The Islamic World-System: a Study in Polity-Market Interaction

1111 2 The Islamic World-system 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 This highly original book presents an alternative vision of globalization 4 and explores the epistemology, derived from the Quran and the Prophetic 5 guidance Sunnah, that underpins the systemic unity at the heart of the 6 Islamic concept of world-system. 7 Choudhury’s investigation reveals the ethical foundations that influence 8 the development of law, markets and social contract in Islamic societies. 9 He then applies his methodology to issues and problems such as property 20111 rights, money, political economy, technology diffusion, microenterprise 1 development and asset evaluation. 2 This book demonstrates that the Islamic world-system acquires its 3 meaning from a single, integrated framework of complementary economic, 4 social, institutional and market forces, rather than the competing oppo- 5 sites of mainstream theory. It will interest students and researchers of 6 Islamic economics and world-systems. 7 8 Masudul Alam Choudhury is Professor of Economics at the Sultan 9 Qaboos University, Oman, and the University College of Cape Breton, 30111 Canada. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 1111 2 RoutledgeCurzon Advances in Middle Eastern and 3 Islamic Studies 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 1 Iraqi Kurdistan 4 Political development and emergent democracy 5 Gareth R.V. Stansfield 6 7 2 Egypt in the Twenty-first Century 8 Challenges for development 9 Edited by M. Riad El-Ghonemy 20111 1 3 The Christian–Muslim Frontier 2 A zone of contact, conflict or co-operation 3 Mario Apostolov 4 5 4 The Islamic World-system 6 A study in polity–market interaction 7 Masudul Alam Choudhury 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 1111 2 The Islamic World-system 3 4 A study in polity–market interaction 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 Masudul Alam Choudhury 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 1111 2 3 4 5 First published 2004 6 by RoutledgeCurzon 7 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE 8 Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 9 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 1011 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. 1 “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s 2 collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” 3111 4 RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group 5 © 2004 Masudul Alam Choudhury 6 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, 7 mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, 8 including photocopying and recording, or in any information 9 storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from 20111 the publishers. 1 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 2 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 3 Choudhury, Masudul Alam, 1948– 4 The Islamic world-system: a study in polity–market interaction/ 5 Masudul Alam Choudhury. p. cm. 6 Includes bibliographical references and index. 7 1. Economics – Religious aspects – Islam. 2. Globalization – Religious 8 aspects – Islam. 3. Islam and the social sciences. 4. Islam – Doctrines. I. Title. 9 BP173.75.C486 2003 30111 297.2′7–dc21 2003005292 1 ISBN 0-203-98731-4 Master e-book ISBN 2 3 4 5 6 ISBN 0–415–32147–6 (Print Edition) 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 1111 2 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 This book is dedicated to my friends and colleagues 4 who helped me in establishing the Institute of 5 Comparative World-Systems as an affiliated institute 6 of higher learning and research of Southern University 7 8 Bangladesh, Chittagong, Bangladesh. 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 1111 2 Contents 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 List of figures ix 4 Foreword xi 5 Preface xvii 6 Acknowledgments xxvii 7 8 Introduction 1 9 20111 1 PART 1 2 Theoretical perspectives 7 3 4 1 A theory of the Islamic world-system 9 5 6 2 A formal model of the Islamic world-system 44 7 8 3 An evaluation of the occidental world-system 71 9 30111 PART 2 1 Applied perspectives 95 2 3 4 4 A general systems theory of knowledge: 5 application to family and ecology 97 6 5 The world-system according to Ibn Khaldun’s 7 Prolegomena comparatively viewed 113 8 9 6 The Islamic political economy of property and 40111 property rights: concepts and application 141 1 2 7 Micro-money: Islamic perspective 158 3 8 An overlapping generation valuation model 4 with debt–equity swaps 187 45111 viii Contents 1111 9 A knowledge model of layers of techniques 202 2 3 10 Conclusion 227 4 5 Glossary of selected Arabic terms 230 6 Index 235 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 1111 2 Figures 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 P.1 Trade and development necessary for Ummatic 4 transformation xxiv 5 P.2 Knowledge-induced Ummatic transformation according 6 to the Tawhidi praxis xxiv 7 4.1 Hegemonic non-interaction 98 8 4.2 Extensive knowledge-induced interactive, integrative 9 and evolutionary process within and across sub-systems 20111 of social systems 100 1 4.3 Simulation of the social wellbeing function in the 2 circular causation model 102 3 4.4 Circular causation and continuity relationships in the 4 Tawhidi universe 103 5 5.1 Deducing a circular characterization of Ibn Khaldun’s 6 cumulative causation methodology from the Prolegomena 126 7 5.2 Reason–essence dichotomy in Ibn Khaldun’s cumulative 8 causation methodology from occidental to the Quranic 9 idea of historicism 129 30111 7.1 The simulation path of the wellbeing function and the 1 knowledge-induced variables 176 2 7.2 Resource mobilization in 100 percent reserve 3 requirement monetary system 180 4 8.1 The interaction, integration and creative evolution in 5 a knowledge-induced political economy 190 6 8.2 Debt–equity swaps with targeted (foreign investment/ 7 debt)-ratios in knowledge-induced discursive processes 192 8 8.3 Recursively generated knowledge-induced cash flows 9 in the forward overlapping generation valuation model 193 40111 8.4 Recursive feedback and knowledge-induced expansion 1 of the interactive, integrative and evolutionary sets 198 9.1 Evolutionary (shifting) layers of techniques, Tk, under 2 ␪ 3 the impact of knowledge induction, -values 217 4 9.2 Model changes as layers of techniques in the Proton 45111 Saga automobile industry in Malaysia 219 9.3 Shifts in knowledge-induced layers of techniques in the Malaysian automobile industry 220 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45111 1111 2 Foreword 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 Events move apace and, at the time of writing, they include the apparent 4 attempt by the US to mold Islamic countries (and thereafter the world) 5 in its own image, which might not be too bad a thing if the institutions 6 and practices of the US were to: 7 8 • lessen rich–poor division; 9 • introduce economic democracy including some form of secure income; 20111 • focus financial activity on the real, productive economy; 1 • allow everyone to own productive capital; 2 • enable societies to control their own resources and their own destiny; 3 • end, or at least mitigate, the practice of riba (the imposition of interest); 4 • end a financial system bent on putting the whole globe into debt. 5 6 Unfortunately, it is scarcely conceivable that the US will do any of these 7 things. Indeed, can anybody put hand to heart and swear to the likeli- 8 hood of the US promoting an end to rich–poor division, providing a secure 9 income, or eliminating the practice of fiat money being used to make more 30111 money? Does anyone, beyond a small caucus of myopic power wielders, 1 really think that the US genuinely wants to spread capital ownership, 2 enable societies to control their own resources and destiny, end riba, and 3 stop the financial system massively increasing global debt? 4 Of course not! The plain fact is that the US does not have a strategic 5 vision, with the necessary associated practical detail, which can be of wide- 6 spread appeal. And that is why millions of people have reservations about 7 the US’s attempt to mold Islamic countries.

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