Janet Abu-Lughod

American sociologist who wrote Before European Hegemony — arguing that a sophisticated world-system centered on the Islamic Middle East preceded and enabled the rise of European capitalism — challenging Wallerstein's Eurocentric world-systems theory.

Demonstrated that a global commercial network existed before European domination — Before European Hegemony's account of the Islamic-centered 13th century world-system (from China to Europe via the Middle East) shows that European capitalism inserted itself into an existing world-system rather than creating global trade from scratch.