Asiatic mode of production

[Lamanov]

Definition, articles, sections, essays, manuscripts, forewards, anything would do... please help!

I'm writing an essay on the legal characteristics of Timar system for my Balcan (Ottoman) history class, so I need to read up on the asiatic mode of production.

[Severian]

Encyclopedia of Marxism is often a good place to start (http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/a/s.htm#asiatic-mode-production)

Says M&E dropped the term after 1859. Maybe it shouldn't be considered a separate phase of society. But it does seem to describe a certain feature of many countries from Egypt to China, where the need for state-maintained large-scale irrigation works greatly strengthened the central government.

An early letter by Marx on India where he uses this concept. (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1853/06/25.htm) See the section beginning "There have been in Asia, generally...."