HISTORY 300-0-26: HISTORY OF CAPITALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Fall 2025
Instructor: Dr. Önder Eren Akgül (onder.akgul@northwestern.edu)
Class Meetings: TuTh 12:30pm-1:50pm, Harris Hall L06
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
In History of Capitalism in the Middle East, we will examine the history of capitalism in the Middle East to gain new perspectives on the region's past and present. We will approach capitalism as a distinct historical form of social, ecological, and economic organization, viewing its development in the Middle East as a historical process characterized by various unevennesses. Drawing from investigations in Middle Eastern history, this course ultimately leads to an analysis of capitalism as a global system encompassing multiple historical trajectories rather than a singular narrative. We will engage with theories, approaches, and methodologies in the studies of capitalism, connecting the histories and trajectories of capital(ism) to the everyday lives and labor experiences of diverse economic communities in the Middle East, including traders, bankers, creditors, landowners, industrialists, experts, bureaucrats, peasants, workers, and enslaved individuals. Through close readings of monographs and academic articles, primary sources, excerpts from fictional narratives and autobiographical writings, as well as viewings of films, videos, and documentaries, we will trace the historical arc of capital across the region. Focusing on case studies from the early Islamic Mediterranean, the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Egypt, Levant, and the Gulf, we will analyze the fundamental processes and contingencies upon which the development and expansion of capitalism relied on and reproduced—but not limited to—debt and indebtedness, colonial hierarchies, imperialist competition, dispossession, ecological extraction, racialized subjugations, and gendered social reproduction in the Middle East. We will explore themes such as the relationship between Islam and capitalism, the role of commodities and credit in connecting the Middle East to the wider world, and the development of commercial, extractive, racial, colonial, industrial, and neoliberal capitalisms throughout history. Throughout the course, students will gain an understanding of the field of a new history of capitalism, develop expertise in the history and political economy of capitalism in the Middle East, and hone their skills in producing critical academic knowledge.