ABSTRACT
‘ Behold, your child lives,’ the prophet Elijah announced to the widow of Zarephath after a period of famine and drought had threatened the life of her offspring (I Kings 17: 23). A similar message of hope and optimism can be proclaimed concerning the vitality and future of the economic history of the medieval Near East. After decades of comparative neglect, and even despair, the summer of 1967 witnessed a truly impressive upsurge in interest, encouragement and activity in this sector of Near Eastern Studies. The London conference (in early July) on the Economic History of the Middle East, with its special section devoted to the medieval period, was preceded by a colloquium at All Souls College, Oxford, on Islam and the Trade of Asia, which focused almost entirely on the Middle Ages, and was followed in mid-August by a panel devoted to medieval Near Eastern economic history at the 27th International Congress of Orientalists in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the first such session in the long and venerable history of these meetings.
