Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 224 pages
• Published by: Princeton University Press December 5, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0691126291
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0691126296
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 11.4 ounces

Product Review
" this timely book, one that just about anyone aiming to do business in the Islamic world should read". -- Jay Palmer, Barron's

[A] timely book, one that just about anyone aiming to do business in the Islamic world should read. -- Jay Palmer , Barron's

[A] timely book, one that just about anyone aiming to do business in the Islamic world should read A good read. -- Jay Palmer Barron's What is Islamic banking? What is Islamic economics? Islam and Mammon sets out the genesis of these ideas and criticizes, severely but still sympathetically, both the performance and the underlying logic of this Islamic approach to economic activity. -- L. Carl Brown Foreign Affairs [Kuran's] writing is lively, his arguments are cogent, and the scholarship is wide ranging [A] useful and understandable introduction to both the doctrines of Islamic economics and how they are related to economic behavior in predominantly Islamic nations. -- Frederic L. Pryor EH.NET The clear theme unifying these essays is that Islamic economics as such is not a genuine answer to the world's economic problems, but an 'invented tradition' that serves as an adjunct to the broader, anti-Western, Islamist (or Islamic fundamentalist) political and religious movement Timur Kuran's book makes this case all too clearly and eloquently. -- J. Barkley Rosser Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Review
[A] timely book, one that just about anyone aiming to do business in the Islamic world should read. . . . A good read.
(Jay Palmer Barron's )

What is Islamic banking? What is Islamic economics? Islam and Mammon . . . sets out the genesis of these ideas and criticizes, severely but still sympathetically, both the performance and the underlying logic of this Islamic approach to economic activity.
(L. Carl Brown Foreign Affairs )

[Kuran's] writing is lively, his arguments are cogent, and the scholarship is wide ranging. . . . [A] useful and understandable introduction to both the doctrines of Islamic economics and how they are related to economic behavior in predominantly Islamic nations.
(Frederic L. Pryor EH.NET )

The clear theme unifying these essays is that Islamic economics as such is not a genuine answer to the world's economic problems, but an 'invented tradition' that serves as an adjunct to the broader, anti-Western, Islamist (or Islamic fundamentalist) political and religious movement. . . . Timur Kuran's book makes this case all too clearly and eloquently.
(J. Barkley Rosser Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization )

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism (Hardcover) While this book touches on the myriad ways in which Islam, when you get right down to it, is a recipe for poverty, its central focus is on the definitions, history, successes and failures, hypocrisies, and possibly viability of "Islamic economics." In case you need to know: no, the man is certainly not hesitant to criticize Islam, Muslims, or the Koran and does so on numerous occasions. Always, though, respectfully and in a well-evidenced way. This is certainly not a book by someone trying to "sell you" Qur'anic economics. Regarding the difficulty of the economics herein, a general reader could certainly handle it, as there are no graphs or tables to disconcert one. However, the thing is written in a formal academic style complete with extensive footnotes, so it's not quite for the lay reader either. In any case, although it is a thinnish book, I found that it required slow and careful reading. Note that though the book was published in 2004, the individual chapters in every case were originally stand-alone essays (but all by the same guy) published individually (usually in journals) before that. Some well before that. The author, by the way, is a secular Turk who has taught at Princeton. I found the thing literately and clearly written, and VERY useful, considering there are not many books like it.