Fanny Bessard (Author)
Oxford University Press
Publication date: 2020
Language: English
Edition Details: Book Series: Oxford studies in Byzantium;
Physical Details: 360
Caliphs and Merchants: Cities and Economies of Power in the Near East (700-950) offers fresh perspectives on the origins of the economic success of the early Islamic Caliphate, identifying a number of previously unnoticed or underplayed yet crucial developments, such as the changing conditions of labour, attitudes towards professional associations, and the interplay between the state, Islamic religious institutions, and the economy. Moving beyond the well-studied transition between the death of Justinian in 565 and the Arab-Muslim conquests in the seventh century, the volume focuses on the period between 700 and 950 during which the Islamic world asserted its identity and authority. Whilst the extraordinary prosperity of Near Eastern cities and economies during this time was not unprecedented when one considers the early Imperial Roman world, the aftermath of the Arab-Muslim conquests saw a deep transformation of urban retail and craft which marked a distinct break from the past. It explores the mechanisms effecting these changes, from the increasing involvement of caliphs and their governors in the patronage of urban economies, to the empowerment of enriched entrepreneurial tagir from the ninth century. Combining detailed analysis of a large corpus of literary sources in Arabic with presentation of new physical and epigraphic evidence, and utilizing an innovative approach which is both comparative and global, the discussion lucidly locates the Middle East within the contemporary Eurasian context and draws instructive parallels between the Islamic world and Western Christendom, Byzantium, South-East Asia, and China.
...MoreReview Manning, J. G. (Spring 2022) Review of "Caliphs and merchants : Cities and economies of power in the Near East (700-950)". Business History Review (pp. 213-215).
Similar Citations
Book
Sheilagh Ogilvie;
(2019)
The European Guilds: An Economic Analysis
(/p/isis/citation/CBB827570146/)
Book
Simon Partner;
(2019)
The Merchant's Tale: Yokohama and the Transformation of Japan
(/p/isis/citation/CBB411079431/)
Book
Dane Anthony Morrison;
(2021)
Eastward of Good Hope : Early America in a dangerous world
(/p/isis/citation/CBB765969956/)
Book
Edmond Smith;
(2021)
Merchants: The community that shaped England's trade and empire, 1550-1650
(/p/isis/citation/CBB539685943/)
Article
Arnaud Bartolomei;
Matthieu de Oliveira;
Boris Deschanel;
Thomas Mollanger;
(Spring 2021)
The Making of Commercial Innovations: The Use of Printed Commercial Circular Letters in France and Europe, 1750-1850
(/p/isis/citation/CBB204104713/)
Chapter
Nicola Lorenzo Barile;
(2020)
Rethinking 'The Two Italies': Circulation of Goods and Merchants between Venice and the 'Regno' in the Late Middle Ages
(/p/isis/citation/CBB229382179/)
Chapter
Cohen, Mark R.;
(2019)
Migrating Words and Migrating Custom among the Geniza Merchants: Maimonides on Commercial Agency Law
(/p/isis/citation/CBB092022508/)
Book
Youval Rotman;
(2016)
Insanity and Sanctity in Byzantium: The Ambiguity of Religious Experience
(/p/isis/citation/CBB284246107/)
Book Alberto Bardi; Persische Astronomie in Byzanz. Ein Beitrag zur Byzantinistik und zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (/p/isis/citation/CBB074140452/)
Book
Long, Pamela O.;
(2003)
Technology and Society in the Medieval Centuries: Byzantium, Islam, and the West, 500-1300
(/p/isis/citation/CBB000470961/)
Chapter
Matthias Maser;
(2019)
Conquered Cities: Continuity and Transformation of Urban Structures in the Castilian “Reconquista” Territories (11th–14th Centuries)—Toledo and Seville
(/p/isis/citation/CBB084318547/)
Book
Matteo Martelli;
(2019)
L’alchimista antico. Dall’Egitto greco-romano a Bisanzio
(/p/isis/citation/CBB920592519/)
Book
Bagnall, Roger S.;
Worp, Klaas A.;
(2004)
Chronological Systems of Byzantine Egypt
(/p/isis/citation/CBB000471356/)
Book
Adrian Green;
Barbara Crosbie;
(2018)
Economy and Culture in North-East England, 1500–1800
(/p/isis/citation/CBB339378272/)
Book
Medha M. Kudaisya;
(2018)
Tryst with Prosperity: Indian Business and the Bombay Plan of 1944
(/p/isis/citation/CBB719824819/)
Book
David Orrell;
Roman Chlupatý;
(2016)
The Evolution of Money
(/p/isis/citation/CBB917713034/)
Book
Joseph Heathcott;
Jonathan Soffer;
Rae Zimmerman;
(2022)
Urban Infrastructure: Historical and Social Dimensions of an Interconnected World
(/p/isis/citation/CBB623418452/)
Book
Kristina L. Richardson;
(2012)
Difference and Disability in the Medieval Islamic World: Blighted Bodies
(/p/isis/citation/CBB410995285/)
Book
Avner Gil`adi;
(2015)
Muslim Midwives: The Craft of Birthing in the Premodern Middle East
(/p/isis/citation/CBB021752353/)
Article
Mozaffari, S. Mohammad;
(2013)
Eclipses in the Middle East from the Late Medieval Islamic Period to the Early Modern Period. Part 1: The Observation of Six Lunar Eclipses from the Late Medieval Islamic Period
(/p/isis/citation/CBB001214527/)
Be the first to comment!