Searching for the Mecca of finance: Islamic financial services and the world city network

This paper presents an analysis of the geography of the booming ‘Islamic financial services’ (IFS) sector, which provides a host of financial services based on Islamic religious grounds. The relevance of such an analysis is discussed against the conceptual backdrop of the world city network literature. It is argued that a focus on the globalization of the IFS sector may provide an alternative to hegemonic geographical imaginations of world city-formation through its focus on other forms of globalizing economic processes and regions that do not commonly feature in this literature (the Middle East and North Africa in particular). Based on information on the location strategies of 28 leading IFS firms in 64 cities across the world, we analyze different features of this decentred global urban geography. Manama is hereby identified as the Mecca of the IFS sector. Other major MENA cities such as Tehran and Dubai follow suit, but also more traditional financial centres such as London and Paris are well-connected.