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.
1. Scholastic Economics and Arab Scholars: The "Great Gap" Thesis Reconsidered 2. Economic Thought of an Arab Scholastic: Abu-Hamid Al-Ghazali (AH450-505/1058-1111AD) 3. Economic Thought and Religious Thought: A Comment on Ghazanfar and Islahi 4. A Rejoinder to "Economic Thought and Religious Thought" 5. Explorations in Medieval Arab-Islamic Economic Thought: Some Aspects of Ibn Taimiyah's Economics 6. History of Economic Thought: The Schumpeterian "Great Gap", the "lost" Arab-Islamic Legacy and the Literature Gap 7. Understanding the Market Mechanism before Adam Smith: Economic Thought in Medieval Islam 8. Innaccuracy of the Schumpeterian "Great Gap" Thesis: Economic Thought in Medieval Iran (Persia) 9. Explorations in Medieval Arab-Islamic Ecomic Thought: Some Aspects of Ibn Qayyim's Economics (AH691-751/1292-1350AD) 10. Medieval Islamic Socio-Economic Thought: Links with Greek and Latin-European Scholarship 11. Post-Greek/Pre-Renaissance Economic Thought: Contributions of Arab-Islamic Scholastics during the "Great Gap" Centuries 12. The Economic Thought of Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali and St Thomas Aquinas: Some Comparative Parallels and Links 13. Early Medieval Islamic Economic Thought: Abu Yousuf's (731-798AD) Economics of Public Finance 14. Public-Sector Economics in Medieval Economic Thought: Contributions of Selected Arab-Islamic Scholars 15. Medieval Social Thought European Renaissance: The Influence of Selected Arab-Islamic Scholastics
'A comprehensive and analytical bibliography and a detailed Index of authors accompany this well-prepared and weighty edition.' - Journal of Oriental and African Studies
Paul Morris, William Shepard, Paul Trebilco, Toni Tidswell, New Zealand) Morris, Paul (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) Shepard, William (Associate Professor, retired, formerly University of Canterbury, New Zealand) Trebilco, Paul (University of Otago, Australia) Tidswell, Toni (Curtin University