Abstract
Abstract This article examines various aspects of conditional sales (bayʿ-i sharṭ) and other types of loans in Qajar Iran (1796-1925). Islamic law prohibited usury, but Shiʿi jurists found a way to legalize money lending at interest. In this paper, I explore how these transactions occurred in practice and what features they had. To this end, I consider three groups of bayʿ-i sharṭ deeds from the National Archives of Iran, discussing how each case proceeded and how differences between cases reveal the ways in which this type of transaction functioned. While similar types of transactions were allowed in other regions and schools of law, the details of Shiʿi legal devices were distinctive.
Highlights
Today, it is a consensus among Muslims that Islam prohibits usury
While similar types of transactions were allowed in other regions and schools of law, the details of Shii legal devices were distinctive
There have historically been a number of ways to lend money at interest under the rule of Islamic law
Summary
It is a consensus among Muslims that Islam prohibits usury. Modern Islamic banks always try to avoid loans with interest. The fifth document, a deed of settlement, was dated 2 Rabī I 1257 AH/ 24 April 24 1841.30 Two years after the previous transaction, Ustād Asad Allāh legally owned the house and the shops because Iskandar Mīrzā could not clear his debt. The sixth document, a deed of bay-i sharṭ, was dated 7 Rabī I 1259 AH/ 7 April 1843.31 Two years after the above-mentioned settlement, Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Ażud al-Dawla owned the house, though we do not have any document about how he had acquired it According to this deed, Ażud al-Dawla borrowed 500 tumāns from a certain ĀqāAbd al-Ḥamīd for three months with the interest of 37 tumāns, which means 29.6 percent per annum. This case indicates the fluidity of real estate in Qajar Tehran, and one factor was no doubt the bay-i sharṭ transactions
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