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On the Road to Heaven: Taxation, Conversions, and the Coptic-Muslim Socioeconomic Gap in Medieval Egypt

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  • Saleh, Mohamed

Abstract

Inter-religion socioeconomic differences are often attributed to religion. Instead, I trace the phenomenon in Egypt to self-selection-on-socioeconomic-status during Egypt’s conversion from Coptic Christianity to Islam. Self-selection was driven by a regressive tax-on-religion that was imposed upon the Arab Conquest of Egypt in 641 and lasted until 1856. Using novel data sources, I document that (a) the long-term trends of the tax, conversions, and the Coptic-Muslim occupational differences are consistent with the selection hypothesis, and (b) districts with a higher tax in 641- 1100 had relatively fewer, but differentially better-off, Copts in 1848-1868. I discuss why the initial selection persisted over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Saleh, Mohamed, 2013. "On the Road to Heaven: Taxation, Conversions, and the Coptic-Muslim Socioeconomic Gap in Medieval Egypt," TSE Working Papers 13-428, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Nov 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:27573
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Converting for tax reasons
      by Chris Colvin in NEP-HIS blog on 2013-11-06 02:41:31

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    Cited by:

    1. Joslin, Knut-Eric & Nordvik, Frode Martin, 2021. "Does religion curtail women during booms? Evidence from resource discoveries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 205-224.
    2. Alberto Bisin & Jared Rubin & Avner Seror & Thierry Verdier, 2021. "Culture, Institutions & the Long Divergence," NBER Working Papers 28488, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Mohamed Saleh & Jean Tirole, 2021. "Taxing Identity: Theory and Evidence From Early Islam," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(4), pages 1881-1919, July.
    4. Johnson, Noel D. & Koyama, Mark, 2017. "Jewish communities and city growth in preindustrial Europe," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 339-354.
    5. Becker, Sascha O. & Rubin, Jared & Woessmann, Ludger, 2020. "Religion in Economic History : A Survey," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1273, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    6. Mohamed Saleh, 2017. "A ‘new’ economic history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 25(2), pages 149-163, April.
    7. Robert C. Allen & Leander Heldring, 2022. "The Collapse of Civilization in Southern Mesopotamia," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 16(2), pages 369-404, May.
    8. Cemal Eren Arbatli & Gunes Gokmen, 2016. "Minorities, Human Capital and Long-Run Development: Persistence of Armenian and Greek Influence in Turkey," CESifo Working Paper Series 6268, CESifo.
    9. Kukić, Leonard, 2023. "The last Yugoslavs: Ethnic diversity and national identity," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Religion; poll tax; persistence; conversion; Middle East;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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