Book Review: Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes, by Tamim Ansary

[inverarity]

The history of Islam told as a narrative, not as an apologetic, an indictment, or a treatise.

Comments

[tealterror0]

Yeah, I've read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel which argued similarly. There is something to be said for the geographical explanations, but I don't think they tell the whole story. Diamond himself admitted in the book that he didn't really know why China never took over the world, and offered some relatively half-assed suggestions that weren't terribly convincing to me.

I have several problems with the "Europe has always had numerous small states" explanation (which was Diamond's as well). First is the one given above: the Muslim world and China have often contained competing states. Second, it assumes innovation-generating conflict can only take place between states; there's no inherent reason why a country couldn't devise new technology as a result of factions within it competing for power. Third, and relatedly, it to an extent projects the nation-state model back throughout history; before really recently, most power was held by local lords and power-brokers and the state had to constantly battle these people for authority, which was a constant source of intra-state conflict. Fourth, some of the greatest sources of European innovations were inherently trans-national, such as the Catholic Church, the university system, and the Renaissance and Enlightenment.

Don't get me wrong, it might be part of the story, same with the other geographical factors you cite, but I don't think it's close to being the full story. Contingent historical factors also must play a role, IMO.