Artisans et Commerçants au Caire, 2 vols. (Damascus, 1974) covering the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: it brings outvery clearly the stagnation, or even retrogression, of the hand icrafts and the low income and status of the craftsmen (pp. 206–42). The merchants were much more prosperous and werelinked by marriage and partnerships not only among themselves (pp. 411–15)Google Scholar and with the'ulamsi (pp. 423–24) but also with the Janissaries (pp. 587–808. But this did not lead to thefostering of trade or promotion of commercial interests: “Les maitres de 1'Egypte sebornerent en general a en exploiter au jour le jour les ressources sans paraitre soupconnerl'interet qu'il pouvait y avoir a en favoriser le developpement“ (p. 710). Some of thesixteenth century pashas built bazaars, but this soon stopped. The Ocaks of the Janissariesoffered the merchants some protection, while greatly exploiting them, but by the eighteenthcentury power had passed to the Beys, whose extortion was unaccompanied by anyprotection or other benefits (pp. 783–85). For a different interpretation, see Marsot, Afaf Lutfial-Sayyid, “The Political and Economic Functions of the ‘ulamā’ in the 18thCentury, ” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. 26, pp. 2–3,Google Scholar and Gran, Peter, Islamic Roots of Capitalism, Egypt 1760–1840 (Austin, Texas, 1979); I amimpressed, but not convinced, by their arguments.Google Scholar

50 Goitein, , op. cit., pp. 229–66;Google ScholarUdovitch, A. L., Partnership and Profit in Medieval Islam (Princeton, 1970), pp. 77–82, 170–172 and passim;CrossRefGoogle ScholarAshtor, E., A Social and EconomicHistory of the Near East in the Middle Ages (Berkely and Los Angeles, 1976), pp. 144–47;‘Google Scholaral-Dūrī, 'Abdal-'Azīz, Tārikh al-' Iraq al-iqtisādīfi al-qarn, al-rabf aUhijr‘ī(Baghdad. 1948), pp. 158–79;Google ScholarLabib, Sobhi, “Geld und Kredit, ” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. II, 1959;Google Scholar for a recent survey that covers the Islamic world, see The Dawn of Modern Banking (New Haven, 1979).Google Scholar

51 CEHE, vol. 35, pp. 75–97.Google Scholar

52 Quoted in CEHE, vol. 3, p. 281.Google Scholar

53 For eighteenth and early nineteenth century Istanbul, see Issawi, Charles, The Economic History of Turkey, op. cit., pp.24–33,Google Scholar which includes a translation of an article byLütfi Gücer on grain supply; also the very informative article by Hahn, W., “DieVerpflegung Konstantinopels durch staatliche Zwangswirtschaft, ” Beihefte zurVierteljahrschrift fur Sozial und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, vol. 7, 1926.Google Scholar

54 In Lewis, B., Islam in History (London, 1973), pp. 199–213; this article containsnumerous references to European and Turkish sources on price fixing and regulation.Google Scholar

55 Actually Koçu Bey was being unfair to the government. Poll taxes were fixed in goldand remained constant, but the amount actually levied, in silver coins, was raised inproportion to the debasement of the currency and the relative fall in the price of silver.

56 Thomas, , op. cit., p. 88.Google Scholar

57 CEHE, vol. 3, pp. 399–400.Google Scholar

58 This difference in attitude may be attributed to differences in social structure. InEurope the state broke down with the fall of the Roman Empire, leaving room for thegrowth of city-states, guilds, feudal powers and an independent Church. In the Middle Eastcentral government did not collapse, and its presence inhibited the emergence of othercenters of power.

59 CEHE, vol. 3, p. 413, and more generally pp. 408–19.Google Scholar

60 Ibid., wo. 3, pp. 281–361.

61 Roll, , op. tit., pp. 61–111;Google ScholarSchumpeter, J., History of Economic Analysis (New York, 1952), pp. 210–215.Google Scholar

62 CEHE, vol. 4, pp. 566–75.Google Scholar

63 See graph in Ibid., p. 458; Barkan, O. L., “The Price Revolution of the SixteenthCentury, ” IJMES, 1975;Google ScholarIssawi, , The Economic History of Turkey, op. cit., ch. 7.Google Scholar

64 Issawi, , The Economic History of Iran, op. cit., pp. 343–50.Google Scholar

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66 Issawi, , The Economic History of Turkey, op. cit., ch. 3.Google Scholar

67 “ ‘Navigation laws’ were also common, and they appeared as early as the fourteenth[sic] century (see, e.g., the orders of Jaime I to Barcelona of 1227 and 1286).” CEHE, vol. 3, p. 415.Google Scholar

68 See Note of Porte to British Minister, 1802 (PRO-FO 78/36).

69 Babinger, Franz. Mehmed the Conqueror and his Time (Princeton, 1978), p. 454.Google Scholar

70 0Hodgson, op. cit., vol. 3. p. 178.Google Scholar

71 Hodgson, , vol. 2, p. 3.Google Scholar