The Golden Age of Al-Andalus? Living standards in Muslim Iberia (950–1200)

This article provides the first systematic estimates of living standards in Al-Andalus (the Muslim-ruled Iberian Peninsula) in 950, 1000, and 1200. Drawing on prices and wages from legal documents and market regulation treatises, it reconstructs real wages and welfare ratios. The results indicate that living standards in Al-Andalus during the tenth century were high in both absolute and comparative terms. Unskilled workers in Córdoba around 950 and 1000 attained welfare ratios comparable to those observed in Fatimid Egypt and the poorer parts of Europe before the nineteenth century. By 1200, real wages declined, particularly for skilled labour, reflecting rising prices and stagnant nominal wages. These findings are robust to alternative basket assumptions and are consistent with independent qualitative and quantitative evidence on welfare levels, urbanization, monetary capacity, and aggregate output. The article contributes to debates on the timing of the Great Divergence by documenting another episode of high living standards under non-Western institutions.