The long divergence: how Islamic law held back the Middle East/
Timur Kuran.
- Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, c2011.
- xvi, 405 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The puzzle of the Middle East's economic retardation -- Analyzing the economic role of Islam -- Commercial life under Islamic rule -- Stagnation of Islamic commercial organization -- Constraining features of the Islamic inheritance system -- The absence of the corporation in Islamic law -- Barriers to the emergence of a Middle Eastern business corporation -- Credit markets without banks -- The Islamization of non-Muslim economic life -- The ascent of the Middle East's religious minorities -- Origins and fiscal impact of the capitulations -- Foreign privileges as facilitators of impersonal exchange -- The absence of Middle Eastern consuls -- Did Islam inhibit economic development?