Technology, Industry and Trade

This is the fifth collection of articles by Eliyahu Ashtor to be published by Variorum and focuses on the fundamental question of why, during the later Middle Ages, technology and industry declined, even collapsed, in the Muslim Levant, while simultaneously making enormous progress in the Christian West. An indefatigable researcher in archives all over the Mediterranean, Ashtor amassed quantities of data on this subject, and began to propose causal links between, on the one hand, demographic trends, types of political regime, economic policies and attitudes towards innovation, and on the other, the progress or decline of technology and industry. Although his work was cut short by his death in 1984, the information that Ashtor has made available, for instance on the sugar and the alkali industries, and the questions and hypotheses he has suggested will provide a vital basis for continuing research. The final article, dealing more specifically with the history of commerce, represents in effect a summation of the author's views on the role of the Jews in the trade of the Mediterranean. La cinquime collection darticles dEliyahu Ashtor tre publie par Variorum (pour les deux volumes encore disponibles, voir p.00) se concentre sur la raison fondamentale pour laquelle, durant le Bas Moyen Age, la technologie et lindustrie dans le Levant musulman taient en dclin, voire mme en plein effondrement, alors quelles faisaient simultanment dnormes progrs dans lOuest chrtien. Cherchiste infatiguable des archives mditerranennes, Ashtor a amass quantit dinformations ce sujet et a commenc suggrer lexistence de lien de cause entre: dune part, les tendances dmongraphiques, les types de rgimes politiques, la politique conomique et les attitudes vis- -vis du changement et, dautre part, le progrs ou le dclin de la technologie et de lindustrie. Bien que son travail ait t interrompu par sa mort en 1984,