ABSTRACT
The inspiration for the present paper comes primarily from the “Great Gap” thesis propounded by Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) in his magnum opus, History of Economic Analysis (1954). He argued that “economic analysis begins only with the Greeks”, not to be re-established until the Latin Scholasticism emerged with St Thomas Aquinas (1225-74); the several “blank” centuries within that span represent the “Great Gap” (Schumpeter, 52). An earlier paper by the present author has attempted to refute this thesis, as have a few others.2 The main argument presently, however, is that the Schumpeterian “gap” thesis has established a stubborn tradition in the history of economic thought literature which, for the sake of doctrinal continuity and objectivity, must be abandoned.3 A very substantial body of literature on economic issues evolved during the “gap” centuries among the Arab-Islamic precursors of medieval Latin Scholasticism; a review of this literature is beyond the scope of this paper, however (for evidence, see Ghazanfar 1994; Ghazanfar and Islahi 1990,1991; Essid 1987, 1992; see also Spengler 1964).4
