ABSTRACT

This book is a collection of papers on the origins of economic thought discovered in the writings of some prominent Islamic scholars, during the five centuries prior to the Latin Scholastics, who include St. Thomas Aquinas. This period of time was labelled by Joseph Schumpeter as representing the 'great gap' in economic history. Unfortunately, this 'gap' is well embedded in most relevant literature. However, during this period the Islamic civilization was one of the most fertile grounds for intellectual developments in various disciplines, including economics, and this book attempts to fill that blind-spot in the history of economic thought.

chapter |5 pages

INTRODUCTION

chapter 1|17 pages

SCHOLASTIC ECONOMICS AND ARAB SCHOLARS

The “Great Gap” thesis reconsidered

chapter 2|22 pages

ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF AN ARAB SCHOLASTIC

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (AH450–505/1058–1111AD)

chapter 3|4 pages

Economic thought and religious thought: a comment on

A comment on Ghazanfar and Islahi

chapter 5|19 pages

EXPLORATIONS IN MEDIEVAL ARAB-ISLAMIC ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Some aspects of Ibn Taimiyah’s economics

chapter 6|16 pages

HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT

The Schumpeterian “Great Gap”, the “lost” Arab-Islamic legacy and the literature gap

chapter 7|20 pages

UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET MECHANISM BEFORE ADAM SMITH

Economic thought in medieval Islam

chapter 8|20 pages

INACCURACY OF THE SCHUMPETERIAN “GREAT GAP” THESIS

Economic thought in medieval Iran (Persia)

chapter 9|14 pages

EXPLORATIONS IN MEDIEVAL ARAB-ISLAMIC ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Some aspects of Ibn Qayyim’s economics (AH691–751/1292–1350AD)

chapter 10|17 pages

MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC SOCIO-ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Links with Greek and Latin-European scholarship

chapter 11|25 pages

Post-Greek/pre-Renaissance economic thought

Contributions of Arab-Islamic Scholastics during the “Great Gap” centuries

chapter 12|25 pages

THE ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF ABU HAMID AL-GHAZALI AND ST THOMAS AQUINAS

Some comparative parallels and links

chapter 13|19 pages

EARLY MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Abu Yousuf’s (731–798AD) economics of public finance

chapter 14|17 pages

PUBLIC-SECTOR ECONOMICS IN MEDIEVAL ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Contributions of selected Arab-Islamic scholars

chapter 15|16 pages

Medieval social thought European Renaissance

The influence of selected Arab-Islamic Scholastics