Semiotics of Islamic Law, Maṣlaḥa, and Islamic Economic Thought

Islamic Law, Institutions and Economic Development in the Islamic Middle East

Timur Kuran has spent much of the last decade investigating the economic and institutional development of the Middle East. The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East brings the results of this research together to provide an explanation for the decline in the region’s economic fortunes. Although generations of scholars have sought to understand the Middle East’s economic dec...

Gharar in Post-Formative Islamic Commercial Law: A Study of the Representation of Uncertainty in Islamic Legal Thought

This study analyzes the conception of gharar , which is generally translated as either risk or uncertainty, in post-formative Islamic commercial law. According to Muslim jurists, gharar arises from uncertainty in commercial transactions. However, unlike other areas of the Islamic intellectual tradition in which uncertainty engenders errors, the uncertainty associated with gharar enables jurists...

Islamic Law and the Crime of Theft

The Egalitarian Face of Islamic Orthodoxy: Support for Islamic Law and Economic Justice in Seven Muslim-Majority Nations

circumstances and development of Muslim nations has been the subject of intense debate among Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Western critics of Islam or “Islamic civilization,” such as Bernard Lewis (1990) and Samuel Huntington (1993), have decried its economic irrationality, incompatibility with democracy, and failure to separate religion and state; while scholars such as Edward Said (2001:11) ...

Islamic Law, Adaptability and Financial Development

A large literature contends that legal systems that adapt efficiently to meet the contracting needs of the economy foster financial sector development. The paper discusses the adaptability features of Islamic law related to commercial transactions (Islamic commercial law) in light of contemporary financial system. After discussing the nature and way the common and civil law traditions can evolv...