Islamic Economics: A Short History

CHAPTER SIX

POLITICAL FRAGMENTATION AND

CULTURAL DIVERSITY (1000 A.C.–1400 A.C.)

Introduction

For more than one century, from the time when Abù-al-Faraj Qudama
ibn-Ja"afer (864–932) wrote his Kitàb al-Kharàj until al-Màwardì
wrote al-Aœkàm al-Sùltàniyyah (972–1058), there was a complete
absence of writing on Islamic economics. Two contributory factors
could be suggested: (a) the decline in the political power of the
caliphate, and (b) the preoccupation of Muslim thinkers with other
areas of intellectual civilities, most of all philosophy, which over-
shadowed the subject of economics. A further factor could be added:
the sharp division in the schools of religious thought and ideology
that led to the appearance of several politically motivated religious
factions of conflicting ideologies and contradicting directions. These
factors, the political decline and the intellectual development, are out-
lined below with a view to looking into their implications for the
writing on Islamic economics.

Political Fragmentation

Historians observe that the political decline of the caliphate started from
the time of al-Mùtawakkil (847–861). One of the reasons for such
demarcation is that he was the first Abbasìd caliph to have been
murdered by his own bodyguard. But the decline could be traced to
a decade earlier when the caliph al-Must"asim (833–842) was over-
powered by his Turkish bodyguards who were originally imported
to counter-balance the increasing influence of the Persian soldiers.
The period was marked with the growing power of three different
forces: (a) the Alid movement, (b) the Arab separatist movement, and
(c) the non-Arab separatist movement. Not all of these movements
had the same implications for the development of science, art and
literature. While some had devastating consequences, others, amaz-