Organisationsformen und Kontrollinstanzen des städtischen Marktes im arabischen Raum in vorindustrieller Zeit - Tradition und Wandel : eine vergleichende ethnologische Untersuchung / eingereicht von Claudia Kickinger

• VerfasserIn: Kickinger, Claudia
• Place / Publishing House: Wien
• Language: German
• Contents/pieces: 2 records

eng: The urban market of the Islamic Orient already evoked the interest of scientists investigating this region at the turn of the century. The efforts of those, who tried to relate the studies made in special towns or cities to historical sources, lead to the most diverse conceptions until today. The aim of the present study is therefore to undertake a comparative analysis on a vertical and horizontal level, emphasizing the historical dimension. As the center of the economic and social forces of the city, the organization of the urban market must be analyzed with regard to the intertwining relations within the urban society. It is placed within a network of powerplay between various professions, the state and the city. Therefore the administration and the juridical system play an important role in the way the market is organized. But only through the special kind of interpenetration between different classes and groups, affected by crosscutting patterns of religion, politics and kinship do social processes show themselves, processes that lead to new constellations, new forms. These dynamic interactions have been presented, the discussion concerning the so called guilds will be taken up once more. It will be shown that on one level the professional organization grew out of an administrative system that goes back to the institution of the hisba which expanded in the wake of the systematic institutional islamisation under the Abbasids, and for which the juridical scholars worked out a law that integrated habits and customs in the form of a customary law. The internal structure and consistency of the professional groups, connected with social elements of the urban society, kinship, ethnic or religious affiliation, regional provenance and/or the very special relation to fraternities, varies according to place, time and even profession.