Kuran has examined this subject closely, well supported by a lot of historical evidence. I'll not re
Kuran has examined this subject closely, well supported by a lot of historical evidence. I'll not restate his basic arguments like the dual outcomes of Islamic inheritance law (beneficial to family-member survivors but destructive to large-scale capital formation), that has been covered well by other reviews here. The author rather carefully considers past arguments concerning the "backwardness" of Islamic countries and shows many of them to be either false or by themselves inadequate, i.e., the prohibition against charging interest is (1) not in the Koran, and (2) even though this prohibition gained traction with religious jurists (as it did in the West with Bibilical "interpretations") these laws were seldom enforced and many clever ways were created by borrowers and lenders to get around this alleged prohibition. What emerges is a rather complex web of self-reinforcing religious laws - or accepted modes of economic behavior - that could not compete with the corporate form (and its attendant laws and regulations) that developed in the West. That, beginning in the 16th century, many Muslim rulers allowed these Western business forms to penetrate their system is an interesting story in and of itself. The book is closely written, arguments are critically examined, and it's difficult to disagree with Kuran's conclusions - he is neither a dogmatic attacker or defender of the Islamic business system, one that served this population rather well for centuries and expanded their trading network far into Africa and to the East. Kuran is, however, not a great prose stylist, the language does get somewhat dense and reads a bit like a legal brief at times. My reason for subtracting a star from this review is the work could have done with some hard editing; on too many occassions the book loops back to make some of the same arguments, if seen from a slightly different perspective. This is good from an academic perspective as Kuran covers all his bases, but a bit tiresome from the reader's point of view as it seems a tad repetitious. All-in-all, a most interesting book, at times a bit of a slog, but I guess it's better to have an author know too much about his subject than too little.
info needed along with doctor protocall
A good book. It helps clarify a lot that goes on with the series.
Excellent
Eyewitness is always filled with pictures, which is great. This book gives a good overall of the city, however, I would look on the internet to find more things to do. This book doesn't contain a lot of the information I found from an easy search. I also never like the food recommendations from the book. Consult TripAdvisor or Yelp instead.
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