Beyond Modernity: The Moral Economy of Ibn Khaldun
Main Article Content
Keywords
Moral economy, Ibn Khaldun, Islamic moral economy, moral ethics, Muqaddimah
Abstract
The idea of a moral economy has gained salience in the 21st century. It has been used by economists, political scientists, and to a lesser extent, scholars of religion, for alternative values of money, exchange, debt, poverty, and prosperity. As an actual moral economy seems elusive in the presence of a dominant capitalist market, this essay reflects on the work of Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun, the 14th-century historian and philosopher. Ibn Khaldun’s reflections on the different ways in which individuals seek a livelihood (maʿāsh) reveal systematic and also ethical considerations. The essay examines some key terms which he uses to understand human sustenance and ethical reflections on various crafts. His ‘moral economy’ combines economic considerations with divine beneficence, rational thought, and ethical purpose.
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References
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McRorie, C. 2015. Adam Smith, ethicist: A case for reading political economy as moral anthropology. The Journal of Religious Ethics 43, 4: 674-696. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jore.12117
Mittermaier, A. 2019. Giving to God: Islamic charity in revolutionary times. Oakland: University of California Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/ 9780520972056
Moumtaz, N. 2021. God’s property: Islam, charity, and the modern state. Oakland: University of California Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/ 9780520975781
Nasution, K.S. 2002. Colonial intervention and transformation of Muslim waqf settlements in urban Penang: The role of the Endowments Board. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 22, 2: 299-315. doi: https://doi.org/ 10.1080/1360200022000028112
Nuri, A. 2018. The concept of ‘nature’ in peripatetic Islamic philosophers. ULUM Journal of Religious Inquiries 1, 1: 5-21.
Pingree, D.E., & S. Nonamul Haq 2009. Ṭabīʿa. In Bearman, P., Th. Bian-quis, C.E. Bosworth, E. Van Donzel, & W.P. Heinrichs (eds.): Encyclopaedia of Islam. Brill Online. Available At: https://search.library. uq.edu.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=61UQ_ALMA5116707053 0003131&context=L&vid=61UQ&lang=en_US&tab=61uq_all. (Accessed on July 17, 2022.)
Powers, D.S. 1989. Orientalism, colonialism, and legal history: The attack on Muslim family endowments in Algeria and India. Comparative Studies in Society and History 31, 3: 535-571. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0010417500016030
Reda, A. 2018. Prophecy, piety, and profits: A conceptual and comparative history of Islamic economic thought. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Sabra, A. 2003. ‘Prices are in God’s hands’: The theory and practice of price control in the medieval Islamic world. In Bonner, M.D., M. Ener, & A. Singer (ed.): Poverty and charity in Middle Eastern contexts. Albany: SUNY Press.
Sadouni, S. 2008. New religious actors in South Africa: The example of Islamic humanitarianism. In Soares, B.F. & R. Otayek (eds.): Islam and Muslim politics in Africa. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230607101_6
Scott, J.C. 1976. The moral economy of the peasant: Rebellion and subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Smith, A. 1976. An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.
Thompson, E.P. 1971. The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century. Past & Present 50: 76-136. doi: https://doi.org/ 10.1093/past/50.1.76
Thompson, E.P. 1991. Customs in common. London: Merlin Press.
Tripp, C. 2006. Islam and the moral economy: The challenge of capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/ CBO9780511617614
Weiss, H. 2002. The concept of Islamic economy as articulated in Sokoto: Social justice and state responsibility. In Weiss, H. (ed.): Social welfare in Muslim societies in Africa. Stockholm: Nordiska Afrikainsti-tutet.
Benthall, J. 1999. Financial worship: The Quranic injunction to almsgiving. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5, 1: 27-42. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2660961
Berry, C.J. 2010. Adam Smith’s moral economy. The Kyoto Economic Review 79, 1: 2-15.
Bonefeld, W. 2013. Adam Smith and Ordoliberalism: On the political form of market liberty. Review of International Studies 39, 2: 233-250. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210512000198
Booth, W.J. 1994. On the idea of the moral economy. American Political Science Review 88, 3: 653-667. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2944801
Bouhafa, F. 2021. The dialectics of ethics: Moral ontology and epistemology in Islamic philosophy. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 21: 25-54. doi: https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.9368
Bowles, S. 2016. The moral economy: Why good incentives are no substitute for good citizens. New Haven: Yale University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17323/1726-3247-2016-4-100-128
Clark, J.A. 2004. Islam, charity, and activism: Middle-class networks and social welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Edelman, M. 2005. Bringing the moral economy back in…to the study of 21st-century transnational peasant movements. American Anthropologist 107, 3: 331-345. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2005.107.3.331
Edelman, M. 2012. E.P. Thompson and moral economies. In Fassin, D. (ed.): A companion to moral anthropology. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/9781118290620
El-Sheikh, S. 2008. The moral economy of classical Islam: A Fiqhiconomic model. The Muslim World 98, 1: 116-144. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1478-1913.2008.00213.x
Farahat, O. 2021. Moral value and commercial gain: Three classical Islamic approaches. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 20. 21 pages. doi: https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.9376
Fassin, D. 2009. Les économies morales revisitées. Annales: Histoire, Sci-ences Sociales 64, 6: 1237-1266.
al-Ghazāli, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad. 1356. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn. Vol 1. Cairo: Lajnat al-thaqāfah al-Islāmiyyah.
Graeber, D. 2001. Toward an anthropological theory of value: The false coin of our own dreams. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. doi: https://doi. org/10.1057/9780312299064
Graeber, D. 2014. Debt, the first 5,000 years. Brooklyn: Melville House.
Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad. 2005. Muqaddimah Ibn Khaldūn. Abd al-Salām al-Shadād (editor). Casablanca: Khizānat Ibn Khaldūn.
Ibn Taymīya, al-Shaykh al-Imām. 1982. Public duties in Islam: The institution of the Ḥisba. Leicester: The Islamic Foundation.
Islahi, A.A. 2022. Islam & economics: Shah Wali Allah’s approach. Leicester: The Islamic Foundation.
Keane, W. 2021. Religion and moral economy. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://oxfordre.com/anthropology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.001.0001/acrefore-9780190854584-e-360. (Accessed on March 30, 2021). doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013. 360
Kogelman, F. 2002. Sidi Fredje: A case study of a religious endowment in Morocco under the French protectorate. In Weiss, H. (ed.): Social welfare in Muslim societies in Africa. Stockholm: Nordiska Afrikainsti-tutet.
Kuran, T. 1986. The economic system in contemporary Islamic thought: Interpretation and assessment. International Journal of Middle East Stud-ies 18, 2: 135-164. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800029767
Kuran, T. 1989. On the notion of economic justice in contemporary Islamic thought. International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 21, 2: 171-191. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S002074380003227X
LeBlanc, M.N. 2020. Charity, ONG-ization and emergent ethics of volunteer-ism: The case of Islamic NGOs in Côte D’ivoire. In Weisse, H. (ed.): Muslim faith-based organizations and social welfare in Africa. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38308-4_4
Maurer, B. 2005. Mutual life, limited: Islamic banking, alternative currencies, lateral reason. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mauss, M. 2002. The gift: The form and reason for exchange in archaic societies. Taylor & Francis e-Library. Available at: https://files.libcom.org/ files/Mauss%20-%20The%20Gift.pdf. (Accessed on July 21, 2022.)
McRorie, C. 2015. Adam Smith, ethicist: A case for reading political economy as moral anthropology. The Journal of Religious Ethics 43, 4: 674-696. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jore.12117
Mittermaier, A. 2019. Giving to God: Islamic charity in revolutionary times. Oakland: University of California Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/ 9780520972056
Moumtaz, N. 2021. God’s property: Islam, charity, and the modern state. Oakland: University of California Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/ 9780520975781
Nasution, K.S. 2002. Colonial intervention and transformation of Muslim waqf settlements in urban Penang: The role of the Endowments Board. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 22, 2: 299-315. doi: https://doi.org/ 10.1080/1360200022000028112
Nuri, A. 2018. The concept of ‘nature’ in peripatetic Islamic philosophers. ULUM Journal of Religious Inquiries 1, 1: 5-21.
Pingree, D.E., & S. Nonamul Haq 2009. Ṭabīʿa. In Bearman, P., Th. Bian-quis, C.E. Bosworth, E. Van Donzel, & W.P. Heinrichs (eds.): Encyclopaedia of Islam. Brill Online. Available At: https://search.library. uq.edu.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=61UQ_ALMA5116707053 0003131&context=L&vid=61UQ&lang=en_US&tab=61uq_all. (Accessed on July 17, 2022.)
Powers, D.S. 1989. Orientalism, colonialism, and legal history: The attack on Muslim family endowments in Algeria and India. Comparative Studies in Society and History 31, 3: 535-571. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0010417500016030
Reda, A. 2018. Prophecy, piety, and profits: A conceptual and comparative history of Islamic economic thought. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Sabra, A. 2003. ‘Prices are in God’s hands’: The theory and practice of price control in the medieval Islamic world. In Bonner, M.D., M. Ener, & A. Singer (ed.): Poverty and charity in Middle Eastern contexts. Albany: SUNY Press.
Sadouni, S. 2008. New religious actors in South Africa: The example of Islamic humanitarianism. In Soares, B.F. & R. Otayek (eds.): Islam and Muslim politics in Africa. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230607101_6
Scott, J.C. 1976. The moral economy of the peasant: Rebellion and subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Smith, A. 1976. An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.
Thompson, E.P. 1971. The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century. Past & Present 50: 76-136. doi: https://doi.org/ 10.1093/past/50.1.76
Thompson, E.P. 1991. Customs in common. London: Merlin Press.
Tripp, C. 2006. Islam and the moral economy: The challenge of capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/ CBO9780511617614
Weiss, H. 2002. The concept of Islamic economy as articulated in Sokoto: Social justice and state responsibility. In Weiss, H. (ed.): Social welfare in Muslim societies in Africa. Stockholm: Nordiska Afrikainsti-tutet.
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Dec 13, 2022
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Beyond Modernity: The Moral Economy of Ibn Khaldun. (2022). Journal for the Study of Religion , 35(2). https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2022/v35n2a4
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How to Cite
Beyond Modernity: The Moral Economy of Ibn Khaldun. (2022). Journal for the Study of Religion , 35(2). https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2022/v35n2a4