Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism proposes a strikingly original thesis—that capitalism first emerged in Arabia, not in late medieval Italian city states as is commonly assumed. Early Islam made a seminal but largely unrecognized contribution to the history of economic thought; it is the...

Introduction (Martin Lutz and Tanja Skambraks) -- Part 1: Antiquity and Middle Ages -- Chapter 1.The Popular Morality of Ancient Greek Commerce (Moritz Hinsch) -- Chapter 2. Early medieval property transfers in favour of the church between religion and economy (Franziska Quaas) -- Chapter 3....

This chapter surveys the writings of medieval Jewish rabbis on usury during 1050-1565. These writings belonged to three literary genres: legal, ethical/pietistic, and Biblical commentary. After surveying the moralistic condemnations of usury by medieval rabbis, I illustrate three theoretical...

The establishment of Christianity in the late- and post-Roman world caused an economic as well as a religious revolution, but, while a great deal of attention has been paid to the religious developments of the period, the impact of the establishment of the Church on the economy has attracted...