Irfan Habib is likely to shed a lot of light on these historical preconditions.
Anthony On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > (This article appears in a neoconservative magazine. It is an > answer to the new book by Duke University economist Timur Kuran, a > Turk, who claims that Islam retarded the growth of capitalism. My > interest in the topic stems from my research into the "transition" > debate that involved Sweezy vs. Dobb, Brenner vs. Sweezy, Blaut > vs. Brenner, etc. I am planning to read Maxime Rodinson's "Islam > and Capitalism" the first chance I get to answer Kuran, but will > be sure to take a look at some of the references in this article > that implicitly make the case against Kuran. I also have plans to > read up on the supposedly "feudal" nature of Indian society at the > time of the British colonial onslaught in the light of the > "Asiatic Mode of Production" theory. In terms of Kuran's > arguments, even before I have had a chance to read his book, the > notion of Islam holding back capitalist transformation seems > particularly dubious in light of the Anatolian tigers of the > textile industry that constitute the base of the AKP in Turkey.) > > http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_3_muslim-economy.html > > Is Islam Compatible with Capitalism? > The Middle East’s future depends on the answer. > > by Guy Sorman > > The moment you arrive at the airport in Cairo, you discover how > little Egypt—the heart of Arab civilization—is governed by the > rule of law. You line up to show your passport to the customs > officer; you wait and wait and wait. Eventually, you reach the > officer . . . who sends you to the opposite end of the airport to > buy an entry visa. The visa costs 15 U.S. dollars; if you hand the > clerk $20, though, don’t expect any change, let alone a receipt. > Then you make the long hike back to the customs line, where you > notice that some Egyptians—important ones, apparently—have helpers > who hustle them through. Others cut to the front. It’s an annoying > and disturbing welcome to a chaotic land, one that has grown only > more chaotic since the January revolution. It’s also instructive, > effectively demonstrating why it’s hard to do business in this > country or in other Arab Muslim lands, where personal status so > often trumps fair, universally applied rules. Such personalization > of the law is incompatible with a truly free-market or modern > society and helps explain why the Arab world’s per-capita income > is one-tenth America’s or Europe’s. > > The airport experience, had he been able to undergo it, would have > been drearily familiar to Rifaa al-Tahtawi, a brilliant young imam > sent to France in 1829 by the pasha of Egypt. His mission: figure > out how Napoleon’s military had so easily crushed Egypt three > decades earlier, a defeat that revealed to a shocked Arab world > that it was now an economic, military, and scientific laggard. At > the outset of the book that he wrote about his journey, The Gold > of Paris, Rifaa describes a Marseille café: “How astonished I was > that in Marseille, a waiter came to me and asked for my order > without my looking for him.” Then the coffee arrives without > delay. Finally—most amazing of all—Rifaa gets the bill for it, and > the price is the same as the one listed on the menu: “No > haggling,” he enthuses. Rifaa concludes: “I look for the day when > the Cairo cafés will follow the same predictable rules as the > Marseille cafés.” But nearly two centuries later, the only > Egyptian cafés that live up to Rifaa’s hopes are the imported > Starbucks. > > Egypt is, of course, a Muslim nation. Should Islam be indicted for > what was in Rifaa’s time, and remains today, a dysfunctional > economy? The question becomes all the more important if you extend > it to the rest of the Arab Middle East as it is swept by popular > revolts against authoritarian rule. Will the nations that emerge > from the Arab Spring embrace the rule of law and other crucial > institutions that have allowed capitalism to flourish in the West? > Or are Islam and economic progress fundamentally at odds? > > Muslim economies haven’t always been low achievers. In his seminal > work The World Economy, economist Angus Maddison showed that until > the twelfth century, per-capita income was much higher in the > Muslim Middle East than in Europe. Beginning in the twelfth > century, though, what Duke University economist Timur Kuran calls > the Long Divergence began, upending this economic hierarchy, so > that by Rifaa’s time, Europe had grown far more powerful and > prosperous than the Arab Muslim world. > > A key factor in the divergence was Italian city-states’ invention > of capitalism—a development that rested on certain cultural > prerequisites, Stanford University’s Avner Greif observes. In the > early twelfth century, two groups of merchants dominated > Mediterranean sea trade: the European Genoans and the Cairo-based > Maghrebis, who were Jewish but, coming originally from Baghdad, > shared the cultural norms of the Arab Middle East. The Genoans > outpaced the Maghrebis and eventually won the competition, Greif > argues, because they invented various corporate institutions that > formed the core of capitalism, including banks, bills of exchange, > and joint-stock companies, which allowed them to accumulate enough > capital to launch riskier but more profitable ventures. These > institutions, in Greif’s account, were an outgrowth of the > Genoans’ Western culture, in which people were bound not just by > blood but also by contracts, including the fundamental contract of > marriage. The Maghrebis’ Arab values, by contrast, meant > undertaking nothing outside the family and tribe, which limited > commercial expeditions’ resources and hence their reach. The bonds > of blood couldn’t compete with fair, reliable institutions (see > “Economics Does Not Lie,” Summer 2008). > > (clip) > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Anthony P. D'Costa Professor of Indian Studies and Research Director Asia Research Centre Copenhagen Business School Porcelænshavens 24, 3 DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark Ph: +45 3815 2572 *A NEW INDIA?* http://www.anthempress.com/pdf/9780857286642.pdf *CONFERENCE PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS IN INDIA AND CHINA* http://uk.cbs.dk/research/konferencer/psric *INTERVIEW China and India: Competition and Collaboration *(go to Research Themes/Economy) ad.int <http://cast.cbs.dk/#ad.int> 07-Jun-2011 http://uk.cbs.dk/arc http://www.thisismodernindia.com/this_is_modern_india_about_us.html xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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