Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 25)

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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 25)

المحتوى

and tribal bases. The state or the "Moslem ruier" is necessary in
order to achieve harmony and balance amongst these opposite and
independent units. In this theory, Islam was presented as a timeless,
monolithic and homogeneous culture which provides a perfectly adequate
device for syphoning off the internal, factional conflicts of the
social structure (Turner,1978:40; Abdel-Fadil,1988).
In this approach, Islam is held responsible for the static aspect
of all social formations under the Ottoman rule. Some elements of this
approach can be traced back to Marx's concept of the “Asiatic Mode of
Production", while others seem to be derived from Weberian analysis.
According to Weber (1968), Islamic culture is incompatible with the
spirit of capitalism, unlike the “Protestant ethic” which is seen as a
significant force in the emergence of Western capitalism. In Economy
and Society Weber elaborates on this theme, suggesting that prebendal
feudalism of imperial Islam is inherently contemptuous of bourgeois-
commercial utilitarianism and considers it as sordid greediness and as
the life force specifically hostile to it (Weber, 1968:109).
In Marx and the End of Orientalism (1978) and Capitalism and Class
in the Middle East(i984), Bryan Turner provides an extensive critique
of the work of the Orientalists, arguing that their "Mosaic Model"
provides the theoretical basis for Wittfogel's elaborated notion of
Oriental Despotism (Wittfogel, 1959). Other Middle Eastern scholars
have dismissed the Orientalist approach as static and ideologically
biased (Zureik,1981; Said, 1978).
Said associates the Orientalist view of Islam as a static society
with the growth of western imperialism. In Orientalism, he argues
that: “Orientalism changed from a scholarly inquiry into exotic
language, into a theory of political practice..." for two reasons: one,
11
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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation

تاريخ

١٩٨٩

المنشئ

Nahla Abdo-Zubi

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