LAHORE: In a conversation with economist Savail Hussain, Prof Jared Rubin explained that all religions in the world have been used to legitimize rule but in Muslim countries, the use of religion for legitimacy has been more than in other places. It could mean that rulers needed the support of the religious establishment to remain in power.

He said this in a session of the ThinkFest Online, which discussed the book by Prof Rubin from Chapman University, ‘Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not.’

“It is the persistence of the power of the religious establishment which prevented the Muslim world from getting richer while Europe forged ahead,” he said.

Citing the Ottoman Empire, Prof Rubin said that “the printed press was in fact banned twice in the Ottoman Empire, first in 1485 and then in 1515”.

“Printing in the Arabic script was especially prohibited,” he said. adding “the religious authorities wanted sole custody of the intellect and so did not want any challenge to it, and therefore thwarted change, leading to stagnation in the Muslim world,” he argued.

Speaking about Europe, he said that even in Europe it was not even economic development.

“Countries like Spain, which had empires could not be developedat the same pace as England or the Netherlands mainly because there was too much religious interference,” he argued.

“I am not saying that there should be no religious seat on the table, but that it should not control the table. In the Ottoman Empire, even commerce was controlled through religious courts, and so it hardly flourished. There are always several competing elites, but the key is to create a coalition that enables growth.”

Prof Rubin explained that all change must be within its particular context.

“For example, in the 19th century the Ottomans copied a lot of institutions from the West; it is one thing to copy an institution, but if the other institutions associated with it remain the same nothing changes. That is why the Ottoman Empire ultimately collapsed,” he said. “Institutions are a package and cannot work in isolation.”

About Christianity having a church and Islam not having any central organizational authority, Prof Rubin said that in fact, this made it easier for rulers to find religious scholars who offered them legitimacy. Under the Ottomans it was easier to scale the Mufti ladder if you gave judgments which agreed with the Sultan, he explained.

Prof Rubin said that with the exception of Tunisia he cannot see much change in the Middle East. “It will take decades for institutions to develop and change to set in, but I remain hopeful,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2021