The Economics of Money and Banking: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Islamic Interest-Free Banking

Abstract

Twenty years after the Dubai Islamic Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, were launched as modern banking institutions working on an interest-free basis, a stock taking is due. The book under review though written as a Ph. D. thesis at Stockholm University, Department of Business Administration, five years ago, is the best so far for this purpose. It is by a sympathetic insider, one who knows English, Arabic being his mother tongue, and has good access to the sources: documents, institutions and personalities involved. And he has put this access to good use. A list of thirteen persons, all from Egypt, and another of the thirteen institutions visited including three outside Egypt (in Sweden, Denmark and Washington) is given on pages 262-263. The 10 page questionnaire used to collect information from 20 banks (17 responded, eventually) is also given (pp. 251-260). The responding banks belonged to Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bahamas, Dubai, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Guinea, Kuwait, Niger, Qatar, Senegal, Sudan, Switzerland, and Turkey. One Islamic commercial bank, the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt has been chosen for detailed study covering the period 1984-1988 (Chapter 9).