The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East.

• Author: Shatzmiller, Maya
• Position: Book review

The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East. By TIMUR KURAN. Princeton: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2011. Pp. xvi + 348. $29.95.

The "long divergence" in the title of the book under review is a reference to the historical process that saw the rise of Europe and the West to economic prominence and dominance, and is a main theme in recent studies of economic history. Economic historians study questions such as when Europe's economic ascent began, how it affected standards of living, and the manner in which its economic fortunes diverged from the rest of the world. The meticulous calculations of wages and prices across Europe and the tracking of institutional changes are the two main methodological avenues used to explore and answer these questions. These quantitative measurements allow a comparative investigation into the historical roots of the current gap that opened between the haves and the have-nots. The book under review examines one such regional laggard, the Islamic Middle East, using both methodologies but focusing on the institutional changes, or lack thereof, to suggest that there was but one main culprit for the Middle East's road to backwardness, the Islamic law.

In spite of its title, the book is not a detailed study of Islamic law either classical or modern, and none of the sections of classical Islamic law dealing with economic institutions is analyzed in the historical detail that a period of one thousand years deserves. In fact, there is no systematic exploration of the commercial law, property law, family law, hiring law, investment law, or partnership law of any of the four madhhabs. Neither is the book a thorough study in economic history since it does not provide us with the exploration of a complete spectrum of historical economy subjects. Instead it is a combination of partial incursions into Islamic law and Ottoman economic history, studied through the theoretical framework of organizations and institutions.

The book has fourteen chapters, each divided into sections, almost sub-chapters in their multitude of themes, ranging in length from half a page to several pages. The chapters are divided among four parts, the first and last being the introduction (pp. 3-41) and the conclusion (pp. 279-302), where the initial argument against Islamic law is summarized; the largest parts are part two (pp. 45-166; chapters three to eight), "Organizational Stagnation"--where most of the material dealing with...