RURAL-URBAN CONFLICTS IN WESTERN ASIA (1100-1700)
This research paper explains how conflicts between rural and urban interests were expressed in Western Asia from the 12th to the 17th centuries. Tensions between those groups increased during the latter period of the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258) because of the disruption in rural areas caused by the decline of the central power of that dynasty, increasingly onerous taxing policies, a decline in agriculture and the social and economic disruption which occurred due to war and other causes. The Ottoman Empire restored peace and stability to these regions for many centuries, but its rule was sporadically interrupted by provincial, pastoral and rural unrest which assumed serious proportions as the power of the central Ottoman Empire began to decline during the 17th century.
Prior to the 10th century, Arab rule did not seriously disrupt rural-urban relationships. Initially, the Arab conquest of Western Asia was accomplished by small religious-military elites which Hourani says were "uneasy settlers in an alien world" (27). The Arab Caliphs decided that the "conquered peoples should be as little disturbed as possible" and accordingly incorporated into the new regime as much as possible "the old elites and the administrative machinery" they inherited (Lapidus 42). Fisher says that "the people of the conquered provinces continued to work and live as they had for centuries, generally with the advantage of paying less in tribute than the former rulers had taxed them" (46). During these relatively stable and prosperous periods, significant investments were made by the Abbasid Caliphate in irrigation systems in Mesopotamia. After 950, more and more of the agricultural food surplus and wealth generated from landownership "was used in the city rather than for the maintenance of the countryside" (Hourani 103). The great irrigation works of Mesopotamia were allowed to decay.
The caliphs inc...