Islamifying the Economy

Until the late seventh century, there was a definite continuity in the system of regulation and administration of urban economic life; the monitoring of transactions and the control of prices, weights, and measures being carried out by rabbis and Christian priests. By contrast, from the early eighth and ninth centuries, the evolving status of trade and craft in Near Eastern cities and the conscious Islamification of daily life encouraged changes to the established practices. This chapter discusses the mechanisms by which Islamic religious norms came to govern general economic behaviour. It looks at the increasing influence of Islamic worship, religious institutions, and authority in the regulation and administration of trade, retail, and crafts from 700 to 950, in the context of the Islamification of daily life, and its economic significance.