There is a serious lack of empirical studies on Islamic banking. This paper attempts to fill that gap to some extent. Using data for the 1990-98 period, several hypotheses and common perceptions about the practice of Islamic banking have been tested. The performance of Islamic banks has been evaluated using both trend and ratio analyses. For this purpose, some objective “benchmarks” for various...

This study uses a cross-country panel to examine the determinants of corruption, paying particular attention to political institutions that increase accountability. Even though the theoretical literature has stressed the importance of political institutions in determining corruption, the empirical literature is relatively scarce. Our results confirm the role of political institutions in determi...

Abstract This essay examines qur’anic “exhortation” and “legal paraenesis” in light of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry late antique biblical traditions. It analyzes the verb waʿaẓa related forms narrative legal/legislative sections suras that can be assigned to different chronological stages Qur’an’s textual genesis. Qur’anic exhortations initially occur narratives about messengers sent unbelieving p...

Islamic art is unique because its form and function permeate both distance and time. Since the birth of Islam, Muslim artists around the world have created pieces of art that share an uncanny resemblance to pieces created by other Muslim artists through common themes, appearances, and applications. These similarities include calligraphic elements, exaggerated depictions of plants and animals, a...

This paper exposes the “roadmap” of how modern Islamist terrorism is financed, through both legitimate and illegitimate means: the networks and linkages between financing obtained on the one hand through sympathetic Islamic governments, Islamic charities and banks, seemingly legitimate businesses operating as fronts, and on the other hand through criminal activities running the full gamut from ...

A. R. Bozorgmanesh a , M. Otadi b, A. A. Safe Kordi c, F. Zabihi d, M. Barkhordari Ahmadi e (a) Department of Chemical Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran (b) Department of Chemical Engineering, Central Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran (c) Department of Chemical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran (d) Department of ...