Got some time?: If you do, and I mean, a lot of time, and the inclination to read up on classical Islamic monetary policy, go here.
In brief: Ibn Khaldun, late medieval Islamic scholar and founder of the entire field of historiography, was also something of a supply-side economist! Who knew?


Money 'graph:

F. A. Hayek (1967) attributed to David Hume the "invention" that in its positive aims government was entitled to "no power of coercion and was subject to the same general and inflexible rules which aim at an overall order by creating its negative conditions: peace, liberty, and justice." Centuries before Hume was born, however, the applicability of sharî`ah to government was a seminal concept in Islam. The claim that Islamic society was governed more by situation ethics (see, e.g., Talbi 1981) than by the Qur'an and sunnah contains some truth, but is misleading. Muslim society strayed away from these principles gradually. Initially by constraints on land distribution and expansion of taxation, later in government interference in the economy, and finally in the loss of respect for private property and individual liberty.


The thesis claims the way forward for Muslim societies is lower taxes and the minimalist, libertarian state. Some ideas really are universal!