Islam'ın Ekonomik Yüzleri

by Timur Kuran, Yasemin Tezgiden (Translator)

Müslüman toplumlarda “kâr”, “zekât”, “riba” gibi kavramlar tartışma konusu olsa da, İslâm'ın ekonomik veçhesi, sosyo-politik yönünün gölgesinde kalmış durumda. Oysa İslâm bankacılığı ve İslâm sermayesi gibi olguların 1970'li yıllardan beri, Türkiye de dahil olmak üzere birçok ülkenin ekonomisinde etkin bir yeri var. Ne yazık ki “ekonomik İslâmlaşma” sürecine bütünlüklü ve analitik bir yorum getiren pek az araştırmaya rastlıyoruz. Zaten “İslâm ekonomisi” kavramının bile ne zaman ve hangi nedenlerle oluşturulduğu eleştirel bir incelemeye konu olmadığından, “İslâm'a dönüş” programları çerçevesinde başlatılan ekonomik uygulamalar da sağlıklı bir değerlendirmeye konu olamıyor. Demokratik değerleri korumaya niyetli bir toplum açısından ekonomik İslâmlaşmanın bir tehdit oluşturup oluşturmadığını; gerek kuramsal gerek uygulama açısından İslâmî ilkelere göre işleyen bir ekonominin bildiğimiz pazar ekonomilerinden daha adaletli olup olmadığını ve İslâm bankaları, zekât sistemleri ve İslâmî işyerlerinin oluşturduğu İslâmî alt-ekonomileri araştıran bu kitap, alanında ufuk açıcı bir etki bırakmaya aday. Kitabın bir başka katkısı da İslâm dünyasının Batı'nın ekonomik gelişmesine neden ayak uyduramadığını açıklamaya yönelik bilimsel yapıtları sınıflandırması ve kapsamlı bir araştırmanın yanıtlaması gereken soruları ortaya koyması. İslâm ekonomi tarihinin ana temalarıyla günümüzdeki İslâm ekonomisi ekolünün uğraştığı sorunların örtüşmemesi, İslâm'ın birçok ekonomik yüzü olduğunu kanıtlayarak kitaba ayrı bir boyut kazandırıyor.

Genres: Economics, Religion, Islam, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2004

About the author

Born in 1954 in New York City, where his parents lived while graduate students at Yale University, Kuran spent his early childhood in Ankara, where his father taught at the Middle East Technical University. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Istanbul. For a decade, he lived just off the campus of Boğaziçi University, where his father was president and professor of Islamic architectural history.

Kuran obtained his secondary education in Turkey, graduating from Robert College in Istanbul in 1973. He then studied economics at Princeton University, graduating magna cum laude in 1977. He went on to Stanford University to obtain a doctorate in economics. His doctoral supervisor was Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel laureate.

Reviews

[Tamim Diaa · Rating 2 out of 5]

الكاتب ابتعد في أجزاء كبيرة من الكتاب عن الاقتصاد وكان اهتمامه الأكبر بتاريخ الأفكار والايديولوجيا الاسلامية فجائت الأفكار سطحية وانتقائية وبها كثير من التعميم. ظهرت أفكار الكاتب مشحونة بانحيازاته الشخصية وهو ما يزعج القارئ الباحث عن التحليل الرصين. الكتاب كذلك به الكثير من التكرار.

[Tariq Almubarak · Rating 3 out of 5]

١- يلقي الكتاب نظرة سريعة على تطورات الاقتصاد الاسلامي منذ منتصف القرن الفائت، ثم يناقش مستقبله، و ما يراه كوران ان هذا الاقتصاد بمصارفه ودورته المالية بين الاعمال الذي تعلن هويه اسلامية رغم فشله في احداث اي تغيير وسط الانظمة الرأسمالية الا انه سيستمر كاقتصاد فرعي موازي نتيجة الفساد وحاجة الحركة الاسلامية له
٢- استعرض كوران النقاش الذي دار خلال العقود الأخيرة حول الاقتصاد الإسلامي بشكل استقصائي معقول
٣- يعطي الكتاب لمحة حول تغلغل الاسلام السياسي في المجتمعات الاسلامية ع المستوى الاقتصادي.. وهذا له طرف علاقة بالنقاش حول مستقبل هذا التيار
٤- الكتاب على اهميته لكل مهتم بالحركات الاسلامية يعيبه التكرار ..لأن كوران كتبه على شكل بحوث اكاديمية سته منفصلة .. على فترات زمنيه متباعده
٥- الفصل الاخير مهم ، يستعرض فيه النظريات حول علاقة الإسلام بالتنمية

[Jodi]

I definitely had issues with this book. Kuran uses broad brushstrokes to paint Islam in a negative light without using concrete evidence. Furthermore, his analysis focuses on few Islamic countries. His focus when it comes to facts and figures is centered around Turkey with little compare/contrast between other Islamic countries.

[Master Oogway · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was tempted to give the book a 4 stars. Despite a lot of repetitiveness (due to the format of collection of articles, I’m sure) i actually found this work from Dr Timur Kuran to be worthwhile and indeed very commendable.

There are many valuable and relevant points raised in this text. It is rare - unfortunately - to read Muslim intellectuals being so openly and bravely critical of touchy subjects such as the one at hand. Besides, constructive criticism should always be welcome and the debate of ideas encouraged.

However, i do have a few remarks on how the book sort of let me down a little, at times. Let’s slot that one in a box tagged “some gentle constructive criticism of my own”:

1. The author is way too influenced by the Turkish secular thought of Ataturk &Co. He can’t help having a dig at the Islamic Tradition, sometimes without any value addition.

2. The man is also a bit too much in awe in front the superior West.. there is good and bad and a lot of luck-of-the-draw in everything.. including in the circumstances that led to the rise of the West. Like with everything in history, there were countless critical moments that could very easily have yielded completely different outcomes, triggered different chain of events and opened alternative sliding doors. Same applies to the rise and fall of the anterior Muslim dynasties.. and indeed all major political forces of the past( Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Persians… etc). Hindsight is a beautiful thing!

3. His ref. is almost always Turkey and Ottoman Empire. Fair enough, but we, Muslims, do not all have the same historical trajectory. For example, in my part of the world - Moroccan heritage -

i. Moroccans are not and never have been that impressed nor wowed by the West! True it took them some time to recognise and accept the west’s superiority and that did cost them a lot (still does). An earlier accurate reading of the bitter reality would have saved them a lot of time and effort! Many of the reasons why that was the case have to do indeed with concepts and ideas developed in the book. The sclerosis promoted by the ruling class and even more so the religious leaders (foqaha’a) is definitely among the major factors at the root of the issue. But they never let this sorry state of affairs dent their collective self-confidence or question their abilities. There are of course a number of people who fall in that sort of intellectual servitude. After all, it is only normal to see the dominated admire and seek to copy the dominant. Be that as it may, that servitude has never taken hold at the societal level. Still today, anything branded “beldi” (local) is considered superior to “roumi”!

ii. The Amazigh culture has a highly sophisticated ancestral concept of banking with very old yet very modern notions such as collective safe-keeping and custody, settlement processes, time value, compensation mechanisms.. etc. So the generalisation about No Banking technologies ever emerged in the Muslim world comes a bit short.

iii. The merchants might have been looked at with disdain in the Ottoman World - I didn’t know that - but not in the Moroccan. In the North African kingdom, throughout history, a merchant is a very respectable and high-status occupation. So much so, that in the Moroccan Arabic dialect, Tajer (Merchant) is synonymous with a well-to-do person. Same goes in Arabic Gulf and the peninsula, for example. The Merchant is and has always been a very highly regarded and respected fellow in the historic Hejaz,for instance. It is still the case in modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

4. Finally, our friend Timur would do well to take a quick refresher in statistics, proba theory and the risks and fallacies that come with empirical studies. Basic stuff like correlation vs causality…
Steve Jobs (may he rest in peace) was a very successful man. He used to wear very ugly turtleneck sweaters.. let’s examine the impact of wearing such rubbish pieces of garment on successful entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. I suggest we do a Principal Component Analysis. Suggest the following regression factors:
Fes tarbouch (or Shashiya)
Jellaba/Caftan
Turkish Jabador
Expensive hand made tailor suit and high quality leather shoes from Bond Street in London
Nike Sneakers
Funny T-Shirts

I am sure this study will offer ample justification to the 1920s New Turks to ban the traditional Anatolian dress-code. I bet you 100% of people who set up Apple Inc were not dressed that way. Shall we deduce that one needs not wear the Tarbouch El Fassi if one wants to create Apple Inc?

[Ridzwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why is it that despite the tremendous amount of wealth that has been created over the centuries, Muslim nations still remain economically backward? Could it be due to the fact that Muslims have stayed away from conventional investments for fear of interest? Or is it a general failure of Muslims in general to truly embrace capitalism in favour of more “Islamic” economic systems?

Timur Kuran discusses these issues in a series of well-researched essays compiled in this timely book. In them, he explores the notion of Islamic Banking, the Muslim charity system and their various pitfalls which he believes has a part to play in the current state of Muslims today.

Some topics may be highly controversial, especially with regards to the discussions on “Islamic” banking and interest in Islam. Nonetheless the work successfully questions conventional wisdom and I would recommend it to everyone wishing to embark on Islamic banking or any other Islamic financial product that is widely sold in the retail markets today.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mammon is a character and concept from the christian bible. But this volume is about islam. Than I discover a mess of terms that can or can not be equivalent: islam, islamism and muslim. And gosh! 200 pages to cover many countries with dramatically different backgrounds? Talking about simple minded. Only whom? The third of the global population or just Timur Kuran?