Habib Sriwi Three studies in Medieval Arab Islamic Economic History (original) (raw)

Endeavoring to leave aside dogmatism and mechanically applied Marxist readings, this book examines, from a theoretical point of view, the issue of sociohistorical classification in the medieval Arab-Islamic society. Based on our consideration of feudalism as a mode of production whose essence is the reproduction of productive forces, and as a system that corresponds to serfdom, the form of labor under the feudal mode in which farmers are compelled to transfer surplus production to those who control the land in the form of taxes or in the form of labor rent in kind or in money. When distinguishing between modes of production, little difference emerges between taxation systems and various forms of rent. The Asiatic and tributary modes of production remain, consequently, similar: two sides of the same coin, and they induce little difference from the political, economic and ideological characteristics of the feudal mode of production. As a result, the Arab-Islamic society, then, is feudal according to the type that, in our opinion, was the result of the interaction and intermingling of the four following factors: the tribal confederation, the Islamic religion, the military conquest, and the economic heritage in its material and productive aspect for the peoples of the endemic countries in Western Asia in general. It led to the generation of a feudal mode production that underwent the following historical developmental stages: the tribal phase, the state phase, and the military phase. This coincided with the establishment of the Arab Islamic state, starting with the state of Medina during the reign of Muhammad, passing through the Rashidun, then the Umayyad Caliphate, all the way to the Abbasid Caliphate state.