This thoroughly updated and revised second edition analyses the ideas behind Islamic finance, the forms Islamic finance has taken in practice and the tension between the two that may occasionally arise. Along with an expanded section on the history of the ban on interest, this second edition...

“When I was born – in 1956 – the chance of realizing a Frisian Eleven City Ice Skating Marathon in Netherlands was 1 in 4. When my daughter was born – in 1999 – this chance had diminished to 1 in 10. An enormous change in one generation!” This quote was taken from a speech by J. P....

The epithet “Austrian” in “Austrian economics” is applied to the work of economists as far apart in time as Carl Menger, whose Grundsätze der Volkswirthschaftslehre ( Principles of Political Economy ) first appeared in 1871, and Ludwig Lachmann, Israel Kirzner and Murray Rothbard,...

Contents: Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Why Islamic finance? -- 2. Islamic law -- 3. The Islamic economy -- 4. Forms of Islamic finance -- 5. Islamic banks -- 6. Special sectors -- 7. Public finance, monetary policy and banking supervision -- 8. A tentative verdict and a question mark --...