Handbook of Empirical Research on Islam and Economic Life Edited by M. Kabir Hassan

Abstract

The book under review is a collection of 30 dense chapters contributed by 66 authors covering wide and much diversified areas of research in Islamic economics and finance. A chapter-by-chapter review of the book is impractical. Fortunately, however, despite their breadth of coverage, the chapters link up to a central theme: empirical assessment of Islam’s influence on economic growth and finance both in terms of what it is now, and what it ought to be in the future. This commonality allows me to introduce the book and its subject to readers. The book is a welcome addition to the literature in that it brings together important empirical papers on Islamic economics and finance. Academic work in Islamic economics and finance started in the 1940s and continued with the appearance of important studies that were, however, works separated in time and place of appearance. From the 1970s onwards the frequency and amount of research increased, helped by the establishment of dedicated research and teaching institutions from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, among them: the Centre for Research in Islamic Economics at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, the International Institute of Islamic Economics at International Islamic University Islamabad, the Islamic Research and Training Institute at IDB in Jeddah, and the International Islamic University Malaysia. Most of the research of that period was theoretical in nature, addressing in particular questions about the need for an Islamic economic and financial system, conceptualizing its distinctive elements, and discussing what to expect from it. As the practical implementation of these ideas took root, and the practice of Islamic banking and finance started, the ‘how to’ questions became important: for example, how to make Islamic banking functional within the monetary setup of different countries; how to mobilize finance for large infrastructure projects while Islamic banking institutions were small; how to manage zakāt efficiently. The practice of Islamic economics and finance in various settings and different forms over the last 20 years has yielded data that is now enabling empirical assessment, and new ‘why’, ‘what’, and ‘how’ questions are emerging.