Journal of Economic and Social Thought www.kspjournals.org Volume 3 September 2016 Issue 3 Seyed Kazem Sadr, The Economic System of the Early Islamic Period: Institutions and Policies, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, 296 pp. $125 Hardcover. By Abbas MIRAKHOR a† Abstract. The book is a major contribution to Islamic economic history and to Islamic economics in the English language. It presents a comprehensive yet concise economic hermeneutic of policies implemented by the Messenger (saas) in Medinah. It is an authoritative presentation based on the Qur‟an, the Traditions of the Messenger, earliest writings of Muslim historians and jurists. Within the context of contemporary economic universe of discourse, the book discusses implications of policies of the Messenger with regards to allocation of resources, production, exchange, growth, development, environment, efficiency and justice. For those who think that zakat, prohibition against interest, waqf and the like are the only elements that distinguish an Islamic economy from other systems, the depth and the breadth of the book would provide a transformative experience. This Review argues that the appearance of the book is particularly timely given the distorted, dis-embedded, and fictitious model of an Islamic economy manufactured by Orientalists. The book will go a long way in correcting these distortions. Keywords. History of economic thought, Macroeconomy, Macroeconomic policy, Economic policy, Economic history, Economic systems, Political economy. JEL. B10, E40, E60, N10, P40, P48. 1. Introduction or those familiar with the writings of Professor Sadr, the appearance of this book in English had been much awaited. More than three and half decade in the making, the book is indeed what Palgrave Macmillan Editors of the series in Political Economy of Islam call “invaluable contribution” and “a unique and major piece of research” (see the foreword to the book). These words are no exaggeration. To the best knowledge of this reviewer, this is the first comprehensive yet concise book by a Muslim Scholar in English on this topic. The author swims effortlessly in the oceans of history of Islam and the economics of its earliest period as well as that of the Qur‟an, Hadith and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). Evidence is the book‟s seamless journey through time: from the writings of Ibn Hisham, Ibn Hajar Al-Asghalani, Hakim Naishaburi, Al-Mawardi and Ibn Al-Qudama to Keynes, Friedman, and Becker. Readers will experience the same seamless movement from deep concepts of Fiqh to contemporary economic theory. a † INCEIF Chair in Islamic Finance. International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), Lorong Universiti A, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. . . abbasmirakhor@inceif.org F brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Journal of Economic and Social Thought