中东中世纪城市社会结构分析

An Interpretation of the Social Structure in Medieval Cities of Middle East

城市社会结构对城市发展影响巨大。本文从中东中世纪城市社会结构角度,探索中东城市繁荣一时却无法率先跨入资本主义之原因。指出:阶级分化不明显,没有形成完全意义上的市民,使城市无法孕育出封建社会的对抗因素,无力率先冲破封建制度的牢笼走向资本主义;行会缺乏严格的等级制度,没有阶级斗争,使其存在时间长;城市经济结构不协调,缺乏商业资本转向生产的条件,阻碍现代工业的兴起与发展;商人放弃远洋贸易,无法像欧洲城市那样形成资本主义萌芽时期必不可少的巨大的海外市场;大量非生产人口集中在城市,形成巨大的消费群体,不利于资本的原始积累;城市不能有效涵容农业人口,使社会结构缺乏良性发展,工业缺乏发展的后备军。这些因素交互作用使中东伊斯兰城市失去了率先走向资本主义的历史机遇。

The article is intended to study the social structure of the medieval cities in Middle East and to interpret the reasons why prosperous Islamic cities did not orient towards capitalism.The author makes a deep examination of all the following factors:the deficiency of a competitive 'citizen' class against the feudalist lord class;a hierarchically loose system of guilds;insufficient motivating force of mechanical innovation;the failure of trading capital into industry;the abandonment of the overseas market which was necessary for capitalism;the bulge of consumer groups impeding capital accumulation;and the cities' intolerance to agricultural population,and argues that the interaction of all these factors made the medieval Islamic cities fail to catch the historical opportrnity of moving to capitalism first.