Over the last several decades the Islamic religious movement has steadily gained importance in the Muslim world, manifesting the desire to modify existing institutions so that they conform to the values of traditional Islamic culture. This new book examines the application of such values to modern finance: Islamic banking. It also attempts to address the surprising lack of familiarity with Islamic banking among Western bankers and lawyers. The Author provides a thorough overview of Islamic banking, its devlopmenty, participants, structure, and aims, goes on to study the Islamic legal contracts undelying it, and finally, by way of a cae study of the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt, assesses the financial viability of Islamic banks. He asserts that Arab Islamic banking is a financial system fundamentally different from the system currently dominant throughout the world, and further, is a viable financial phenomenon. The establishment of Islamic banking, which can be seen as a bold new development model for the Muslim world, has necessitated immense intellectual and financial commitments, as well as an empirical approach emphasizing teh adaptation of both modern finance and medieval Islamic law. The text is supplemeted by translations of selected fatwas, and also includes financial information on a large number of Islamic banks.