Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism [Hardcover]

A historian and former banker, Koehler has written a book that belongs to the older school of historiography... His arguments are in line with those of the Jesuit Henri Lammens, who emphasized Arabias vibrant commercial culture, and the Marxist Maxime Rodinson, who argued that capitalist institutions like private property were central to early Islam. Summing Up: Recommended. . . .Upper-division undergraduates and above.The British economic historian Benedikt Koehler sheds light on an entirely different Muhammad: the entrepreneur from Mecca and the founder of economic institutions which  long before Italian cities of the Renaissance  gave an impetus to capitalist business practices.[A]n excellent [and] well-researched book.The title of the book by an historian and former banker was surely devised with an eye to the marketing: it . . . [will] appeal to all readers interested in the world's dominant economic system who retain a healthy curiosity about its origins, and also tho those with an interest in Islam and its contribution to civilization. . . .Overall, this has been an easy, enjoyable and at times riveting read. . . .Well-referenced as it is, this is an excellent primer. . . .It is an enlightening spring through a fascinating period of history, illuminated by comparisons with other eras and regions and indeed fictions such as One Thousand and One Nights.This is a wonderful book! It is well written, well organized, and well documented. It makes good use of multi-lingual sources and lays out its argument in concise chapters. I leave my read of the book convinced that Weber got it wrong, and that capitalism was born elsewhere. . . .Koehlers assertion that the organizational know-how of capitalism is portable (in this case to Europe) rings true. . . .This book would thus be of interest to any scholar of capitalism. It would be useful in graduate level classes in economics and sociology. Students of Weber would find this work interesting, as would Islamic scholarlӆ