Markets, Measures and Weights in the Letters of Ibn Abi Al-Dunya Al-Baghdadi (d. 281 AH) A Comparative Study

Abstract

The economic and financial aspects are important pillars in the lives of all societies, as they are considered the axis on which many historical events were based throughout the ages. The Arab and Islamic nation has left a great historical legacy distributed in various branches and types of historical knowledge. Economic thought had a share of it, as we find that economic aspects have been found scattered in all and various Islamic codes, including books of interpretation, hadith, jurisprudence, and history. Therefore, we find that our early scholars and historians have embarked on this topic in order to clarify its features.

The letters of Ibn Abi Al-Dunya Al-Baghdadi are letters dominated by the jurisprudential and educational style, but they contained texts on economic and financial aspects between their pages. Most of these letters contained economic and financial aspects that were mentioned by us. They are narrations that dealt with this aspect since the era of prophecy, the Rashidun and Umayyad eras, ending with the Abbasid era.

The term market has been mentioned in many Qur’anic verses and hadiths. Markets were and still are important in the lives of Muslims in general because it is the place where goods and merchandise are exchanged and buying and selling takes place. The narrator gave examples of this word, such as the case of buying and selling in the Ukaz market, which was considered one of the most important markets for Muslims at that time. Islam also took care to organize the economic and financial aspect, including measures and weights, and stressed adherence to them so that everyone would know their rights without violating the rights of others.