Capitalism and the Middle East

THIS IS A DRAFT – SUBJECT TO CHANGE                                           

 

Capitalism and the Middle East

Prof. Kristen Alff

 

What is capitalism and how can we analyze and understand it historically? While studying the history of capitalism has recently gained prominence, particularly in the field of US history, this course will shift attention to the Middle East and ask how capitalism has been and can be studied both as a subject and as a mode of historical inquiry in non-Western contexts. What questions does the study of capitalism raise about power, social change, and historicity? A primary assumption of this course is that the historically specific form of social and economic organization that we call capitalism is not homogenous nor does it have one singular history.

Instead, we will approach capitalism in the Middle East as an uneven set of historical processes in which geographic, social, and cultural difference is a produced feature of capitalist environments. We will examine the multiple historical trajectories through which capitalist social relations were established in different parts of the region over the last 250 years, and the ways in which those processes were embedded in or interacted with different kinds of political institutions, natural environments, and cultural and ideological frameworks. We will also probe the changing meanings and understandings of capitalism, as a category of analysis, in the historical scholarship on the modern Middle East. The course readings are drawn together from various fields within Middle Eastern history—labor history, social history, histories of colonialism and decolonization, histories of economic thought and ideas—and combine both older traditions of historical and social scientific inquiry with newer, theoretically innovative scholarship that is advancing a renewed interest in the study of political economy.

 

Grading:

Grading Rubric

 

1. Participation: 25% (including short presentation 5 minutes)

 

2. Two Response papers (~750 words each) 45%

 

These papers should read like academic papers. They are to be handed in on the day that we are discussing the readings.

 

3. Final paper: 30% 

 

Assignments:

 

1. Two Response papers (~750 words each)

 

2. Final paper

 

 

Course Requirements:

1. Please be prepared: Come to class having read and thought about the readings. Some weeks are heavier reading than others. I am here to help and support your readings. If you see that one week is light and the next is heavier, read ahead. If you have an assignment due in this class or another, plan accordingly.
2. Submit papers by 5pm the day they are due in hard copy ONLY to the history office. Late assignments will accrue a five-point deduction every day they are late. Extensions are granted on a case-by-case basis if students come well in advance of the due date. They are not granted three or fewer days before the due date.
3. Come to class on time and participate. If you want strategies for class participation, don’t

hesitate to come see me.

4. Written assignments should be double-spaced, 12-font, titled, with your name clearly on the front page. All standards for formal written work apply, which means proper grammar, style, and spelling, as well as citations (when necessary).
5. Put away all laptops, iPads, and tablets; these devices are not allowed in class. Exemptions to this rule will be made only in cases of an accommodation authorization obtained from the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Since this is a class in close reading, this means that you will have to print what we read or come with detailed notes.

 

 

Accommodations:

 

 

Reading Schedule: 

 

1/14 Introduction

 

• Nima Sanandaji, “The Middle East is Capitalism’s Next Frontier,” The National Review, 2018https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/middle-east-next-frontier-of-capitalism/

 

• Adam Hanieh, “Capitalism and Class Issues in the Middle East,” The Talking Point, audio interview:https://www.iono.fm/e/433641. Beginning – Minute 11:35 and Minute 17:00 – end.

 

• Timur Kuran, Why the Middle East is Economically Underdeveloped: Historical Mechanisms of Institutional Stagnation, 18:3 (Summer 2004), 71-90.https://web.stanford.edu/~avner/Greif_228_2007/Kuran,%202004.%20Why%20the%20Middle%20East%20is%20Economically%20Unverdeveloped.pdf

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. Think critically about the Sanandaji article. What does it tell us? Do you agree or disagree with his claims about the Middle East in the past and his prescription for the future? Explain.
2. How does Adam Hanieh account for the recent uprisings (from ~Jan 2011) in the Middle East?
3. How does Adam Hanieh define capitalism in the Middle East in 1990s/2000s? Where is this capitalist development located?
4. What does Kuran tell us about Islam and capitalism? Is this a cultural argument or an argument of another type? What is your opinion of his perspective?

 

 

1/21 Classical Theories of Political Economy

 

• Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations” (1776); expert from Steven M. Cahn, Classic of Political and Moral Philosophy (Oxford 2012).

 

• Karl Marx, “Wage Labour and Capital,” pamphlet 1847:https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm (Access this via the internet)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. What is central to national prosperity in Adam Smith’s view?
2. What sets humans apart from animals according to Adam Smith and what are human proclivities?
3. How does national wealth accumulate according to Smith?
4. Given this, what is capitalism according to Smith? Or, put differently, what are the objective qualities of capitalism?
5. What is the government’s role in society? In capitalism?
6. Where does Marx start his analysis of capital?
7. Please be familiar with the following concepts:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/28 Islam and Capitalism 

 

• Maxime Rodinson, Islam and Capitalism (1966), Chapter 3.

 

• Peter Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism, Egypt, 1760-1840 (1998), Introduction.

 

• Jairus Banaji, “Islam, the Mediterranean and the Rise of Capitalism,” Historical Materialism 15(2007).

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. How do Rodinson, Gran, and Banaji define capitalism and its origins?
2. What part does Islam play in each of these works?
3. How are these approaches different than Kuran’s view?

 

 

 

2/4 The Geography of Early Modern Economies

 

• Huri İslamoğlu, ed. The Ottoman Empire in the World Economy (Cambridge University Press, 1987), Introduction and Chapter 2.

 

• Immanuel Wallerstein, “The Ottoman Empire and the Capitalist World Economy: Some Questions for Research,” Review (Fernand Braudel Center), Vol. 2, No. 3 (Winter,1979): 389-98.

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. How does İslamoğlu define the Ottoman Empire’s political and economic position in the

global capitalist economy? 

2. What are the discrepancies between the claims in the introduction and chapter 2 of the

Ottoman Empire and the World Economy (İslamoğlu and Keydar)?

3. What is Wallerstein’s explanation for the Ottoman Empire’s peripheral status in the

nineteenth century?

4. What might be some other ways to explain the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the WorldEconomy?

 

 

 

 

 

    2/11 No Class, Spring Recess

 

 

2/18  Modern Economies: Nature and the Global Climate

 

TBD

 

 

    2/25 Nineteenth-Century Capitalism: Indigenous or Foreign or Something Else?

 

• Beshara Doumani, Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900 (University of California Press, 1995), Introduction and Chapter 4.

 

• Kenneth Cuno, The Pasha’s Peasants: Land, Society and Economy in Lower Egypt, 1740- 1858, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992, Chapter 10.

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. How does Kenneth Cuno treat the trajectory of capitalist/commodity economy development?
2. How does Doumani treat this trajectory?
3. What do Doumani and Cuno say are the causes and effects of the 1858 Ottoman Land Laws?
4. In which ways are Doumani and Cuno eschewing Eurocentrism in their works? Do you agree or disagree that they are doing so? How do their arguments compare to those from İslamoğlu, Keyder, and Wallerstein? How about Owen and Mitchell?

 

 

3/3  World War I: Famine, Food, and Family

 

• Melanie S. Tanielian, "Feeding the City: The Beirut Municipality and Civilian Provisioning

During World War I,” in International Journal of Middle East Studies, 46 (2014), 737-758.

 

• Linda Schatkowski Schilcher, "The Famine of 1915-1918 in Greater Syria," in Problems of the Modern Middle East in Historical Perspective, ed. John P. Spagnolo (St. Antony’s College Oxford: Ithaca Press, 1992).

 

• Elizabeth Thompson, Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 15-38

 

 

(Optional): Since we are focusing on close reading today on one narrow topic, please consider reading this for background and more on women’s labor during the war: Yigit Akin and Elizabeth Thompson, “Labour, Labour Movements and Strikes” Encyclopedia 1914-1915 https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-

online.net/article/labour_labour_movements_and_strikes_ottoman_empire_middle_east

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. Read closely: Describe the famine during World War I. What are the different authors’

perspectives on the causes of the famine. Examine their evidence.

2. Watch the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVbCFyWQjNg
3. How did gender roles change during/as a result of World War I?

 

 

 

3/10  The Kurds, Race, and Oil

 

WATCH: “Kurds Lose Oil Fields as Iran and US Battle for Influence in Iraq” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSDkAR3Li_k

 

Arbella Bet-Shlimon, City of Black Gold (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019), selections

 

 

 

 

 

3/17  Nationalism and Political Economy: Compradors??

 

• Robert Vitalis, “On the Theory and Practice of Compradors: The Role of Abbud Pasha in the Egyptian Political Economy,” IJMES, 22:3 (August 1990), 291-315.

 

• Nancy Y. Reynolds, ‘Nylon Women:’ Materiality, Gender, and Nationalism in Textile

Marketing in Semicolonial Egypt, 1930-1956,” IJMES, 43:1 (February 2011), 49-74.

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. What is the relationship between colonialism and capitalism in Vitalis? What narrative is he writing against?

2. Explain the case of ‘Abbud and Bank Misr.
3. What further information does Reynolds tell us about Bank Misr? How is her perspective different from Vitalis? How is it similar?
4. What does “Knitting the nation” mean? What do socks and nylons have to do with Egyptian nationalism? What about the part of women? Explain.

 

 

3/24 Colonial Economies and Environment

 

 

            [Jason More Video]

 

• Aaron Jakes, “Boom, Bugs, Bust: Egypt’s Ecology of Interest, 1882-1914,” Antipode

(2016), 1-25.

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. Explain Jakes’s treatment of nature and society in capitalism. How does this differ with Mitchell?
2. How does Jakes explain capitalism in Egypt?

 

 

3/31 Neoliberalism: Definitions, Questions, and Myths

• David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, Chapter 1. This is an overview, but it asks us to think deeply about neoliberalism 

 

• Adam Hanieh, Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East, (Haymarket Books) 2013, Chapter One section on Neoliberalism.

 

• Julia Elyachar, Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development, and the  State in Cairo (Duke University Press, 2005), Chapter 6.

 

 

 

 

Reading Questions:

 

1. What is neoliberalism? Summarize in 5 sentences Harvey’s definition.
2. What is neoliberalism’s history in the Middle East? How does Hanieh describe it?
3. Describe NGOs in Egypt. When did they become prominent and why? What does Elyachar argue is the function and role of NGOS in the Egyptian economy? What is their 

 

 

4/7 Israel/Palestine: Transformations and Peace

 

• Michael Shalev, “Liberalization and the Transformation of the Political Economy,” in (eds.) Gershon Shafir and Yoav Peled, The New Israel: Peacemaking and Liberalization (2001), 129-160.

 

• Gershon Shafir and Yoav Peled, “Peace and Profits: The Globalization of Israeli Business and the Peace Process,” in The New Israel, 243-264.

 

 

Reading Questions

1. How did economic organization change in Israel over the past 15 years or so? How and why did this happen? What are some of the consequences/outcomes?

2. What does the example of the Koor company exhibit for Shafir and Peled?
3. What is the relationship between peace and capitalism in Shafir and Peled’s view?

 

 

4/14 Israel/Palestine: Capitalism and Palestinians

 

• Tariq Dana, “Palestine’s Capitalists,” Jacobian Magazine, 2018https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/02/palestines-capitalists

 

• Sara Roy, “De-Development Revisited: Palestinian Economy and Society Since Oslo,”

Journal of Palestinian Studies, XXVIII: 3 (Spring 1999), 64-84.

 

• Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, The Global Political Economy of Israel, London; Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2002, Chapter 5.

 

 

4/21 Oil, Rentier, and Global Financial Markets

 

• Adam Hanieh, Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East, (Haymarket Books) 2013. Chapter 6.

 

• Andrew Gardner, City of Strangers: Gulf Migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain (ILR Press, 2010), Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.

 

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. Explain the process of the internationalization of capital of the Gulf States. How does this process intersect with class formation in the region?
2. Describe transnational labor in Bahrain.
3. What are the ways that migrant labor arrives to Bahrain and the GCC?
4. What is the relationship between labor and imperialism according to Garner? What do the examples of pearls and oil tell us?

 

 

4/28 Islam/Middle East and Capitalism Revisited

 

• Cihan Tugal, Passive Revolution: Absorbing the Islamic Challenge to Capitalism (Stanford University Press, 2009) Introduction (excluding the methodology and sources portions) and Chapter 6.

 

• Nima Sanandaji, “The Middle East is Capitalism’s Next Frontier,” The National Review, 2018https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/middle-east-next-frontier-of-capitalism/

 

 

Reading Questions:

1. How does Tugal’s treatment of Islam and capitalism differ from (or remain similar to) that of earlier scholars of the Arab world (Rodinson, Gran, Banarji, Kuran, Atia etc.)?

2. What are the reasons that Tugal gives for anti-free market Islamists’ popular support for

the AKP (Justice and Development Party) in Turkey?

3. Have your thoughts on Nima Sanandaji’s article and our other introductory material changed? If so, how? If not, what have you confirmed?