In the yr a thousand, the economic system of the center East was once at the least as complicated as that of Europe. yet through 1800, the quarter had fallen dramatically behind--in dwelling criteria, know-how, and monetary associations. briefly, the center East had didn't modernize economically because the West surged forward. What brought on this lengthy divergence? And why does the center East stay vastly underdeveloped in comparison to the West? In The lengthy Divergence, one of many world's best specialists on Islamic fiscal associations and the economic climate of the center East presents a brand new solution to those long-debated questions.

Timur Kuran argues that what slowed the industrial improvement of the center East was once now not colonialism or geography, nonetheless much less Muslim attitudes or a few incompatibility among Islam and capitalism. quite, beginning round the 10th century, Islamic felony associations, which had benefitted the center japanese economic system within the early centuries of Islam, started to act as a drag on improvement by way of slowing or blockading the emergence of relevant positive aspects of recent fiscal life--including deepest capital accumulation, companies, large-scale creation, and impersonal alternate. via the 19th century, sleek monetary associations started to be transplanted to the center East, yet its economic system has no longer stuck up. and there's no quickly repair this present day. Low belief, rampant corruption, and susceptible civil societies--all attribute of the region's economies this day and all legacies of its financial history--will take generations to overcome.

The lengthy Divergence opens up a frank and sincere debate on a vital factor that even essentially the most ardent secularists within the Muslim international have hesitated to discuss.