Dissemination of Arab-Islamic ideas overseas

Apart from these early medieval Arab-Islamic scholars, there are several others who wrote on economic issues, and whose works had wider impact. Some of these, along with some of their major works in which discourses on economic issues are to be found, are noted below:

1.

2. Abu Obaid al-Qasim bin Sallan (d. 839), Kitab-al-Amwaal (A Treatise on Wealth);

3. Qudamah Bin Jafar (d. 947), Al-Kharaj-wa-Sana'at-ul-Kitabah (A Treatise on Taxation and Industry);

4. Abu Nasir al-Farabi (d. 950), Siyasat-al-Madaniyah (Politics of Civic Society, or Political Economy);

5. Abu Jafar al-Dawudi (d. 1012), Kitab-al-Amwaal (A Treatise on Wealth) (Sharafuddin);

6. Abu Ali al-Husayn Ibn Sina (d. 1036), Kitab-al-Shifa (Book of Healing): this book discusses economics as one of the six practical disciplines;

7. Abul Hasan al-Mawardi (979—1058), Al-Ahkam al Sultaniyah (Principles of Public Administration) (Amedroz);

8. Shamsuddin al-Sarakhsi (d. 1090) Al-Mabsut (The Complete Book): discusses various areas of knowledge, including economics;

9. Nizam al-Mulk Tusi (1018—1092), Siyasat Nameh (Book on State Politics);

10. Abul Fadl Jafar bin Ali al-Dimashqi (c. eleventh century), Kitab al-Isharah ila Mahasin alt- Tijarah wa Ma'rifat Jayyid al-A'rad wa Radi'iha wa Ghushush al-Mudallisin fiha (A Guide to the Merits of Commerce and to Recognition of Both Fine and Defective Merchandise and the Swindles of Those Who Deal Dishonestly);

11. Taqi al-Din Ahmad ‘Abd al-Halim, known as Ibn Tammiyah (1263—1328), Al-Hisbah fi'l-

Islam (Public Duties in Islam) and al-Siyasah al-Shariyah fi Islah al-Rai wa'l-Raiyah (Public and Private Laws in Islam) (Ghazanfar-Islahi, 1992);

12. Shams al-Din Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Abi Bakr Al-Zari, known as Ibn Qayyim (1292—1350), al Turuq al Hukmiyah (Governing Methods and Rules) (Ghazanfar and Islahi, 1997).

It should be highlighted as well that much of the knowledge on various disciplines, including economics, emanating from the Islamic civilization was transmitted to Latin-Europe during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Indeed, there is hardly any medieval Latin-European scholar who was not, directly or indirectly, influenced by Arab-Islamic scholarship. Briefly, there were several different mechanisms for such transmission.

First, travels by scholars, many of whom learnt Arabic, who brought back knowledge to Europe. Second, translations en masse — “the real contact with the Arabic culture was made by twelfth-century translators in Spain; it was then and there that dykes were opened and stored- up experience of the ages began to pour in upon the medieval West” (Goldstein, 113). Third, oral transmission, which, over “eight or more centuries of such intimate contact (via Islamic Spain particularly) is, in itself, quite persuasive an argument for cultural interaction and con­tinuity” (Chejne, 120). Fourth, the development of trade and commerce, leading to the diffusion of economic institutions and practices: “Italian cities... in the wake of the Crusades... had established relations with the traders of the Near East and had adopted various institutions and devices which were at variance with the rigid pattern of medieval social and economic organization” (Pribram, 21; see also Heaton). Fifth, the Crusades, whose central importance was that “they helped shape European attitudes, feelings, and values” (Ferruolo, 136), “stimulated intellectual life in Europe” (Izzedin, 42), and represented “the strongest influence on development of medieval trade and industry” (Krueger, 72).

There were also other miscellaneous sources of transmission: students “from Italy, Spain and southern France [who] attended Muslim seminaries” (Sharif, 2, 1367); monasteries, whose libraries housed voluminous translations of Arab-Islamic scholarship; cathedral charter schools: “to them was brought most of the science and philosophy from the Byzantines and the Saracens” (Artz, 229); royal courts, which were “as brilliant and refined a center of Arab learning as any in the Middle East or in Spain” (Menocal, 75); missionaries — “Islamic culture was known in Europe partly through the commercial markets, sometimes through the travels of Christian missionaries in the East” (Sauvaget, 228); and the growth of cities — many cities/towns, especially in southern France and Italy, originated in the “footsteps of trade” with the Mediterranean Arab-Islamic world (Krueger, 69).