From the Idea of National Economy to Islamic Economics: In Search of Authenticity for Economic Modernization

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the increasing search for economic modernization in the contemporary Muslim societies and the related contributions in this field. In response to the generation of wealth in the West in the aftermath of Industrial Revolution that gained global scale for capitalism, the search for economic authenticity, which started in the latest stages of Ottoman period, especially in the period of Tanzimat, and still continues in recent times, has a critical importance in guaranteeing political and economic freedom for the contemporary Muslim societies. The discourse of ‘national economy’ in the post-Tanzimat period and Islamic economics discourse in the post-colonialist era, in this respect, correspond to a common search in different decades of the last century in terms of seeking an alternative against capitalism. This study argues that both discourses cannot be thought independent from the development of capitalist stages, especially industrial capitalism and finance capitalism. The national economy discourse developed mainly by Ahmet Midhat and Islamic finance which emerged in the period where financial markets gained a global scale, presented a soft-captialist solution to the existing problems beyond constituting an alternative to capitalism. Due to this, it is inevitable to develop an Islamic economics theory based on an authentic approach that benefits from the experience of national economy rather than adopting approach eclectic to capitalism.