i 1 Islamic marketing: an introduction and overview Ozlem Sandlkcz and Gillian Rice Islamic marketing is a field in emergence. In recent years, an interest in understand- ing Muslims as consumers and as marketers has become apparent across academic and managerial circles. Many social, cultural, political and economic developments underlie this interest: the emergence of a Muslim middle class attentive to the values of Islam and interested in modern consumption; the increasing visibility of a new class of Muslim entrepreneurs who innovatively and successfully blend religious principles and capitalist aspirations; the growth of the zmzma/z, a supranational community of Muslim believers, connected through values and lifestyles; the increasing social, economic and political power and influence of the new Islamic social movements; and the post 9/11 forces shaping the global political economy and international relations. Given the signifi- cance of these developments, it is not difficult to predict that academic and managerial attention to understanding Muslim consumers and markets will continue to grow in the coming years. The goal of this Handbook is to provide a collection of state-of-the-art scholarship on Islamic marketing and lay out an agenda for future research. Consistent with the spirit of the Handbook — to offer an up-to-date, critical and multidisciplinary approach to the study of the intersection of Islam, consumption and marketing — the contributors come from a variety of backgrounds. Scholars from different disciplines such as marketing, anthropology, political science and art history, as well as consultants and practitioners offer a rich array of insights into Islamic marketing. The essays cover topics ranging from fashion and food consumption practices of Muslims, to retailing, digital marketing, spiritual tourism, corporate social responsibility, and nation branding in the context of Muslim marketplaces. Several other chapters look at the relationship between moral- ity, consumption and marketing practices, and examine the implications of politics and globalization on Islamic markets. In studying their topics, researchers utilize different methods, such as surveys, ethnographic methods and case studies, and highlight the utility of methodological diversity in understanding market dynamics. Finally, the chap- ters discuss consumption and marketing practices observed in a diverse range of Muslim majority and minority countries, including Australia, Bahrain, Iran, Malaysia, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Overall, the Handbook aims to attend to the foundational issues as well as to emerging trends in Islamic marketing and to generate questions to be pursued in future research. Before we introduce the indi- vidual chapters, a few points need to be clarified. The title of the Handbook should not mislead the readers. The purpose of this col- lection is not to define what Islamic marketing is or should be. On the contrary, the Handbook is first and foremost about sensitizing all those interested in the topic to the diversity, multiplicity and dynamism of Muslim consumers and the complexity of the relationship between Islam and marketing. Is it meaningful to speak of Islamic market- ing? What is Islamic in Islamic marketing? Why do we need, if we do, Islamic market-