Göttinger Orient-Symposium
in cooperation with Graduiertenkolleg
Götterbilder – Gottesbilder – Weltbilder
Lecture 23 May 2011 by Professor Maya Shatzmiller, London Ontario, 18.15 p.m in room 4 Heyne House (1st floor).
Maya Shatzmiller
Measuring Economic Performance in the Early Islamic Middle East, 650 – 1000 A.D.
The Debate over Islamic Economic Performance
The prevailing view of the Islamic economy among economic historians is of one whose functioning is profoundly flawed. They hold that Islamic economic institutions were and remain inefficient, constrained by unchangeable religious interdictions and that as a result the prognosis for the future is dire: the Islamic world will remain inherently inept and hopelessly doomed, unable to generate long-term sustained economic growth. The argument is based on the ‘institutional change’ theory, placed in the framework of the formation of religious and legal institutions in the medieval period. This is why it deserves to be challenged by a proper analysis of the performance of the Islamic economy during the first three hundred years, namely between 650 - 1000 A.D.
The lecture will argue that a process of economic growth did in fact occur in the Islamic Empire, Caliphate and regions, between 650-1000 A.D., and that Islamic economic institutions were instrumental in the process; that Islamic economic performance was superior to its contemporaries and that the Islamic sources are capable of yielding the quantitative data needed to substantiate the argument using the most sophisticated tools economic historians are using for measuring the European economy. Key areas of diagnostic indicators include the structural changes in agriculture, money supply, division of labour, and trade, as those leading to economic growth. The lecture will also include presentation of the data sets needed to supply the quantitative data.