In this rich, well-written study of an important yet often ignored region, Fanny Bessard deftly combines texts, including literary texts and chronicles, with archaeology (the two should never be separated in the analysis of premodern societies, but specialization in premodern history still tends to be divided this way). Archaeological field reports from excavations throughout the Middle East are extensive, but it remains rare for economic historians of the Middle East to use this material. The real strength of this book, then, is Bessard's archeological knowledge, derived from her extensive field work in the Middle East, which is very well integrated into her analysis.
Bessard organizes the book into four parts: (1) Patronage and Power, (2) Revisiting the Legacies, (3) Institutions and Religious Generators and (4) Economy and Social Changes. The book is well illustrated, including a rich appendix with photographs, many of which are reproduced in color, and archeological plans of sites discussed in the book supplementing illustrations provided in the main text.
Bessard's introduction sets out the historical context of the study by tracing the impact of the Islamic conquest on the economies of the Near East. Rather than historical continuity with Late Antiquity, Bessard places the emphasis on the economic “transformation” of the Middle East after the Islamic conquest and argues, convincingly, for a major rupture with the past in 800 CE. Bessard does not merely follow the political periodization of the rise and fall of dynasties but sees institutional change beginning after 700 CE driven by elite behavior and attitudes—its patronage system above all, the dynamism of urban centers, and the reform of coinage—as the more important drivers of change. In her reading, these two and half centuries were dynamic ones. State building, military expansion, the development of agriculture, and the realignment of trade via long-distance and regional networks were important trends. The book does an excellent job in striking a balance between continuity with Roman, Byzantine, and Sassanid institutions and the changes brought by the Umayyad and 'Abbasid caliphates, including growing regionalism driven by the demand pull of the great cities and the activity of “trans-regional elites” (p. 30).
This was a critical period in the history of the Near East although it is often forgotten or simply ignored by historians of regions outside of the Near East. The Umayyad and 'Abbasid caliphates created economic prosperity within a new cultural framework. Bessard makes a strong case that, from a global history perspective, the Near East in this period should not be consigned only to specialists. The economic impact of the fall of Rome and, of course, the “Pirenne thesis”—that the rise of Islam cut off the eastern Mediterranean from Europe, fundamentally disrupting trade—have both been major concerns in the historiography of the early medieval Near East for a long time now. The Pirenne thesis has, in its essence, been demolished in recent years by Michael McCormick (Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, 300–900 [2001]) and many others. There was no real rift but, rather, the formation of a new, dynamic world of cross-cultural exchange patterns, new institutional structures and new cultures. For the Near East, Bessard sees not decline or even stagnation (an heir to the “Oriental despotism” shibboleth that separates European from Near Eastern history) but a new picture drawn from extensive archaeological work and illuminated by fresh readings of the literary and annalistic sources.
The essential question in Caliphs and Merchants is this: How did the rise of Islam in the Near East change economic institutions? Bessard goes about answering this question by carefully assessing urban retailing, craft industries and “production spaces.” In her analysis, the reimagination of marketplaces in urban settings, urban, monetary reforms, the “islamification” of daily life and practices all produced significant economic change. Coin standardization and an increase in the circualtion of coinage fostered trade within the new cultural framework of the Islamic world. None of this was uniform; the regional differences between the Levant and Iraq and Iran and Central Asia are highlighted.
Much more, of course, can be said about both the period and the region during these two and a half centuries. One would like to see more quantitative work to be able to assess things like the scale of trade and economic performance. Two areas in particular are absent in this study: demography/epidemiological change and environment/environmental change. Both must have been underlying catalysts of development and of economic performance. Bessard reminds us, though, how vital and indeed how connected and how critical the history of the early medieval Near East is for the economic history of the ancient and early modern worlds because it stands as the bridge to both. In her conclusion she promises more work to come on “the lives of craftspeople and traders” (p. 270). Having read this book, I am eager for more. Readers of this journal should be too.
