islamic economic renaissance 349ferred to a problem of shortage. The former is much more welcomed.
The twentieth century, therefore, is marked with an abundance of
writings on Islamic economics. In the eighth century there was only
one Abù-Yùsùf and we were able to highlight his work, but in the
late twentieth century there were so many like Abù-Yùsùf that it
would be difficult to single one writer out. As an alternative it might
be conceivable to approach the subject by looking into the main trends
in the literature guided by the main areas of interest in the writing
on the subject. Different emphasis will be given depending on the
continuity of the subject and the prominence of the subject area.
No doubt some names will be overlooked in this harsh process, but
it is an unfortunate inevitability. This does not mean, however, that
the missing inputs lack importance or suffer weaknesses. Rather, it
is the regrettable outcome of the conditions of constraints in a book
of this nature. A reference to annotated bibliographies, for direction
or recommendation, will, however, be made in due course to fill in
the gap and to help the reader. One more factor will be borne in
mind in the process of selection is that; lengthy research papers,
monographs, books and papers presented at major Islamic economic
conferences will be given some priority.
Influencing Factors
It was not until 1976 when the First International Conference on
Islamic Economics was held that the subject of Islamic Economics
gained recognition nationally and internationally. Apart from lengthy
research papers, monographs, and specialised books, articles were
mainly published in journals and magazines of religious or general
social science nature that were geared towards Islamic studies as a
whole rather than a particular discipline, economics or otherwise.
Or as Khan states in his Annotated Sources in Islamic Economics,
“... most of the literature on Islamic economics is scattered in jour-
nals and periodicals of a diverse nature. It may be found in reli-
gious magazines, periodicals of general interest and purely academic
journals...books on Islamic economics are not classified under any
single specified heading”, (Khan, 1983). With very few exceptions,
mentioned below, there were hardly any comprehensive books on
Islamic economics of a rigorously analytical nature or primary sourced