Forces of Fortune


Book Description

Leading authority on the Islamic world and influential advisor to the Obama administration Vali Nasr shows that the West's best hope of winning the battle against Islamic extremists is to foster the growth of a vibrant new Muslim middle class. This flourishing of Muslim bourgeoisie is reshaping the mind-set, politics, and even the religious values of Muslims in much the same way the Western bourgeoisie lead the capitalist and democratic revolution in Europe. Whereas extremism has grown out of the dismal economic failures of the authoritarian Islamic regimes, Nasr explains, the wealth and aspirations of this Islamic "critical middle" put them squarely at odds with extremism. They have ushered in remarkable transformations already in Dubai, Turkey, and Indonesia, and they are the key to tipping the balance in both Iran and Pakistan. As he writes "the great battle for the soul of the Muslim world will be fought not over religion but over market capitalism."




Islamic Capitalism and Finance


Book Description

'It was a humbling experience to read the product of such a remarkable feat of scholarship. It is all at once an exploration in analytic history and a complete text of Islamic finance theory and application. It is also one of the most succinct renditions of the evolution of Islamic finance embedded in a comprehensive account of the particularities of economies as diverse as Malaysia and Turkey. This is a unique contribution to Islamic finance and Islamic economic history. It has been a rewarding learning experience. It is truly a breathtaking effort.' – Abbas Mirakhor, former IMF Executive Director and the recipient of the Islamic Development Bank Prize in Islamic Economics (2003) This illuminating and thought-provoking book questions whether classical Islamic capitalism, which has served Muslims so well for centuries, can provide a viable alternative world economic system. In the current recession – the worst since 1929 – this is surely a provocative question. But if Islamic capitalism is to emerge as a viable alternative, its nature and systems must be well understood. Murat Çizakça explores key issues within Islamic capitalism and finance, shedding light on whether the Islamic system can indeed be called 'capitalist', the principles on which the system was built, the institutions that were consequently developed, how they function and have evolved, and, perhaps, most importantly, whether they can be modernized to meet today's needs. Against the backdrop of rapid change in the Middle East, this book gives a solid background to the economic systems that will emerge in the world of Islam. An essential guide to the past, present and future of Islamic economy and finance, this compelling book will prove to be of particular interest to academics and researchers of economics, finance, economic and financial history and political science.




Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam


Book Description

The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam provides a critical analysis of the current financial crisis in the US and the world at large. It concludes that the current crisis could very well be a sign of failure of the underlying system of capitalism. The book shows that the system of capitalism contains serious faults and defects at the core theory level. Economic and financial crisis periodically occur whenever these defects are triggered by various conditions and political decisions during the life of capitalism. The collapse of financial institutions, the crash of the housing market, the evaporation of trillions of dollars, the creation of virtual unreal wealth, and the decline of productivity are symptoms of the potential failure of the ideology of capitalism. This failure has serious impact on the life quality of billions of people around the world who suffer from poverty, hunger, health insecurity, lack of education, and serious inhuman conditions. The world order under capitalism witnessed multiple world wars, political and economic instability, colonialism, absence of peace, deprivation of justice and polarization of wealth and power. This book predicts a potential crash and collapse of the world order under the pressure of a failing capitalism. Concurrent to the decline and potential collapse of capitalism, the book makes an account of another global phenomenon, namely the second rise of Islam. The rise of Islam, similar to the first one that lasted for thirteen hundred years, is a comprehensive rise that brings up the economic system together with the political system, and the moral system together with the legal system. It is much needed and sought to introduce to the world a system full of justice, fairness, and geared toward productivity and human righteousness. The new rise of Islam is argued to be in the best interest of the human societies around the world, and that the propagated fear of this rise is unfounded. The book provides a detailed description of the economic system and the political economy of Islam. It provides compelling evidence that the Islamic political economy characterized by sustained productivity and wealth distribution guarantees the satisfaction of the basic needs of a human. The Islamic political economy integrates several mechanisms for natural distribution of wealth, while it maintains a high level of productivity through the inhibition of usury, hoarding, and exploitation. The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam makes extensive references to a score of historians, scholars, and scientists who provide a fair testimony of the Islamic civilization and the ideology of Islam.




Islamic Roots of Capitalism


Book Description

This paperback edition has an updated first chapter, resituating its main argument for today’s readers. New historical data on eigh­teenth- and nineteenth-century Egypt makes an extremely persuasive argument for the eighteenth-century roots of Egyptian modernity. The similarity, too, of Egyptian history with other Mediterranean countries is much more clearly demonstrated today than when Islamic Roots of Capitalism first was published.




The Rise of Islamic Capitalism


Book Description

Leading authority on the Islamic world and influential advisor to the Obama administration Vali Nasr shows that the West’s best hope of winning the battle against Islamic extremists is to foster the growth of a vibrant new Muslim middle class. This flourishing of Muslim bourgeoisie is reshaping the mind-set, politics, and even the religious values of Muslims in much the same way the Western bourgeoisie lead the capitalist and democratic revolution in Europe. Whereas extremism has grown out of the dismal economic failures of the authoritarian Islamic regimes, Nasr explains, the wealth and aspirations of this Islamic “critical middle” put them squarely at odds with extremism. They have ushered in remarkable transformations already in Dubai, Turkey, and Indonesia, and they are the key to tipping the balance in both Iran and Pakistan. As he writes “the great battle for the soul of the Muslim world will be fought not over religion but over market capitalism.”




Islam and Capitalism


Book Description

Presents a rebuttal of the cultural reductionism of Max Weber and others who have tried to explain the politics and society of the Middle East by reference to some unchanging entity called 'Islam,' typically characterised as instinctively hostile to capitalism. This work looks at the facts, analysing economic texts with his customary common sense.




Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism


Book Description

Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism proposes a strikingly original thesis—that capitalism first emerged in Arabia, not in late medieval Italian city states as is commonly assumed. Early Islam made a seminal but largely unrecognized contribution to the history of economic thought; it is the only religion founded by an entrepreneur. Descending from an elite dynasty of religious, civil, and commercial leaders, Muhammad was a successful businessman before founding Islam. As such, the new religion had much to say on trade, consumer protection, business ethics, and property. As Islam rapidly spread across the region so did the economic teachings of early Islam, which eventually made their way to Europe. Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism demonstrates how Islamic institutions and business practices were adopted and adapted in Venice and Genoa. These financial innovations include the invention of the corporation, business management techniques, commercial arithmetic, and monetary reform. There were other Islamic institutions assimilated in Europe: charities, the waqf, inspired trusts, and institutions of higher learning; the madrasas were models for the oldest colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. As such, it can be rightfully said that these essential aspects of capitalist thought all have Islamic roots.




Comparitive Economics


Book Description

Ever since the caliphate’s demise, Muslims have remained upon a path of ideological decline. From the depths of poverty to the brutality of war, we have passively endured the exogenous pain and suffering brought upon us for many years. Unable to realise the great significance of thought in resolving our metacognitive anaemia, economic recovery became a mere figment of our imagination and the caliphate, a glorious but obsolete history. However, after decades in darkness the Muslims have become increasingly agitated by the depravity that pervades them. What started with dissent has now developed into a prodigious revolution across the Muslim world, characterised primarily by an overwhelming Islamic sentiment. At present, the caliphate is no longer perceived as a distant past but a near future, whose return has been made clear by Allah (ﷻ) in His promise to us: “Allah has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance (of power), as He granted it to those before them; that He will establish in authority their religion, the one which He has chosen for them; and that He will change (their state), after the fear in which they (lived), to one of security and peace: They will worship Me (alone) and not associate aught with Me.’ If any do reject faith after this, they are rebellious and wicked.” [TMQ 24:55] Islam’s imminent arrival has necessitated a vital discourse, in which its ability to purge the Muslim world of its economic woes must be explicated. This book seeks to do just that by expanding upon the Islamic economic system (IES), through contemporary economic theory; introducing the subject of economics and the political economy, whilst highlighting key issues ingrained within the capitalist laissez-faire system. Above all, it attempts to present Islam as a panacea to the maladies of capitalism by way of comparative economic analysis with the sole intent to extirpate (through revival) the ideological impotence that has plagued and obstructed our minds. In doing so, it will enable the reader to discern which ideology is more capable and efficient in solving key economic problems faced in our current reality.




The Rise of Islamic Capitalism


Book Description

Leading authority on the Islamic world and influential advisor to the Obama administration Vali Nasr shows that the West’s best hope of winning the battle against Islamic extremists is to foster the growth of a vibrant new Muslim middle class. This flourishing of Muslim bourgeoisie is reshaping the mind-set, politics, and even the religious values of Muslims in much the same way the Western bourgeoisie lead the capitalist and democratic revolution in Europe. Whereas extremism has grown out of the dismal economic failures of the authoritarian Islamic regimes, Nasr explains, the wealth and aspirations of this Islamic “critical middle” put them squarely at odds with extremism. They have ushered in remarkable transformations already in Dubai, Turkey, and Indonesia, and they are the key to tipping the balance in both Iran and Pakistan. As he writes “the great battle for the soul of the Muslim world will be fought not over religion but over market capitalism.”