Category Archives: Islamic Economics

Central Asian and Middle Eastern Numismatics Seminar

Archaeology and Antiquities, Central Asia, Conferences and Talks, Iran, Islamic Economics, Islamic History, Languages


‘Great Ruler of Sogdiana, of the Tchao-ou Race’/Alram’s ‘Imitationsgruppe V’
Yueh Chih Principality of Sogdiana AR Tetradrachm, 130 BCE – 80 CE

The Fifth Seminar in Central Asian and Middle Eastern Numismatics in Memoriam Boris Kochnev will be held at Hofstra University on Saturday, March 16, 2013.

This seminar is free and open to the public. Hofstra is located in Hempstead, NY, easily accessible from NYC by the Long Island Railroad. For directions click here or here. The seminar will be held in Breslin Hall, room 112. For more information, contact Aleksandr Naymark or Daniel Martin Varisco.

Seminar Program:

10:00 am
Daniel Varisco (Hofstra University)
Opening Remarks

10:15
Vadimir Belyaev (Zeno.ru, Moscow) and Aleksandr Naymark (Hofstra University)
Archer Coins from South Sogdiana (1st – 3rd centuries C.E.)

10:45 pm
Pankaj Tandon (Boston University)
Notes on Alchon Coins

11:15 pm
Waleed Ziad (Yale University)
The Nezak – Turk Shahi Transition:
Evidence from the Kashmir Smast (mid 7th c. C.E.) Continue reading Central Asian and Middle Eastern Numismatics Seminar →

Harvard Arab Weekend

"Arab Spring", Conferences and Talks, Immigration Issues, Islamic Economics



It is our honor, on behalf of the Harvard Arab Alumni Association, the various MENA clubs across campus, and the Arab student body, to welcome you all to the 6th Harvard Arab Weekend, taking place at Harvard University from the 8th through the 11th of November, 2012.

As the largest pan-Arab conference in North America, the Harvard Arab Weekend has prided itself on showcasing a mosaic of perspectives and insights on the most pressing issues in the Arab world. Last year, the Harvard Arab Weekend was commended by the White House as “The Premier Arab World Conference” in North America. This year, we strive to uphold our venerable tradition of engaging discourses and informative debates.

At this critical moment of modern Arab history, and in the midst of the many challenges created by the unprecedented transformations in the Arab world, Arabs, from the Gulf to the Ocean, are posing critical questions about their past, present, and future. While the entire Arab landscape is undergoing a process of re-creation, Arabs look ahead at the future, wondering whether they will be able to sustain what they have achieved after more than a century of struggle. This year’s edition of the Harvard Arab Weekend specifically aspires to tackle these challenges and discuss how Arabs can sustain the “Spring” and avoid reverting back to authoritarianism or falling into chaos. Continue reading Harvard Arab Weekend →

The Wrapped Coin: The Ritual of Coin Giving in the Early and Middle Islamic Period

Archaeology and Antiquities, Conferences and Talks, Islamic Economics, Islamic History


Dirham of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (685-705), minted 699-741

The American Numismatic Society presents a Lecture
The Wrapped Coin: The Ritual of Coin Giving in the Early and Middle Islamic Period

by Stefan Heidemann
Wednesday 7 March 2012
5:30pm Reception
6:00pm Lecture*

The talk will focus on the cultural context of these coins and the custom of using coins, in many cases special issues, as presentation pieces.

Stefan Heidemann is curator of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and visiting professor at the Bard Graduate Center / New York. He studied history, art history and economics in Berlin, Damascus, and Cairo; Ph.D. Free University Berlin 1993; ’93 alumnus of the ANS Graduate Seminar. He became assistant and associate professor at Jena University 1994 to 2010, visiting professorships at Leipzig University 2001-2003. Fellowships include German Research Foundation; Harvard’s Center of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington; Institute of Advanced Studies, Jerusalem, Aga-Khan Program of Islamic Architecture at MIT; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK; and others. Samir-Shamma-Prize of the Royal Numismatic Society for Islamic Numismatics 2005. Cooperation with German, British, French, and Syrian archeological missions, in al-Raqqa, Damascus, Aleppo, Masyaf and other sites. Between 2009 and 2009 he taught at The Bard Graduat Center in New York Islamic Art and Material Culture, and served as Associate Curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2010-2011. Publications include Das Aleppiner Kalifat (1994); Die Renaissance der Städte (2002); Raqqa II: Die islamische Stadt (ed. and author) (2003); He edited one Sylloge of Islamic Coins of the Oriental Coin Cabinet at Collection of Jena University and of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Preceding the lecture
A special ceremony will be held for the donation of a rare and unusual Umayyad silver dirham to the ANS cabinet from long-time ANS Member, Hon. Robert H. Pelletreau Jr. The Hon. Pelletreau will present the coin in honor of Dr. Michael L. Bates, ANS Curator Emeritus of Islamic Coins, in recognition of his many valuable contributions to the field of Islamic numismatics. Dr. Bates will speak briefly about the historical context of the coin and its attribution.

Among his 35 years in Foreign Service, the Hon. Robert H. Pelletreau served as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from February 1994 to January 1997. Prior to that he served as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt (1991-1993), to Tunisia (1987-1991) and to Bahrain (1979-1980).

NOTE: rsvp required to membership@numismatics.org (212) 571-4470 ext 117 government issued photographic i.d. required for entry

Iranian and Central Asian Numismatics

Archaeology and Antiquities, Central Asia, Conferences and Talks, Iran, Islamic Economics


Sogdian coin, 6th century AD, British Museum


The Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies Program at Hofstra University will be hosting a day-long workshop on “Early Iranian and Central Asia Numismatics: In Memoriam Boris Kochnev (1940-2002).” The program will be held in CV Starr Hall, room 109 on Sunday, April 18 from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm. Details of the program are provided below. For more information, please contact Prof. Aleksandr Naymark .

Preliminary program

Session I
11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Michael Bates
(American Numismatic Society, New York, USA)
Surprises from Arab/Sasanian Fars, 640-710

Stefan Heidemann
(Jena University, Germany – Bard College Graduate Center, New York, USA)
A New Iranian Mint for Drahm in Sasanian Style: Isbahan

Konstantin Kravtsov
(Hermitage Museum, Sankt-Petersburg, Russia)
Semidrachms of Farrukhan the Great in the Collection of the State Hermitage Museum Continue reading Iranian and Central Asian Numismatics →

The Merchant Houses of Mocha

Architecture, Books You Should Read, Islamic Economics, Tihama, Yemen

The most important historical port on Yemen’s Red Sea coast is no doubt the old port of Mocha, which gained fame in the West for its association with the Yemen coffee trade. In a new book, The Merchant Houses of Mocha: Trade and Architecture in an Indian Ocean Port, Nancy Um provides a fascinating social history of the trade through this seaport during the Ottoman period. Here is how the book is described on the publisher’s website.

Gaining prominence as a seaport under the Ottomans in the mid-1500s, the city of Mocha on the Red Sea coast of Yemen pulsed with maritime commerce. Its very name became synonymous with Yemen’s most important revenue-producing crop – coffee. After the imams of the Qasimi dynasty ousted the Ottomans in 1635, Mocha’s trade turned eastward toward the Indian Ocean and coastal India. Merchants and shipowners from Asian, African, and European shores flocked to the city to trade in Arabian coffee and aromatics, Indian textiles, Asian spices, and silver from the New World. Continue reading The Merchant Houses of Mocha →

Motoring as a Muslim

Islam in Europe, Islamic Economics

Drive to sell halal car insurance

By Jeremy Grant, The Financial Times, October 19 2008

In the past few months, residents in some parts of London, Leeds, Birmingham and Cardiff in the UK will have noticed a glossy leaflet dropping through the letter box. It looks like any other promotional literature, except for the slogan on the front: “Halal car insurance that’s right for your faith.”

Appeals to a consumer’s religious beliefs are unusual in a sales pitch in the UK and probably unheard of in its car insurance industry. But Principle Insurance Holdings believes the time has come for car insurance aimed at Britain’s 2m Muslims.

Bradley Brandon-Cross, a former GE Capital executive – and non-Muslim – who was recruited to Principle as chief executive, says Islamic finance is growing globally. The UK government has encouraged its use in Britain and many Muslims living in poorer regions of the country have for too long had fewer insurance choices than consumers in better-off areas.

“For a long time, Muslims have not been able to buy insurance products compliant with their beliefs so they have had to make do with products that are not empathetic with those beliefs,” he says. Continue reading Motoring as a Muslim →

In and Out of Aden

Aden, Archaeology and Antiquities, Books You Should Read, Islamic Economics, Islamic Texts, Rasulids, Travel, Yemen

[The following is an excerpt from a recently published historical analysis of the Yemeni port of Aden in the 13th and 14th centuries by Roxani Margariti (Emory University), who reconstructs port life vividly through archival records in the Cairo Genizeh, relevant Arabic texts and archaeological research. This is a fascinating look at one of the most important medieval ports in the Red Sea/Indian Ocean trading network that ultimately linked Europe with the Far East before Portuguese galleons changed the complex equation of global trade.]

by Roxani Eleni Margariti

In the current era of giant container ships, GPS, and e-commerce, a single vessel can carry forty-eight hundred trailer-sized containers of merchandize from Bremen, Germany, to Elizabeth, New Jersey, in a single voyage. The exact position of a ship is knowable at the push of a button and the blink of any eye, and one can place an order one minute and have confirmation of its receipt in the next. It is therefore difficult to grasp the medieval dimensions of dimensions and time. A respectably sized medieval Arab ship held the equivalent of about two trailer-sized containers. Continue reading In and Out of Aden →