Question

“During the 17^th and 18^th centuries, there was evidence of economic decline in the Middle East with the spread of plague as an important feature affecting population and economic growth.”

1. Do you agree with this statement? Explain why?
2. Elucidate the Ottoman administration system in rural and urban areas.
3. Criticize their system pointing to any similarities/differences with the present systems and what lessons can we draw for the present.   
4. Currently, the COVID-19 is a pandemic that is spreading throughout the whole world. Do you think that it would have the same impact on the Middle East as the spread of plague
5. during the 17^th & 18^th centuries? Justify your answer. (800 words answer)

Answer 1

a)Yes I agree with this statement. Ottoman empire and the Middle East have been especially

critical of the absence of Ottoman sources "

Here in1895 is referred to so called fanatic adherents of Istanbul (G St, III HA, Nr 1100, 20 November 1895, Pera’dan

Saurma, Bl. 2007-2008) and it summarizes to a certain extend, the effects of changing world economy on Ottomans under the European capitalism. While European economic influence was spreading all over the world, this influence
struggled with the existing social, economical and political institutions and at the end, converted local institutions (Quataert, 1987, p.13). Although Ottoman Empire showed considerably effective resistance to European penetration in terms of capital and trades, the result of these attempts had seriously contributedt economical Decline of the empire.

According to some of the modern intellectuals in Ottoman, religion was limiting
secular knowledge of education. “Rather than teaching the ideals of the French
Revolution and Enlightenment-inspired individualism, schools continued as vehicles
for religio-moral social disciplining” (Encyclopedia Britannica: Ottoman Empire).
Misinterpretation of Islam inhibited education of women. Therefore, this led to a
decline in human capital. The effect of the diminishing human capital due to limitededucation in Ottoman Empire on its economic decline, can be explained by Romer’s
statement defining human capital as a key determinant of economic growth.
Together with Tanzimat, from 1870 to the early 1880s, Ottoman education system
was relieved by modernization and secularization in the sense of esteeming non-religious knowledge (Salmoni, 2002). “The inherent instability of all states, which leads to economic change and Ultimately to economic decline”

b)

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The Economic history of the Ottoman Empire covers the period 1299–1923. Trade, agriculture, transportation, and religion make up the Ottoman Empire's economy.

The Ottomans saw military expansion and careful use of currency more emphasis to manufacture and industry in the wealth-power-wealth equation, moving towards capitalist economics comprising expanding industries and markets whereas the Ottomans continued along the trajectory of territorial expansion, traditional monopolies, conservative landholding, and agriculture.

Trade has always been an important aspect of an economy. It was no different in the 16th century. As the Ottoman Empire expanded, it started gaining control of important trade routes. The capture of Constantinople (1453) to the Ottoman Turks was a key event. Along with their victory, they now had significant control of the Silk Road, which European countries used to trade with Asia. Many sources state that the Ottoman Empire “blocked” the Silk Road. This meant that while Europeans could trade through Constantinople and other Muslim countries, they had to pay high taxes. Ottoman-Europe relations were not always ideal because a difference in religion seems to have played an important role in their societies.

Agriculture:

The Ottoman Empire was an agrarian economy, labor scarce, land rich and capital-poor. The majority of the population earned their living from small family holdings and this contributed to around 40 percent of taxes for the empire directly as well as indirectly through customs revenues on exports.

No formal system had emerged to organize manufacturing in medieval Anatolia. The closest such organization that can be identified is the Ahi Brotherhood, a religious organization that followed the Sufi tradition of Islam during the 13th and 14th centuries.

C)Student Allowance
Living allowances were given to Hebrew students at the Jerusalem Academy in the first century. In 1253, the medieval city of Ypres gavestudents benches and strawwith no extra charge for medical blood-letting services. Room and board was provided for students of higher education at ottomanEmpire medresses of the 15th century. In addition, their students were exempt from military service. In 1648, students at German academies received free board. The Dutch East India Company sent able Ceylonese students to Leyden University at company expense in the late.

17th century. In 1871, at the Calcutta Medress, an Arabic Persian language and Mohammedan school, a student allowance was given Scholarships.These have been commonly provided by local, state, and national agencies; private companies and organizations; and universities. In the seventh century, Japan sent students abroad for learning. Scholarships were awarded for room, board, books, stationery, tuition and fees at the Ottoman Empire Galatasaray Lise secondary school for Moslems and mixed nationalities of the late 19th century. The British Colonial Welfare and Development Acts of the 20th century provided scholarships for Ghanian andTanzanian students.

PoliticalNeeds:

A society can open political system needs an educated electorate. The need to train statesmen has also created specials schools such as the 15th century'Ottoman Empire's palace school for the best intellects in the Empire. In the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, evening schools helped fulfill the political need of transmittingnational cultural values and inculcating patriotism to immigrants.

Economic difficulties

Under such conditions it was inevitable that the Ottoman government could not meet the increasingly difficult problems that plagued the empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. Economic difficulties began in the late 16th century, when the Dutch and British completely closed the old international trade routes through the Middle East. As a result, the prosperity of the Middle Eastern provinces declined. The Ottoman economy was disrupted by inflation, caused by the influx of precious metals into Europe from the Americas and by an increasing imbalance of trade between East and West. As the treasury lost more of its revenues to the depredations of the devşirme, it began to meet its obligations by debasing the coinage, sharply increasing taxes, and resorting to confiscations, all of which only worsened the situation.

d)Roman poets used plague as a way of reflecting on war — civil war in particular. Internal discord was thought to spread (like a disease) through a population, until all discord was resolved in death. Pestilence, like war, was frequently a great status leveler: Rich and poor, pauper and aristocrat are equally susceptible to illness and death from the virus’ (or, in the case of bubonic plague, the bacterium’s) point of view; thus “plague” or any epidemic disease has a homogenizing impact. This is made morbidly clear in the tendencies of ancient and early modern writers to dwell on death pits and mass burials, where bodies are heaped upon bodies with no distinguishing characteristics. We’re seeing a lot of this now as media coverage of COVID-19 makes frequent references to ‘mass graves’ and ‘makeshift morgues,’ especially in nursing homes.Contagion was not well understood in antiquity: Ancient writers viewed pestilence as a sign of divine displeasure while also explaining disease through miasma theory, the notion that corrupt atmospheres were a source of epidemic disease. At the same time, the Latin word for “contagion,” derived from contingo, “touch” (contactus, contagio, etc.) indicates awareness that disease could be spread through social proximity. By making evident our physical contact with others, contagion makes visible those social interactions that are most dear and familiar even as it destroys them. Ancient writers narrate the spread of disease using language that evaluates which bonds were considered the strongest within the social order, usually familial bonds. We’re hearing a lot now, under the threat of COVID-19, about measures we can take to protect ourselves, our families, our communities. But Roman writers were well aware as we should be that there may be occasions when those goals of protection are in conflict with each other.

Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, usually found in small mammals and their fleas. The disease is transmitted between animals via their fleas and, as it is a zoonotic bacteriuma, it can also transmit from animals to humans.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause illnesses such as the common cold, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). In 2019, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of a disease outbreak that originated in China.

Most of us have never lived through a pandemic like the coronavirus before, but we have heard or learned about them, from the Spanish flu to, more notoriously, the plague, like the Black Death.

And perhaps, as you’ve followed the news or talked to people about COVID-19, you have even heard the coronavirus called a “plague.”

No, the new coronavirus is not the plague. (Whew. Take a deep breath with us now.) But let’s read on to actually learn about the difference between the coronavirus and the plague to be sure.

For health, safety, and medical emergencies or updates on the novel coronavirus pandemic, please visit the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and WHO (World Health Organization). For more words related to the coronavirus, see our glossary. And for more important distinctions between confusing words related to the coronavirus, see our articles pandemic vs. epidemic, quarantine vs. isolation, and respirator vs. ventilator.So, what do the coronavirus and the plague have in common? They both are infectious diseases that spread to humans from certain animals (that’s called zoonotic). However, COVID-19 is caused by a virus—essentially a tiny bit of nucleic acid and protein that needs a living host—whereas the plague is caused by bacteria, which are single-celled organisms. Further, while antibiotics work on bacteria, they do not work on viruses.

e)

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the merchants from municipalities in Europe started moving to the as the supplies were accessible in abundance and at more affordable rates.

Also, the hand-operated laborers in the nation were in high numbers which were beneficial for enhancing production. As this was the time of industrialization, large-scale generation was a requirement to render exchange and to depreciate the costs associated with buying supplies and arranging laborers in the town, and the wholesalers migrated to the farmland.

In the 17th & 18th centuries, traders from towns in Europe started traveling countryside since trade guilds, producers' association, skilled craftsmen and artisans prohibited the influx of new people into the industry.
They were producers' associations, who trained craftsmen, retained power over production, controlled trade and prices, and limited the influx of new people into business.
Rulers gave various guilds the right of monopoly to manufacture and trade in different goods. New merchants therefore found it difficult to set up business in cities

Proto Industrialization:

In seventeeth and eighteeneighteen centuries merchants from the towns in europe began moving to the countryside

The earlier phase of industrialisation in which large scale production was carried out for international market not at factories but in decentralized units.This is known as proto -industrialisation.
Reasons that merchant began to move in the countryside in 17th and 18th century are:-
1- Huge demand- the world trade expanded at a very fast rate during the 17th and the 18th centuries due to population growth.
2- Powerful town producers- the producers could not expand the production at will in the towns as urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful.