Islam and Capitalism
Maxime Rodinson
Foreword by Roger Owen
About the Book
Islam and Capitalism is a learned, engaged rebuttal of the cultural reductionism of Max Weber and others who have tried to explain the politics and society of the Middle East by reference to some unchanging entity called ‘Islam,’ typically characterised as instinctively hostile to capitalism.
Maxime Rodinson looks at the facts, analysing economic texts with his customary common sense, to show that Muslims never had any trouble making money.
About the Author
Maxime Rodinson (1915–2004) was a French Marxist historian, sociologist and a professor at the renowned École Pratique des Hautes Études, in Paris. His books include Islam and Capitalism, The Arabs, Muhammad and Cult, Ghetto, and State: The Persistence of the Jewish Question.
Reviews
'In Islam and Capitalism, we can see a powerful mind wrestling with some of the largest questions which concern, not just the peoples of the Middle East but also those who wish to understand their economies, their societies and their ideologies, and to chart their progress.' Roger Owen
‘Rodinson is outspokenly committed to the values of political freedom and material equality.’ American Journal of Sociology
