The Arab Roots of Capitalism

Book Synopsis

Gene W. Heck explores the role of Islam in precipitating Europe's twelfth century commercial renaissance. Determining that Europe's medieval feudal interregnum was largely caused by indigenous governmental business regulation and not by shifts in international trade patterns, he demonstrates how Islamic economic precepts provided the ideological rationales that empowered medieval Europe to escape its three-century-long experiment in "Dark Age economics" - in the process, providing the West with its archetypic tools of capitalism.

Critical Reviews

"The book explores the role of Islam in Europe's economic renaissance in the twelfth Century thanks to the author's ability to form a deep understanding of the Islamic History during the Medievals and to his insightful verification of the Western and Arabic sources to get to the right conclusions. The Author resorted to several sources including the writings of the medieval historians and geographists in order to be sure of his production to the readers."
S. Tajuddin, Magazine "The Muslim World Book Review"
April, 2007

About the Author

Gene W. Heck, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in economics and three master's degrees from the University of Michigan. He also has a master's degree from Golden Gate University and the University of Jordan. For years, he served as a U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer, and has been on several U.S. Army reserve tours in Ethiopia, Turkey and Jordan. Due to mastery of the Arabic language, he has spent a good deal of his time in the Middle East, where he still resides today. Throughout his career, Dr. Heck has won several national awards for the design of state and local economic development programs. Currently, he is a senior business development economist operating in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Middle East. He also serves as adjunct professor of government and history at the University of Maryland.

About the translator

Dr. Mahmoud Haddad

A postgraduate of AUB, and later a graduate of Columbia University with a Ph.D in The History of The Middle East, Dr. Haddad was an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor in the latter University for ten years after which he returned to his homeland, Lebanon, where he is currently teaching in the Department of History in Balmond University in North Lebanon.

He wrote many researche papers about Islamic history and the Arabic Middle and Modern history in English and Arabic periodicals.