Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran: A Moment in World History [Hardcover]

Richard W. Bulliet (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0231148364 | ISBN-13: 978-0231148368 | Publication Date: June 19, 2009

A boom in the production and export of cotton made Iran the richest region of the Islamic caliphate in the ninth and tenth centuries. Yet in the eleventh century, Iran's impressive agricultural economy entered a steep decline, bringing the country's primacy to an end.

Richard W. Bulliet advances several provocative theses to explain these hitherto unrecognized historical events. According to Bulliet, the boom in cotton production directly paralleled the spread of Islam, and Iran's agricultural decline stemmed from a significant cooling of the climate that lasted for over a century. The latter phenomenon also prompted Turkish nomadic tribes to enter Iran for the first time, establishing a political dominance that would last for centuries.

Substantiating his argument with innovative quantitative research and recent scientific discoveries, Bulliet first establishes the relationship between Iran's cotton industry and Islam and then outlines the evidence for what he terms the "Big Chill." Turning to the story of the Turks, he focuses on the lucrative but temperature-sensitive industry of cross-breeding one-humped and two-humped camels. He concludes that this unusual concatenation of events had a profound and long-lasting impact not just on the history of Iran but on the development of world affairs in general.

(May 2010)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran is a work of great originality and a major innovation in the historiography of Iran and surrounding regions.

(Carter Findlay, Ohio State University, and author The Turks in World History )

An excellent book that stands out for its innovative and perceptive research.

(Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopaedia Iranica )

In an extraordinary mix of erudite scholarship and elegant presentation, Richard W. Bulliet reveals Abbasid Iran's central place in world history during two key centuries. His skill in unlocking the balance of structural change and human agency makes this book a brilliant model for all students of social change.

(Patrick Manning, University of Pittsburgh, and author of The African Diaspora: A History Through Culture )

This book is not only an almost unique example of highly readable historiography; it is a masterpiece of methodology and precise argumentation. Richard W. Bulliet remarks that his personal affections as a historian have not been for heroes but for ordinary men and women. Therefore he is constantly in search for those determinants which influence immediately and permanently the decisions of these people. His methods to trace these determinants are absolutely brilliant and may serve as models not only for the Middle East but for any part of our world.

(Bert Fragner, Institute of Iranian Studies/Austrian Academy of Sciences )

Bulliet offers an innovative, provocative analysis that demonstrates the considerable significance of the era for Iranian, Islamic and world history.

(Choice )

This slim volume is packed with ideas. It contains a highly original, creative, thought-provoking, and clear argument

(Michael Morony Speculuma Journal of Medieval Studies )

About the Author

Richard W. Bulliet is professor of history at Columbia University. He was born in Rockford, Illinois, and received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Bulliet joined Columbia in 1976 and directed its Middle East Institute for twelve years. He also served for four years as the executive secretary of the Middle East Studies Association. Bulliet is the author of Hunters, Herders, and Hamburgers: The Past and Future of Human-Animal Relationships; The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization; Islam: The View from the Edge; and The Camel and The Wheel, and he is the editor of The Columbia History of the Twentieth Century.

(Oct. 2010)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (June 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231148364
• ISBN-13: 978-0231148368
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,469,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have been teaching at Columbia University since 1973. Before that I taught at Harvard for six years and at UC Berkeley for two. All that redeems me from being identified as a pure academic is the enjoyment I derive from writing fiction. My first novel, Kicked to Death by a Camel, was nominated for an Edgar in the category of Best First Mystery. Some readers have maintained that the best thing about it was the title. Neither Kicked to Death nor any of my subsequent novels met much commercial success, but they enabled me to make stories out of my personal experiences, mostly during travels to the Middle East.

My academic writings deal either with Islam, human-animal relations, or the history of technology. In all three cases, my greatest satisfaction comes from asking unusual or previously unasked questions and exploring innovative methods in trying to answer them. When I came to Columbia, a colleague who was opposed to my appointment predicted that I would never write "real" history. Maybe I haven't. That's for others to judge. All I can say is that I don't think I have written any history that could have been written by someone else.

Personally, I come from Rockford, Illinois and consider myself a lapsed Methodist. That is to say, I recognize that the conduct of my life has been strongly influenced by the social expectations of Methodism, but I have long departed from the theology and rituals of any church. I have no personal or family roots in the Middle East or in Islam--or on a farm, for that matter. Though my early research and writing concentrated on the social and economic aspects of medieval Islam, and of Iran in particular, after the Iranian Revolution I became more actively involved in contemporary affairs. In particular, I pay close attention to religious political currents in the Muslim world and to the ups and downs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which I feel constitutes one of the major political and social experiments of our time.

After 40+ years as a Middle East/Islam specialist, I'm pretty tired of reading about that subject. My reading preferences lean more to science fiction (William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, Richard Morgan), graphic novels (Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Garth Ennis, Mike Carey, Brian Vaughan), and experimental novelists (John Barth, Donald Barthelme, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis).