Gene Heck brings impressive qualifications to the subject of his book. He is a senior business development economist, a former member of the United States Diplomatic Service who holds a doctoral degree, three master’s degrees and serves as an adjunct professor of government and history at the University of Maryland.
“Go West, young man!” That used to be the advice for those seeking riches and prosperity. “Trade!” That is the advice Islam gives to the young and the not so young; it also lays down rules for making lawful profits and gains.
The Holy Qur’an says that there is no sin in seeking wealth from the Lord, Who has permitted trade and forbidden usury. Muslims are urged to spread throughout the world globe and seek God’s Bounties. There are, however, strict warnings aginst dishonesty and unfair dealings. Islam stresses honest dealing so strongly that, as Heck points out, “The ultimate Day of Reckoning is addressed in very precise commercial accounting terms (‘hisab’). Human transgressions are to be weighed and balanced (‘wazn/mayzan’).
Such transgressions will render them losers (‘khasirin’) before God.” The Prophet (pbuh) advised: “Take to trade, because of ten divisions of livelihood, nine are in trade.” Islam has given trade a special status, and thus in the religion itself as well as the Hadith (sayings) of the Prophet (pbuh). As Heck mentions, God’s selection of a merchant, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) from a tribe of traders — Quraish — indicates the esteem in which trade was held. “With the religion’s ‘trade-driven’ character, a ‘commercial revolution’ was born,” writes Heck.
He explains that “… the inherent strength of the ‘Islamic economic system’ not only transformed their regional domain into the premier commercial superpower of the early Middle Ages, it also profoundly impacted the economic well-being of other nations with which it was in contact — including providing vital business tools and a new ‘free market’ doctrine to guide the contemporary West in escaping the suffocation of its feudal ‘Dark Ages.” He says that while the Arab transfer of classic Graeco-Roman science and literature in the late Middle Ages has generally been acknowledged, the transmission of Islamic ‘economic influence’ and technological skills has been “less satisfactorily addressed.” He adds, “Indeed, the driving force behind the nascent Dar al-Islam was the intrinsic strength of its economic system.
He laments that serious economic analysis of the rise of the Dar al-Islam upon early historical economic patterns has remained “remarkably inadequate” and those efforts that have been made are “gravely flawed with error.”
Heck presents Islam’s significant industrial and commercial accomplishments and contributions, its commitment to a powerful monetary economy, and explains how Islamic entrepreneurs revolutionized economic life by popularizing the use of money, often in the form of metal bullion.
He dwells on Arabia’s gold and silver mining, Egypt’s linen, ceramics and papyrus manufacturing, Syria’s glass and fabrics industries, and Persia’s cotton growers and carpets and tent-makers.
According to Heck, Arab Muslims provided much of the economic stimulus as well as a multiplicity of commercial instruments, that helped Europe escape from the stifling grip of the Dark Ages. He emphasizes the need to revisit conventional accounts of early Islamic economic and commercial achievements in order to eliminate inaccurate accuracies, to rewrite anachronistic interpretations and to remedy the flawed perception of the medieval ‘Arab-Islamic socio-economy’ that persist. “For as a result of such standards of scholarships and the resulting erroneous conclusions that remain, the Arab role in influencing medieval economic history, and medieval European economic history in particular, has been maligned in many modern accounts,”he points out.
He tackles a number of misconceptions and misunderstandings in chapter after chapter of scholarly information and data.
Islam, Inc.: An Early Business History by Gene W. Heck, published by King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. Pp 626
