Interrogating the development and conceptual framework of economic thought in the Islamic tradition pertaining to ethical, philosophical, and theological ideas, this book provides a critique of modern Islamic economics as a hybrid economic system. From the outset, Sami Al-Daghistani is concerned with the polyvalent methodology of studying the phenomenon of Islamic economic thought as a human science in that it nurtures a complex plentitude of meanings and interpretations associated with the moral self. By studying legal scholars, theologians, and Sufis in the classical period, Al-Daghistani looks at economic thought in the context of Shari'a's moral law. Alongside critiquing modern developments of Islamic economics, he puts forward an idea for a plural epistemology of Islam's moral economy, which advocates for a multifaceted hermeneutical reading of the subject in light of a moral law, embedded in a particular cosmology of human relationality, metaphysical intelligibility, and economic subjectivity.

Celebrating a "golden age" of travel, this new book retraces the steps of a Grand Tour of South East Asia from the turn of the 20th century to the present day. The Romance of the Grand Tour explores the living heritage of 12 exotic port cities: from Rangoon (Yangon), through the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca and Singapore and the old Dutch East Indies cities of Batavia (Jakarta) and Surabaya, via Bangkok to former Indochina at Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Phnom Penh and Hanoi, through Manila to Hong Kong. Drawing on archival images and accounts as well as present-day photographs and illustrations, the book captures the romance and excitement of these early Grand Tourists, while presenting contemporary scenes and experiences for 21st-century travellers determined to seek out the legacy of a bygone era.