NOT JUST ALGEBRA

We all know that the Arab Islamic civilization made important contributions to mathematics, science, philosophy and medicine but what is less well know is the contribution to the development of Capitalism.  Fernand Braudel claims that the development of Western Europe was greatly influenced by developments in the Arab World¹:

This image of Islam foreshadows future developments in Europe. The long-distance trade of early European capitalism, carried on by the Italian city-states, was not an inheritance from the Roman Empire. It took over from the great age of Islam in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, from the Islamic civilization which had seen so many industries and products developed for export, and so many economies with thriving foreign trades. The endless sea-voyages, the regular caravans, spoke of an active and efficiently-organized capitalism. Throughout Islam, there were craft guilds, and the changes they underwent (the rise of the master-craftsmen, home-working and craft-working outside the towns) resemble what was to happen in Europe too closely to have been the result of anything but economic logic. There are other resemblances too: there were city-economies which escaped the control of the traditional authorities - Hormuz, the cities on the Malabar coast, rather belatedly Ceuta on the African coast, and even Granada in Spain. These were effectively city-states. And Islam had trading deficits: its purchases from Muscovy, the Baltic, the Indian Ocean, even the Italian cities which quickly put themselves at its service - like Amalfi and Venice - were paid for in gold. In this too, it prefigured European trade, which would also be based on monetary superiority.

¹ "Civilization and capitalism, 15th-18th century, Vol. 2, The wheels of commerce", page 559