Since the late 1970s, financial institutions (banks, investment companies, insurance companies) have grown up in many countries in the Moslem world with the intention of conducting their business in accordance with Islamic, or Shariah, law. Above all else, this means business involving no...

In many books on Islamic economics and banking published during the 1960s and early 1970s, Islamic banks are interpreted as financial institutions which base their whole "loan" business on the principle of Profit and Loss Sharing (PLS) with the entrepreneurial partners. The authors of these...