LE DÉCLIN DU MONDE MUSULMAN À PARTIR DU MOYEN ÂGE : UNE REVUE DES EXPLICATIONS

Since its peak in the Middle Ages, the Islamic world has lost its prominent place among the great civilisations. Indeed, the scientific and industrial revolutions took place in Western Europe between the XVIIth and the XIXth centuries, and not in the Muslim world, while the free-market democratic system was also invented in the Netherlands, England and France. This article highlights some aspects of the Islamic decline in the first part, and aims to survey the main explanatory theories for this decline in its second part, ranging from geographical to institutional factors and from economic to demographic analyses.