A Mediterranean society
About: This article is published in Journal of The Economic and Social History of The Orient.The article was published on 1991-01-01. It has received 188 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Mediterranean climate.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the factors determining market expansion, that is, the extent to which impersonal exchange among more individuals in more transactions over time and space is potentially welfare enhancing.
Abstract: This paper examines, theoretically and historically the factors determining market expansion, that is, the extent to which impersonal exchange among more individuals in more transactions over time and space is potentially welfare enhancing. Social and cultural factors determine the exchange possible based on private order institutions that, in particular, do not depend on enforcement provided by the state. Private-order institutions thereby determine the potential gain from impersonal exchange supported by third-party (i.e., enforcement provided by the state, organized crime network, religious authorities, etc.). Economic agents, however, would not submit themselves to a third-party with the ability to punish them unless it can commit to refrain from abusing its power. Coercion constraining institutions based on such factors as reputation, administrative structure, and limited information enables such commitment. In short the effective supply of third-party enforcement depends on the institutions enabling it to commit. Both the demands for and the effective supply of third-party contract enforcement institutions determines the extent of impersonal markets.
300 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors call attention to the need, ability, and promise of studying the historical evolution of institutions that mitigated the fundamental problem of exchange and demonstrate the ability and importance of studying them by drawing on various studies of historical institutions.
Abstract: For individuals to enter mutually beneficial exchange relationships they have to recognise them as such and they have to be able to commit to fulfil their contractual obligations. The ways in which a society's institutions mitigate this fundamental problem of exchange determine its efficiency and distribution. This article calls attention to the need, ability, and promise of studying the historical evolution of institutions that mitigated the fundamental problem of exchange. It elaborates on the essence of this problem and the related institutions, and demonstrates the ability and importance of studying them by drawing on various studies of historical institutions. Our understanding of the different economic performances and evolutions of various societies over time can be greatly enhanced by studying how they mitigated the fundamental problem of exchange.
235 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative study of science and Islam in the West and the Middle East is presented, including Madrasas, universities, and sciences, and the rise of early modern science.
Abstract: List of illustrations New preface Preface - 1993 Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The comparative study of science 2. Arabic science and the Islamic world 3. Reason and rationality in Islam and the West 4. The European legal revolution 5. Madrasas, universities, and sciences 6. Cultural climates and the ethos of science 7. Science and civilization in China 8. Science and social organization in China 9. The rise of early modern science Epilogue: educational reform and attitudes towards science since the eighteenth century Selected bibliography Index.
220 citations
TL;DR: The history of healing with animals in the Levant (the Land of Israel and parts of present-day Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, defined by the Muslims in the Middle Ages as Bilad al-Sham) throughout history is reviewed.
220 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied the major features of Jewish economic history in the first millennium to explain the distinctive occupational selection of the Jewish people into urban, skilled occupations in the Islamic world.
Abstract: This Paper documents the major features of Jewish economic history in the first millennium to explain the distinctive occupational selection of the Jewish people into urban, skilled occupations. We show that many Jews entered urban occupations in the eighth-ninth centuries in the Muslim Empire when there were no restrictions on their economic activities, most of them were farmers, and they were a minority in all locations. Therefore, arguments based on restrictions or minority status cannot explain the occupational transition of the Jews at that time. Our thesis is that the occupational selection of the Jews was the outcome of the widespread literacy prompted by a religious and educational reform in the first century CE, which was implemented in the third to the eighth century. We present detailed information on the implementation of this religious and educational reform in Judaism based on the Talmud, archeological evidence on synagogues, the Cairo Geniza documents, and the Responsa literature. We also provide evidence of the economic returns to Jewish religious literacy.
196 citations