Study group “Prohibition of Usury in Christendom and in Islam” (until 2012)

The study group “Prohibition of Usury in Christendom and in Islam” examines the topic of interest and religious prohibitions of usury with a historical-comparative approach. While the canonical prohibition of usury has been redressed in the Western national economies for several centuries, the Islamic prohibition of usury (riba) is increasingly playing a part not only in Arab-oriented countries. An independent sector has developed within global bank management in the past 40 years, the so-called Islamic banking. In the meetings of the study group, original texts concerning Aristotle’s teachings on usury and classical texts by Ibn Rushd (Averroes) will be read. The study group will be concluded in the summer semester 2010 with the reading of modern texts by Muslim authors who, in the course of Islamic banking in particular, revisit the religiously derived prohibition of usury.

Members

external Member

  • Altenburg, Daniel