This is the first comprehensive history and economic analysis of the Fertile Crescent during the 19th century, a region currently encompassing Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and a small part of Turkey. Presenting 155 carefully selected documents--the majority drawn from British and French archives and here published for the first time, the balance translated from Arabic, French, German, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, and Turkish sources--Issawi provides an in-depth treatment of the economic life of the region, with chapters on social life and organization, trade, transport, agriculture,...

Charles Issawi's collection of essays, Cross-Cultural Encounters and Conflicts, has been written in the belief that a study of the past encounters and conflicts between the world's major cultures can shed light on their nature and importance. Though the emphasis is on the Middle East, of which Issawi is one of our foremost scholars, the subjects covered here range in scope from the great ancient civilizations to Shelley's passion for the Middle East, from the failures of the Greeks as empire builders to the preeminence of English as an international language today. Other essays...

A selection of essays focusing on the main reasons for the economic decline in the Middle East. It discusses climate, geography and religion, with particular emphasis on the military elite, whose contempt for artisans and merchants thwarted positive economic initiatives.