Charlemagne, Muhammad, and the Arab Roots of Capitalism

Gene William Heck

Published by De Gruyter 2006

Charlemagne, Muhammad, and the Arab Roots of Capitalism

Gene William Heck

Volume N.F. 18 in the series Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des islamischen Orients

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110202830

Overview
Contents

About this book

Presented in six principal analytic chapters with supporting appendices, this book explores the role of Islam in precipitating Europe’s twelfth century commercial renaissance. Employing the classic analytic techniques of economics, Gene Heck determines that medieval Europe’s feudal interregnum was largely caused by indigenous governmental business regulation and not by shifts in international trade patterns. He then proceeds by demonstrating how Islamic economic precepts provided the ideological rationales that empowered medieval Europe to escape its three-centuries-long experiment in “Dark Age economics” ― in the process, providing the West with its archetypic tools of capitalism. While treatises such as Maxime Rodinson’s excellent book, Islam and Capitalism, document the capitalistic nature of the Islamic economic system, in applying modern economic method to medieval orientalist historiography, this work is unique in capturing both the evolution and the impact of the system’s role in forging medieval history.

Author information

Gene W. Heck, Dallas, Texas, USA.

Reviews

"[...] the author's command of medieval Islamic history and his thorough synthesis of a large volume of Islamic and Western sources to establishhis findings are strinkingly impressive. He fruitfully combined the work of many Muslim jurists, renowned medieval historians and geographers in the medieval era."
Seif Tag Eddin in: The Muslims World Book Review 4/2007

"[...] the subject matter dealt with here is one of great historical significance [...]."
Maya Shatzmiller in: Der Islam (Redaktion) Asien-Afrika-Institut 85, 2-2008

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	I
Table of Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	XI
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: The Christian Decline
Chapter 1 Medieval Christian Europe in Stasis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Part II: The Islamic Ascendency
Chapter 2 The Muslims’ Medieval “Trade Explosion” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Chapter 3 Islamic “Free Market” Doctrine Pragmatically Applied Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Chapter 4 The Fruition of “Commercial Capitalism” in Fātimid Egypt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Part III: Islam and the Christian Revival
Chapter 5 Imperatives of Trade and the Transformation of Europe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Chapter 6 Medieval Europe´s Transformation: “The Triumph Of Ideas” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics, Institutes, Libraries
Pages
- Front matter: 14
- Main content: 381
Keywords: Renaissance/ Europe; Islamic History; Medieval Global Trade; Islam/ Economics; Business Economics

eBook

Published: August 22, 2008
ISBN: 9783110202830

Hardcover

Published: November 16, 2006
ISBN: 9783110192292