A01=Timur Kuran
Activism
Ali Shariati
Anti-globalization movement
Author_Timur Kuran
Business ethics
Category=JBSR
Category=KC
Clash of Civilizations
Comparative advantage
Competition (economics)
Criticism of capitalism
Distrust
Economic development
Economic liberalization
Economic nationalism
Economic planning
Economic problem
Economics
Economist
Edward Said
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Externality
Fraud
Free trade
Heresy
Indexation
Individualism
Injunction
Iqtisaduna
Islam
Islamic Banking
Islamic culture
Islamic economics
Islamic schools and branches
Islamic socialism
Islamism
Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani
Kafir
Khurshid Ahmad (scholar)
Liberalism
Liberalization
Muhammad Abduh
Muslim
Muslim world
Opportunity cost
Oppression
Orientalism
Orthopraxy
Pan-Islamism
Politics of Iran
Price ceiling
Price fixing
Protectionism
Purchasing power
Religion
Riba
Risk aversion
Risk of loss
Sayyid
Secularism
Secularization
Sharia
Shia Islam
Speculation
Superiority (short story)
Tablighi Jamaat
Tax
Tax collector
Tax evasion
The Islamist
Underdevelopment
Waqf
Warfare
Westernization
Product details
- ISBN 9780691126296
- Weight: 312g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 25 Dec 2005
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The doctrine of "Islamic economics" entered debates over the social role of Islam in the mid-twentieth century. Since then it has pursued the goal of restructuring economies according to perceived Islamic teachings. Beyond its most visible practical achievement--the establishment of Islamic banks meant to avoid interest--it has promoted Islamic norms of economic behavior and founded redistribution systems modeled after early Islamic fiscal practices. In this bold and timely critique, Timur Kuran argues that the doctrine of Islamic economics is simplistic, incoherent, and largely irrelevant to present economic challenges. Observing that few Muslims take it seriously, he also finds that its practical applications have had no discernible effects on efficiency, growth, or poverty reduction. Why, then, has Islamic economics enjoyed any appeal at all? Kuran's answer is that the real purpose of Islamic economics has not been economic improvement but cultivation of a distinct Islamic identity to resist cultural globalization. The Islamic subeconomies that have sprung up across the Islamic world are commonly viewed as manifestations of Islamic economics.
In reality, Kuran demonstrates, they emerged to meet the economic aspirations of socially marginalized groups. The Islamic enterprises that form these subeconomies provide advancement opportunities to the disadvantaged. By enhancing interpersonal trust, they also facilitate intragroup transactions. These findings raise the question of whether there exist links between Islam and economic performance. Exploring these links in relation to the long-unsettled question of why the Islamic world became underdeveloped, Kuran identifies several pertinent social mechanisms, some beneficial to economic development, others harmful.
Timur Kuran is Professor of Economics and Law, and King Faisal Professor of Islamic Thought and Culture, at the University of Southern California. His books include "Private Truths, Public Lies".
