352 chapter nine
Academy was held in 1964. Research, however, embraced research
on Islamic topics of different nature, including, but not exclusively,
Islamic economics. Research on Islamic economics was welcomed if
not encouraged. Furthermore, the Academy would shoulder the
responsibility of publishing the proceedings of the conferences and
of the individual researches to make the benefits of the work widely
available. It was only a decade or so later, when the Islamic economics
grew further and expanded wider that a need for a specialised con-
ference on the subject became obvious. It was then that the first Inter-
national Conference on Islamic Economics of 1976 was convened.
To demonstrate the degree of influence that Al-Azhar Academy
has had on the literature of Islamic economics at that phase of devel-
opment, the following, which are published by the Academy, and
are all in Arabic, are given as some examples of what Siddiqi has
shown us in his survey of contemporary Islamic economics literature
(Siddiqi, 1980):
Al-Khafif, Shaikh Ali, “Individual Property and its Limit in Islam”,
128 p., First Conference, 1964; Œasan, Abdel Raœmàn, “Financial
resources in Islam”, 64 p., First Conference, 1964; Hussaini, Ishaq
Musa, “Hìsbah in Islam”, 255–277 p., First Conference, 1964; Al-Araby,
Muœammad Abdùllah, “Islamic View Point Regarding the Ways of
Productive Employment of Property”, 124–136, Second Conference, 1965;
Al-Araby, Muœammad Abdullah, “Contemporary Bank Transactions
and Islam’s View”, 79–122, Second Conference, 1965; Abù Zuhra,
Shaikh Muœammad, “Zakàh”, 137–201, Second Conference, 1965;
Proceeds of the Seventh Conference, Sept. 1972, “Economic and Legal
Discourses”, 410 p., Seventh Conference, 1973; Al-Shahawi, Ibràhìm
Dasuqi, “Hìsbah: a Social Function”, 64 p., Seventh Conference, 1973;
and Al-Tahawi, Ibràhìm, “Islamic Economics: a School of Thought
and a System, a Comparative Study”, 2v, 616 and 400 p., 1974.Still in Egypt, as another example of institutional involvement, we
find the High Institute for Arabic Studies (a post-graduate study insti-
tute) producing an interesting treatise in Arabic on “Inheritance and
Legacy in Islam with an Introduction to Inheritance amongst Arabs
and the Romans”, 400 p., 1960, by Muœammad Yùsùf Mùsa. As this
institute is within the government establishment and under its edu-
cational supervision, the contribution of government to encouraging
research in Islamic studies and Islamic economics cannot be ignored.
Another example of the role of government in Egypt can be taken from
the High Council for Fostering Art and Literature, which is a govern-