Arab Economies
A short analysis of the traditional economies of the Arab states.
Traditional Economies of the Arabian Peninsula
Before the foundation of Islam and its expansion, the people of the Arabian Peninsula organized along loose, tribal lines. Without a strong, central political state, trade was limited to merchant towns controlled by powerful families. Of these, the Quraysh were perhaps most prominent. They controlled the town of Mecca, a popular pilgrimage site home to the sacred Kaaba. Mecca was part of a larger network connecting Arabia’s resources to the Roman and Persian worlds. The Prophet Muhammad was born into the Quraysh family, though he was an orphan from a minor branch. As he grew older, he made his fortune among the passing caravans. When driven from Mecca for preaching monotheism, he found refuge instead in a rival city, Medina, and with the nomadic people of the desert.
The desert Arabs often had little respect for merchants. They lived in a harsh landscape and survived by hunting and herding. They traveled primarily by camel and also kept herds of sheep and goats. While some participated in caravan trade, others claimed tributes in exchange for safe passage through their lands. This divide between settled urban populations and the desert tribes would persist to the modern era.
Trade and Commerce of the Medieval Era
As the Islamic world grew through caliphates like the Umayyad and Abbasid, trade expanded along old and new roads. Muhammad’s status as a merchant made it a respectable trade, and the Quran deals extensively with righteous trade practices. The Arabs conquered people of many cultures, including wealthy Persians and Jewish communities. Both populations, alongside Arab merchants, played an influential role in developing trade between North Africa, Europe, and China. Baghdad, the Abbasid capital, benefited from its position at the center of these wealthy regions. The Hajj to Mecca also remained an important aspect of the Islamic economy, encouraging pilgrims to buy and sell along major routes.
Abbasid traders transported spices, camels, horses, pearls, paper, slaves, cotton, silk, metals, ceramics, and food products, among many other goods. They traveled along the Silk Road of China and to the markets of Spain and Constantinople. Boats traveling up and down the Nile carried gold and aromatics to eager markets. Sailors improved the astrolabe for navigation and quickly adopted the magnetic compass from China. Camels provided the main form of overland transport for merchants as they traveled over deserts. Their voyages spread not only luxury goods but also basic commodities and ideas. The preservation of Greek philosophy in Muslim libraries, for example, is often credited with the foundation of the European Renaissance.
Oil and Modern Arab World Economies
Over time, the influence of the Arab trade routes declined. European powers, with the help of Arab navigation techniques, turned their eye instead to the Atlantic and maritime trade. Meanwhile, the majority of the Arab world fell under Ottoman control. Besides standard exports like coffee, metals, textiles, spices, and aromatics, the region would not attract global attention again until the discovery of oil in the 20th century. Vast deposits of the strategic resource enriched and modernized many modern Arab nations, but they also caused political instability and foreign interventions. Countries like Saudi Arabia transformed within a few decades from subsistence farming to immense industrial operations. As a result, whole cities have risen to cater to wealthy professional classes, most notably Dubai of the United Arab Emirates.
Not every nation in the modern Arab League is oil-rich, and many have worked to diversify their economies. Tourism, manufacturing, mining, and service industries are all important industries as well. Great wealth disparities exist between these nations and within them, largely driven by the control of oil reserves. While a good portion of modern Arabic-speaking people enjoy a high standard of living, poverty and subsistence lifestyles are still common in rural areas.
Further Reading:
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References
Barakat, Halim. The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State. University of California Press. 1993.
Bennison, Amira K. The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the Abbasid Empire. Yale University Press. 2014.
Habib Hourani, Albert and Malise Ruthven. A History of the Arab Peoples. Harvard University Press. 2002.
Hitti, Philip Khuri. The Arabs: A Short History. Regnery Publishing. 1996.
Nabhan, Gary Paul. Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey. University of California Press. 2014.
Reynolds, Dwight F., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arab Culture. Cambridge University Press. 2015.
Warnock Fernea, Elizabeth and Robert A. Fernea. The Arab World. Knopf Doubleday Publishing. 2011.
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