The Decline of Iranshahr: Irrigation and Environments in the History of the Middle East, 500 B.C.to A.D.1500 - Hardcover

Christensen, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8772892595 ISBN 13: 9788772892597

Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1993

Synopsis

After the Golden Age - which is usually dated back to early Abbasid period - things began to change in the Middle East. Population decreased, ancient cities declined or were even deserted, and barbaric nomadism spread at the expense of civilised agriculture. In a parallel process intellectual creativity was stifled and artistic originality dried up. Thus even before the capitalist world economy made its influence felt, the once dynamic civilisations of the Middle East were turning into stagnate proto-developing countries: impoverished, disease-ridden and technologically backward. The present study asks a few simple questions about this notion of decline: how extensive and how general was the contraction of agriculture and de-urbanisation and what kinds of explanations can we offer.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Christensen is Lecturer at the Institute of History, University of Copenhagen and at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad, Copenhagen.

About this edition

• Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 8772892595
• ISBN 13: 9788772892597
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352