Reflections on the institutions of credits and banking in the medieval Islamic Near East

Credit was an important part of medieval trade. Credit was vital to trade and business transactions in both Europe and the Muslim Near East. In the Near East, complex credit institutions developed three to four centuries before they did in Europe. However, though the institutions of the Near East started earlier, they failed to develop as they did in Europe. This paradox is explained by the social structure of the medieval Islamic Near East, specifically the extraordinary importance of status and personal relationships in commercial institutions.