Studies of History of Islamic Economics in

Canada

Ismail Yurdakok

ismailyurdakok@gmail.com

International Journal of Maritime History, Professor Maya Shatzmiller’s (of The

University of Western Ontario) Studies and Indian Ocean World Center are three
main sources to reach Islamic Economics History Studies of Canada. Apart from her
the other studies, Maya Shatzmiller’s works on the history of Islamic economics
shows how a scholar should study in his/her field that we selected only some of
them: a Jewish female scholar Shatzmiller is the faculty member of The University
of Western Ontario, Department of History and her studies go to a 35 years past.
She has an undergraduate degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in
political science in 1965 and Islamic history in 1968. And she completed her
doctorate dissertation in Ax-en-Provence of France on Ibn Khaldun, in 1974. He
worked in Sorbon University and in Princeton (1991-96), and from 1999 to present
she has been in Canada in last ten years. Her current research is economic history
of Islamic societies. Some of her publications: “Labour in the Medieval Islamic
World. Arab History and Civilization: Studies and Texts, 4. E. J. Brill, Leiden,
1994, viii+443 pp.”, “Her Day in Court: Women’s Property Rights and Islamic Law in
Fifteenth Century Granada. Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School.
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 2007, 277 pp.”, “Unity and Variety of
Land Tenure and Cultivation Patterns in the Medieval Maghreb” Maghreb Review,
special number: “The Question of Maghrib Unity”, Proceedings of the Second Annual
Conference of North African Studies, London, (25-26 June 1982): 24-8; “Professions
and Ethnic Origin of Urban Labourers in Muslim Spain: Evidence from a Moroccon
Source” Awraq 5(1983): 149-159; Aspects of women’s participation in the economic
life of later medieval Islam: Occupations and mentalities” Arabica 35(1988): 36-
58; “Some Social and Economic Aspects of ‘Waqf khayri’ in 14th Century Fez”
Anaquel de estudios arabes 2(1991):193-217.; “A Misconstrued Link: Europe and the
Economic History of Islamic Trade” Relazioni economiche tra Europe e mondo
islamico. Secc. XIII-XVIII, acuro di S. Cavaciocchi, Firenzo 2007, 237-415. Le
monnier l Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica; “F. Datini”, Atti delle
Settimane di Studi e altri convegni, 38. (Maya’s entry:) “Tidjara” in the Economic
History of Trade in the Islamic World Vol. 10(1995): 469-475.

Some of original conference papers (only on Islamic economics history) of Maya

Shatzmiller will give a fresh look at for especially the studies of junior
scholars of Islamic economics that she patiently goes on her studies for years:
“The System of Production in the Medieval Islamic City and its Effect on Trade”,
International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, 1984; “The Theory of Labor
in Medieval Islam and its link to the Guild Organization”, American Oriental
Society 196th Meeting, New Haven, March 9-12, 1986; “Apprenticeship in the Islamic
Medieval Mediterranean -the great unknown,” The Institute for Advanced Study,
Princeton, 1992; “Maliki Waqf of Nickels and Dimes: Property Rights and the Public
Good in the Islamic West”, American Oriental Society 210th Meeting, Portland,
March 12th-15th, 2000; “The First Commercial Revolution: Colonization, the Islamic
Empire and Trade, 750-1000 AD”, Utrect University, March 29, 2007; “Slaves, Money,
Trade and the Development of Credit in the Islamic Caliphate, 8th-10th Centuries”,
Conference on Medieval Social and Political Institutions, The University of
Western Ontario, November 3rd, 2007; “Textile Production and Economic Growth in
the Islamic World: The Long View.” Fashioning the World, University of Alberta
Edmonton, 18-21 August 2008; “Red Sea, Port Cities and Economic Growth, Eighth-
Tenth Centuries” Red Sea Conference, University of Southhampton, September 24-26,
2008; “Money, Trade, Slaves, and Division of Labor: An Early Commercial Revolution
in the Islamic Caliphate”. 24th Congress of the Union Europeene des Arabisants et
Islamisants (UEAI) University of Leipzig, 24-28 September, 2008, the same paper
was also presented in School of Oriental and African studies, University of
London, UK 20th October, 2008. Maya is also elected fellow of the Royal Society of
Canada and one of her courses taught (research seminars) is ‘Selected Topics in
Islamic Economic History in the Mediterrranean.” (graduate seminar final thesis)
Looking at the Maya Shatzmiller’s book reviews on the books of Islamic economics
history in different journals is also useful that how she follows the literature
in her field: Amnon Cohen and Bernard Lewis, Population and Revenue in the Towns
of Palestine in the 16th Century(Princeton 1978); Andrew M. Watson, Agricultural
Innovation in the Early Islamic World(Cambridge, 1983); Abraham L. Udovitch, ed.,
The Islamic Middle East , 700-1900: Studies in Economic and Social
History(Princeton 1981); Eliyahu Ashtor: Levant trade in the later Middle Ages,
(Princeton 1983); Suraiya Faroqhi, Towns and Townsman of Ottoman Anatolia: Trade,
Crafts and Food Production in an Urban Setting, 1520-1650. Cambridge Studies in
Islamic Civilization. (New York:1984); Olivia Remie Constable, Trade&Traders in
Muslim Spain. The Commercial realignment of the Iberian Peninsula, 900-1500,
Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life&Thought, 24. (Cambridge University Press,
1994); Gene W. Heck, Charlemagne, Muhammad and the Arab Roots of Capitalism,
Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 2006.

International Journal of Maritime History is published by the history department

of Memorial University of New Foundland has got a lot of useful articles and book
reviews about Islamic economics history that give original thoughts for future
studies. For example, an article is seen in the ‘Research Notes’ section of the
Journal’s volume XIX, Number 2 (December 2007): Toufoul Abou-Hodeib, “Quarantine
and Trade: The Case of Beirut, 1831-1840”, pp. 223-244. Book Reviews in the same
issue: Angela Schottenhammer (ed.), The East Asian Maritime World 1400-1800: Its
Fabrics of Power and Dynamics of Exchanges (by K. G. Deng) p. 439. Carmel Vassallo
and Michelo D’Angelo (eds.), Anglo-Saxons in the Mediterranean: Commerce, Politics
and Ideas (XVII-XX Centuries) (by Maria Christina Chatziioannou) p.445. Catharina
Purwani Williams, Maiden Voyages: Eastern Indonesian Women on the Move (by J. N.
F. M. A Campo) p.469. Graham Gerard Ong-Webb (ed.), Piracy, Maritime Terrorism and
Securing the Malacca Straits (by Kenneth McPherson) p. 489. Adam J. Young,
Contemporary Maritime Piracy in South-east Asia: History, Causes and Remedies (by
John F. Bradford) p. 490. Two articles is seen in Number 1 (of Volume XIX, June
2007): J. N. F. M. B Campo, “Asymmetry, Disparity and Cyclicity: Charting the
Piracy Conflict in Colonial Indonesia” pp. 35-62; Maria Christina Chatziioannou,
“Shaping Greek-Tunisian Commercial Relations in the Ottoman Mediterranean World:
The Efessios Merchant House” pp. 161-180. Book Reviews in the same issue: Stuart
Jenks, (ed.), Robert Sturmy’s Commercial Expedition to the Mediterranean (1457/8)
by Pauline Croft, p. 359. Alan Villiers, William Facey, Yacoub Al-Hijji, Grace
Pundyk (intro.), Sons of Sinbad by Erik Gilbert, p. 399. Stefan Eklöf, Pirates in
Paradise: A Modern History of Southeast Asia’s Maritime Marauders by Michael
Pearson, p. 414.

Another book reviews are appeared in the Journal’s issues that these books are
interested in Islamic economics history: Kizilov, Mikhail B.(’s book) “The Black
Sea and Slave Trade: The Role of Crimean Maritime Towns in the Trade in Slaves
and Captives in the Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries,” XVII, 1, 211-235. Idris
Bostan, Beylikten Imparatorluga Osmanli Denizciligi (Ottoman Navigation from
Principality to Empire. XVIII, 2, 488-89. Harlaftis, Gelina and Vassallo, Carmel
(eds.). New Directions in Mediterranean Maritime History, XVIII, 1, 407-410.
Harris, W. V. (ed.) Rethinking the Mediterranean , XVII, 2, 369-71. Heers,
Jacques. The Barbary Corsairs: Warfare in the Mediterranean, 1480-1580, XVI, 1,
292-94. Karabell, Zachary. Porting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal,
XVI, 2, 339-340. Panzac, Daniel. La Caravana maritime: marins européens marchands
ottomans en Mediterranée (1680-1830), XVIII, 1, 411-413. Tasha Vorderstrasse, Al-
Mina. A Port of Antioch from Late Antiquity to the End of Ottomans, by Ruthi
Gertwagen, XX, 1, (June 2008), p. 358. Hassan S. Khalileh, Admiralty and Maritime
Laws in the Mediterranean Sea (ca. 800-1050): The Kitab Akriyat al-Sufun vis-a-vis
the Nomos Rhodion Nautikos, by Molly Greene, p.360. Nordin Hussin, Trade and
Society in the Straits of Melaka: Dutch Melaka and English Penang, 1780-1830, by
Alfons van der Kraan, p. 365. Axelson, Eric(’s book), Vasco da Gama: The Diary of
His Travels through African Waters 1497-1499, XII, 2, pp. 244-245 (probably will
also say Islamic trading cities in the Eastern Africa shores in that years.) K.
Dharmasena, The Port of Colombo, XI, 248-249. Stefan Diller, Die Danen in Indien,
Südostasien und China (1620-1845), XII, 1, 346-347. Anthony Farrington, Catalogue
of East India Company Ships’ Journals and Logs 1600-1834, XII, 2, 258-260.
Roderich Ptak, China’s Seaborne Trade with South and Southeast Asia(1200-1750),
XII, 2, 236-238. Himanshu Prabha Ray and Jean-François Salles(eds.), Tradition and
Archaeology: Early Maritime Contacts in the Indian Ocean, XII, 1, 343-346. Pamela
Stratham and Rica Erickson (eds.), A Life on the Ocean Wave: Voyages to Australia,
India and the Pasific from the Journals of Captain George Bayly 1824-1844, XII, 2,
269-270. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, XI, 2, 198-
200. James H. Thomas, The East India Company and the Provinces in the Eighteenth
Century, v. I. Portsmouth and the East India Company 1700-1815, XII, 2, 260-261.
Jaap R. Bruijn and Femme S. Gaastra (eds.), Ships, Sailors and Spices. East India
Companies and Their Shipping in the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries, VIII, 1, 282-
283. David L. White, Competition and Collaboration. Parsi Merchants and the
English East India Company in 18th Century India, IX, 1, 277-278. Edhem Eldem,
French Trade in Istanbul in the Eighteenth Century, XII, 2, 263-265. Hassan S.
Khalilieh, Islamic Maritime Law: An Introduction, XII, 2, 240-242. Anne Bulley,
The Bombay Country Ships 1790-1833, XII, 2, 257-258. Sinnappah Arasaratnam and
Aniruddha Ray, Masulipatnam and Cambay, A History of Two Port Towns 1500-1800, IX,
2, 196-198. Stephen Frederic Dale, Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade, 1600-1750,
VIII, 1, 280-282. Kenneth, Mcpherson, The Indian Ocean. A History of People and
the Sea, VII, 2, 219-221. Lynda Norene Shaffer, Maritime Southeast Asia to 1500,
VIII, 2, 228-229. G. D. , Snooks, et al. (eds.) Exploring Southeast Asia’s
Economic Past, VI, 1, 256-258. Frank Broeze (ed.) Brides of the Sea. Port Cities
of Asia from the 16th-20th Centuries, II, 2, 288-295. Satish Chandra (ed.). The
Indian Ocean: Explorations in History, Commerce and Politics, I, 1, 195-198.
Angela Schottenhammer (ed.)., Trade and Transfer across East Asian
“Mediterranean”, XVIII, 388-389. Dionisius A. Agius, In the Wake of Dhow: The
Arabian Gulf and Oman, XV,1, 271-273. Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, Between the Sea
and Lagoon: An Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana c. 1850 to
Recent Times, XIV, 2, 454-455. Ya‘qub Yusuf Al-Hijji, The Art of Dhow Building in
Kuwait, XV, 1, 271-273. Saif Marzooq Al-Shamlan, Pearling in the Arabian Gulf: A
Kuwaiti Memoir, XIV, 1, 398-399. Clare Anderson, Convicts in the Indian Ocean:
Transportation from South Asia to Mauritius, 1815-53, XIV, 1, 405-407.Rene J.
Barendse, The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World of Seventeenth Century, XV, 2,
388-390. Susan S. Bean, Yankee India: American Commercial and Cultural Encounters
with India in the Age of Sail, 1784-1860, XIV, 1, 367-368. H.V. Bowen and
Margarette Lincoln and Nigel Rigby (eds.), The Worlds of the East India Company,
XIV, 2, 403-405. Mehmet Bulut, Ottoman-Dutch Economic Relations in the Early
Modern Period 1571-1699, XIV, 2, 395-396. Silvia Orvietani Busch, Medival
Mediterranean Ports: The Catalan and Tuscan Coasts, 1100 to 1235 (it is possible
to find notes on trade between Muslims and non-Muslims), XV, 1, 243-245. J.N. F.
M. Campo, Engines of Empire: Steamshipping and State Formation in Colonial
Indonesia, XV, 2, 414-415. Peter N. Davies, The Trade Makers: Elder Dempster in
West Africa, 1852- 1972, 1973-1989, XIV, 1, 370-371. Kay De and James Tertius,
Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian 1809-1922 (it is most possible to find the
traces Ottoman trade policy of Macedonia, and the majority of the population of
Macedonia were Muslims at that time), XIII, 1, 345-346. Howard Dick, Vincent
Houben, Thomas Lindblad and Thee Kian Wie, Emergence of a National Economy: An
Economic History of Indonesia, 1800-2000, XIV, 2, 422-424. Peregrine Horden and
Nicholas Purcell, The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History, XIII, 1,
230-232. Robin Law (ed.), The English in West Africa, 1685-1688: The Local
Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England 1681-1699, Part 2, XV, 1,
247-249. A ‘forum’ is seen between , the pages 251-292 in the issue of volume XX,
1 (June 2008), Forum: The Global Fish Market, C. 1850-2005 and Jesus M. Martinez
Milan’s paper in this forum: “Integrating Western Saharan Coastal Fisheries into
the International Economy, 1885-1975”, pp. 281-292.

“Anglo-Indian Sea Trade and Greek Commercial Enterprises in the Second Half of the
Nineteenth Century” is seen as an article written by Katerina Vourkatioti in the
volume of XI, 1, pp. 117-148 and another articles: Recruitment and Control of
Indian Seamen: Calcutta, 1880-1935, IX, 1, 1-18 written by G. Balachandran; John
H. Munro, “The Low Countries’ Export Trade in Textiles with the Mediterranean
Basin, 1200-1600: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Comparative Advantages in Overland
and Maritime Trade Routes”, XI, 2, 1-30. Christopher Wake, “The Great Ocean-going
Ships of Southern China in the Age of Chinese Maritime Voyaging to India, Twelfth
to Fifteenth Centuries”, IX, 2, 51-81. J. N. F. M. Campo, “The Accommodation of
Dutch, British and German Maritime Interests in Indonesia, 1890-1910,” IV, 1, 1-
41. John McDonald and Ralph Shlomowitz, “Fares Charged for Transporting Indian
Indentured Labour to Mauritius and the West Indies, 1850-1873”, III, 81-99. J. N.
F. M. Campo, “A Profound Debt to the Eastern Seas: Documentary History and
Literary Representation of Berau’s Maritime Trade in Conrad’s Malay Novels”, XII,
2, 85-125. Elena Frangakis-Syrett, “Commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean from
Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries: The City-Port of Izmir (Turkey) and
Its Hinterland” , X, 2, 125-154. Henk den Heijer, “Dutch Shipping and Trade with
West Africa, 1674-1740”, XI, 1, 53-79 And a review essay: J. Forbes Munro,
“African Shipping: Reflections on the Maritime History of Africa South of Sahara,
1800-1914,” II, 2, 163-182.

Some knowledges may be also found in the Canadian Journal of History; for example
this book review is interested in Islamic economics history: D. B. Freeman(’s
book), The Straits of Malacca: Gateway or Gauntlet, reviewed by Doajiong Zha,
XXXIX, 2, p. 411 (August 2004) this book gives some knowledge about long distance
trade between Asia and the West and political economy of the region and rather
than the more conventional historical-narrative approach but an innovative
adoption of an interdisciplinary analytical perspective. Also another book review
by Konrad Eisenbichler on the J. Martin and D. Romano’s (eds.), Venice
Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297-1797,
that international economy between Venice’s and Muslim countries was very active
in that centuries. Canadian Journal of History is published by Department of
History of University of Saskatchewan and approximately three-fourths of the
articles and reviews are by scholars who research and teach at universities in
Canada. Another book reviews in the journal about our field: M. N. Pearson, Port
Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern
Era (reviewed by Ivana Elbi), XXXV, 2, (August 2000), p. 392-393, R. L. Roberts,
Two Worlds of Cotton: Colonialism and the Regional Economy of the French Sudan,
1800-1946 (reviewed by Martin A. Klein), XXXIII, 3, (December 1998), p. 488. J.
Koponen, Development for Exploitation: German Colonial Policies in Mainland
Tanzania, 1884-1914 (reviewed by Philip Stigger), XXXI, 2, (August 1996), H.
Inalcik, D. Quataert (eds.), An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire,
1300-1914 (reviewed by James A. Reilly), XXXI, 3, (December 1996). J. F. Richards,
The New Cambridge History of India: The Mughal Empire, (reviewed by N. K. Wagle),
XXX, 1, (April 1995), p. 162.

Some studies of faculty members from different universities of Canada are also
interested in Islamic economics history Ariel Salaman’s studies(faculty member in
the department of history of Queen’s University): “The Age of Tulips: Confluence
and Conflict in Early Modern Consumer Culture (1500-1700) in Consumption in the
Ottoman Empire”, ed. Donald Quataert (State University of New York Press, 2000);
“An Ancient Regime Revisted: Privatization and Political Economy in the 18th
century Ottoman Empire.” Politics&Society 21 1993 (winner of the Omer Lutfi
Barkan Prize for the best article by the Turkish Studies Association of USA).
Another name, professor Olatunji Ojo gives the course of African Economic History
in the history departnet of Brock University of Ontario and the website of this
course is useful for scholarly articles written on history of Saharan and Sub-
Saharan trade; commercial sectors and books recommended on African economic
history from Ghana to Sudan. Victor Ostapchuk has been in Canada in last ten
years, in the department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations of University of
Toronto from 1999 to today; one of his research specializations is Ottoman
financial and timar systems; he is also editor-in-chief “Studies in Ottoman
Documents Pertaining to Ukraine and the Black Sea Countries,” (in Ukrainian
Research Institute, Harvard University); James A. Reilly has been lecturer in the
same department of University of Toronto from 1987 to present and one of his
courses taught: “Social and Economic History of Modern Middle East.” His research
specialization is “History of Ottoman Syria between the 18th and 20th centuries.”
Research and writing have focused on the social an economic history of Damascus
and Hama. His refereed monograph: “A Small Town in Syria: Ottoman Hama in the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” Bern and London: Peter Lang, 2002. Some of
his articles in refereed journals: “Sharia Court Registers and Land Tenure around
19th-Centuries Damascus,” Mesa Bulletin 21 (1987): 155-169; “Status Groups and
Propertyholding in the Damascus Hinterland, 1828-80,” International Journal of
Middle East Studies 21 (1989): 517-539; “Damascus Merchants and Trade in the
Transition to Capitalism,” Canadian Journal of History 27 (1992): 1-27; “From
Workshops to Sweatshops: Damascus Textiles and the World Economy in the Last
Ottoman Century,” Review 16 (1993): 199-213; “Women in the Economic Life of Late-
Ottoman Damascus,” Arabica 42 (1995): 86-113; “Regions and Markets of Ottoman
Syria: Comparisons and Transformations,” Chronos no.10(2004), pp. 111-144.
Professor M. E. Subtelny as an expert on Central Asia and Iran gives courses
classical Persian language and literature, history of medieval Iran and Central
Asia in the University of Toronto, his article, “A Medieval Persian Agricultural
Manual in Context: The Irshad alzira‘a in Late Timurid and Early Safavid
Khorasan,” Stud. Ir. 22, 1993, pp. 167-217 and his paper in the same subject
“Making a Case for Agriculture: the Irshad al-zira‘a and its Role in the Political
Economy of Early Safavid Iran” was submitted and published in the Proceedings of
the Second European Conference of Iranian Studies, held in Bamberg in 1991. Paul
E. Lovejoy from York University (department of history) of Canada, his book:
Ecology and Ethnography of Muslim Trade in West Africa (Trenton NJ: Africa World
Press). In Acadiau University (of Nova Scotia) history department, Dr. Jamie
Whidden follows in the class some parts of the book of Francis Robinson, ed., The
Cambridge History of of the Islamic World (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and
one of the parts is The Economy in Muslim Societies (pp, 124-163).

The Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC) probably will (also) do useful studies about
Islamic economics history in the future years. IOWC at McGill University is a
research initiative and resource base establishment to promote the study of the
history, economy and cultures of lands and peoples touching the Indian ocean World
–from Africa to the Middle East, India, Indonesia and Australia to China. A
complex regional trading system since the 10th Century, the Indian Ocean World
constituted the first ‘global’ economy. Useful notes can be found in the web
site of the centre saying: Today the region comprises 50 per cent of the planet’s
population and its forecast to become the leading world economy by 2020. The IOWC
pursues an interdisciplinary approach inspired by French historian Fernand Braudel
(1902-1985) who posited history as an ongoing interaction between human and
natural forces, encompassing geography, environment, climate and disease. The
Centre’s current research priorities include:
· the rise and development of the first global economy
· human migration and diaspora
· slavery, the slave trade and slave diaspora
· the exchange of commodities, technology and ideas

IOWC Phd students. Michael Ferguson: His master’s thesis, from McGill University
(2006) “Transportation and Communication Networks in Late Ottoman Salonico, 1800-
1912” focused on role of transportation and communication networks (such as
railroads, steamships and telegraphs) played in the rapid growth of Salonica ( now
a big city in northern Greece) in the late nineteenth century. Another graduate
student Natasha Shivji’s research is currently comparing the global contact of the
East and West African peoples, roughly before 1497, with the imperialist contact
beginning in the 16th century. She is focusing city-states Kilwa and Timbuktu to
show the transition of the city-states from economic, intellectual and political
prosperity to disparity with the invasion of the Portuguese seaborne empire on the
coast of East and west Africa. Rashid Chowdhury is currently pursuing a Phd in
history at McGill, with a focus on the socio-political and economic aspects of the
Hijaz Railway, constructed by the Ottoman Empire between 1900 and 1908. IOWC
visiting lecturer Himanshu Prabha Ray gave a seminar on 28 November 2008 at McGill
University, “The Greeks in the Western Indian Ocean and The Coming of Islam” The
larger debate that this presentation addresses relates to maritime contacts
leading to the period from 1250 to 1350, which Abu-Lughod has viewed as a “turning
point in world history” when “the Middle Eastern heartland region, linking
the eastern Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean, constituted a geographic fulcrum
on which West and East were then roughly balanced” in her book Before European
Hegemony: The World System 1250-1350 (Oxford University Press, New York, 1989).
Thus presentation reviews recent archaeological reports from the western Indian
Ocean, especially between the Red Sea and the Indian subcontinent with two
objectives in mind: one, to assess the legacy of the Greeks who had sailed the
region from the fifth-fourth centuries BCE to at seafaring activity with the
introduction of Islam in the Indian Ocean world. It thus focuses on the region of
the Red Sea and its links with centres in the western Indian Ocean, thereby
shifting the fulcrum westward from the ‘central Islamic lands’ . Visiting
professor of the IOWC Himanshu Prabha Ray is a professor of Archeology and
Maritime History in the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi. Indian Ocean Project was established by Gwyn Campbell in
1993 at the University of the Witwatesrand, Johannesburg South Africa; Campbell
studied as a specialist in the in the economic history of the Indian Ocean, his
publication-in-progress include: Africa and the Indian Ocean World from Early
Times to 1900, scheduled to appear in the new Cambridge Economic History of Africa
series. Following Dr. Campbell’s appointment as a Canada Research Chair at McGill
University in 2004, the Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC) based at McGill was
established. Abdul Sheriff one of the research directors of the Centre from
Zanzibar, his forthcoming book (2009) The Dhow Culture of the Indian Ocean:
Cosmopolitanism, Commerce&Islam, London: C. Hurst&Co. (Dhow: single-masted ship,
esp as used by Arab sailors for coastal voyages/ a lateen-rigged sailing vessel
used by Arabs).

McGill Institute of Islamic Studies is another centre, Islamic economics

researches may be found in the production of this Institute; for example,
reseracher of the Institute Uner Turgay’s article: “Ottoman-Russian Commercial
Rivalry,” was appeared in Varia Turcica, Vol. XV, Special Issue. Istanbul,
Washington, Paris: The ISIS Press, 1991, pp. 59-65; and current project of Dr.
Turgay: International Trade and Socio-economicChange in Eastern Black Sea Coast,
1829-1900. The other studies produced by Canadian scholars in this subject: “Shah
‘Abbas, the English East India Company, and the Cannoneers of Fars” article of
Colin P. Mitchell, faculty member of Dalhouse University, department of history,
it was published in In Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas Expansion. Vol. 24
(2000), No.2, pp. 104-120. Khalid Mustafa Medani, from MCGill, his article: “The
Political Economy of an Islamist State: Sudan” in Political Islam, eds. Joel
Beinin and Joe Stork, eds. University of California Press, 1997. Dr. Miriam Ali-
de-Unzaga, research fellow in School of Social and Cultural Anthropology and
Museum Ethnography of Oxford University gave Veronika Gervers Memorial Lecture
about “Inscriptions in Medieval Textiles: Possible Connections between Fatimid and
Andalusi Pieces” in the department of Near&Middle Eastern Civilizations at the
University of Toronto on October 3, 2008.

As a fact that, Canadian scholars have produced a lot of studies in Islamic

economics history that a lot of Islamic countries could not produce in this
quantity and quality. Humanitarian policy of Canada and Canadian academic
environment are also a hope that much studies in this field will be done in the
future inshaAllah (God willing).