The Islamic World-System: A Study in Polity-Market Interaction

This highly original book presents an alternative vision of globalization and explores the epistemology, derived from theQur'anand the Prophetic guidanceSunnah, that underpins the systemic unity at the heart of the Islamic concept of world-system. Choudhury's investigation reveals the ethical foundations that influence the development of law, markets and social contract in Islamic societies. He then applies his methodology to issues and problems such as property rights, money, political economy, technology diffusion, microenterprise development and asset evaluation. This book demonstrates that the Islamic world-system acquires its meaning from a single, integrated framework of complementary economic, social, institutional and market forces, rather than the competitive plurality of mainstream theory. It will interest students and researchers of Islamic economics and world-systems.

Masudul Alam Choudhury is Professor of Economics at the Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, and the University College of Cape Breton, Canada.