Miriam R. Lowi is Professor in the Department of Political Science at The College of New Jersey. She is the author of Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics: Algeria Compared (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and Water and Power: the Politics of a Scarce Resource in the Jordan River Basin (Cambridge University Press, 1993).

• 1. Oil and Islam in the Gulf; 2. Islamic norms, interpretations, applications; 3. The state and the political economy of distribution; 4. Society responds; 5. Imported labor: building/appeasing the nation; 6. Charity as politics 'writ small'; 7. Islamic banking and finance: a political economy of accumulation; 8. Reflections on Islam and politics in the oil era.

'Lowi explores the material and the moral sides of Gulf politics, showing how they are linked through the political process in general and by regime strategies and tactics in particular.' Nathan J. Brown, George Washington University

Miriam R. Lowi is Professor in the Department of Political Science at The College of New Jersey. She is the author of Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics: Algeria Compared (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and Water and Power: the Politics of a Scarce Resource in the Jordan River Basin (Cambridge University Press, 1993).

• 1. Oil and Islam in the Gulf; 2. Islamic norms, interpretations, applications; 3. The state and the political economy of distribution; 4. Society responds; 5. Imported labor: building/appeasing the nation; 6. Charity as politics 'writ small'; 7. Islamic banking and finance: a political economy of accumulation; 8. Reflections on Islam and politics in the oil era.

'Lowi explores the material and the moral sides of Gulf politics, showing how they are linked through the political process in general and by regime strategies and tactics in particular.' Nathan J. Brown, George Washington University

Miriam R. Lowi is Professor in the Department of Political Science at The College of New Jersey. She is the author of Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics: Algeria Compared (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and Water and Power: the Politics of a Scarce Resource in the Jordan River Basin (Cambridge University Press, 1993).

• 1. Oil and Islam in the Gulf; 2. Islamic norms, interpretations, applications; 3. The state and the political economy of distribution; 4. Society responds; 5. Imported labor: building/appeasing the nation; 6. Charity as politics 'writ small'; 7. Islamic banking and finance: a political economy of accumulation; 8. Reflections on Islam and politics in the oil era.

'Lowi explores the material and the moral sides of Gulf politics, showing how they are linked through the political process in general and by regime strategies and tactics in particular.' Nathan J. Brown, George Washington University