eprintid: 42961 rev_number: 27 eprint_status: archive userid: 1482 importid: 105 dir: disk0/00/04/29/61 datestamp: 2021-03-16 14:37:50 lastmod: 2024-02-07 13:13:11 status_changed: 2024-02-07 13:13:11 type: book_section metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Saleh, Mohamed creators_id: mohamed.saleh@tse-fr.eu creators_idrefppn: 254172318 creators_halaffid: 1002422 ; 506116 title: Islam and economic development : the case of non-muslim minorities in the Middle East and north Africa ispublished: pub subjects: subjects_ECO abstract: This chapter investigates a long-standing puzzle in the economic history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: why do MENA’s native non-Muslim minorities have better socioeconomic (SES) outcomes than the Muslim majority, both historically and today? Focusing on the case of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the largest non-Muslim minority in absolute number in the region, and employing a wide range of novel archival data sources, the chapter argues that Copts’ superior SES can be explained neither by Islam’s negative impact on Muslims’ SES (where Islam is defined as a set of beliefs or institutions) nor by colonization’s preferential treatment of Copts. Instead, the chapter traces the phenomenon to self-selection on SES during Egypt’s historical conversion from Coptic Christianity to Islam in the aftermath of the Arab Conquest of the then-Coptic Egypt in 641 CE. The argument is that the regressivity-in-income of the poll tax on non-Muslims (initially all Egyptians) that was imposed continuously from 641 to 1856 led to the shrinkage of (non-convert) Copts into a better-off minority. The Coptic-Muslim SES gap then persisted due to group restrictions on access to white-collar and artisanal skills. The chapter opens new areas of research on non-Muslim minorities in the MENA region and beyond. date: 2021-02-10 date_type: published publisher: Oxford University Press. id_number: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190931056.013.27 official_url: http://tse-fr.eu/pub/125421 faculty: tse divisions: tse language: en has_fulltext: TRUE doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190931056.013.27 book_chapter: 31 view_date_year: 2021 full_text_status: public series: Oxford handbooks online place_of_pub: Oxford, Angleterre. pagerange: 367-654 isbn: 9780190931056 book_title: The oxford handbook of Politics in muslim societies. editors_name: Cammett, Melani editors_name: Jones, Pauline oai_identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:125421 harvester_local_overwrite: pending harvester_local_overwrite: series harvester_local_overwrite: creators_idrefppn harvester_local_overwrite: editors_name harvester_local_overwrite: publisher harvester_local_overwrite: place_of_pub harvester_local_overwrite: title harvester_local_overwrite: book_title harvester_local_overwrite: publish_to_hal harvester_local_overwrite: creators_halaffid harvester_local_overwrite: hal_id harvester_local_overwrite: hal_version harvester_local_overwrite: hal_url harvester_local_overwrite: hal_passwd harvester_local_overwrite: book_chapter harvester_local_overwrite: date harvester_local_overwrite: pagerange harvester_local_overwrite: creators_id oai_lastmod: 2024-01-22T10:11:53Z oai_set: tse site: ut1 publish_to_hal: TRUE hal_id: hal-03231145 hal_passwd: 6y7v?w@ hal_version: 1 hal_url: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03231145 citation: Saleh, Mohamed (2021) Islam and economic development : the case of non-muslim minorities in the Middle East and north Africa. In: The oxford handbook of Politics in muslim societies. Cammett, Melani and Jones, Pauline (eds.) Oxford University Press. Series “Oxford handbooks online” Chapter 31. Oxford, Angleterre. pp. 367-654. ISBN 9780190931056 document_url: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/42961/1/saleh_islam.pdf