The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1759-0817.htm
JIABR
12,3
320
Received 3 December 2020
Revised 20 January 2021
Accepted 20 January 2021
Journal of Islamic Accounting and
Business Research
Vol. 12 No. 3, 2021
pp. 320-339
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1759-0817
DOI 10.1108/JIABR-12-2020-0364
The ancestral Andalusian water
courts: a resilient model for
contemporary Islamic banking
and finance
Pedro Antonio Martín-Cervantes, Salvador Cruz Rambaud and
María del Carmen Valls Martínez
Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to examine the functioning and organizational structure of the historic
Andalusian water courts, institutions of Islamic origin whose basic model should be considered in light of the
regulation of modern Islamic banking and finance.
Design/methodology/approach – The methodology of this study has been focused on the
contextualization of al-Andalus during the European Middle Ages, highlighting its enormous contributions
and implications in the creation of Western knowledge. In the same way, the ordinances of the Castilian-
Aragonese kings, aimed at the persistence of the Andalusian water courts in the Southeast of Spain after the
Muslim period, have been used as the main sources of reference.
Findings – This research has detected that the main features of the Andalusian water courts, i.e. integrity,
democracy, transparency, credibility, moral authority or simplicity (among many others), can be conveniently
replicated in the scope of the current Islamic banking and finance.
Research limitations/implications – Several implications can be derived from this study: first, it
highlights the total resilience of a regulatory model that “it was already there,” given by the history of the
Andalusian civilization. This model will be always welcomed by the Muslim community in Western countries
as it is a matter of regulating themselves according to the way their ancestors did. The main limitation faced
by this research is the relative scarcity of original sources, which is justifiable given that most of the royal
ordinances come from the 13th century, having unfortunately lost a good number of sources over time.
Originality/value – This paper seeks a feasible alternative to the controversy arising from the resolution
of possible disputes in Islamic banking and finance taking into account that Western judges do not know (nor
do they have to) the principles on which this discipline is based. The application of the historical Andalusian
model would allow the creation of an independent jurisdiction, while subordinated to the established juridic
power, without contravening the principle of “jurisdictional unity.” The last element that gives an added value
to this research is spreading the achievements of the Andalusian culture and civilization, unjustly omitted by
a great part of the existing literature.
Keywords Resilience, Andalusian water courts, Contemporary Islamic banking and finance,
Cultural syncretism, Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The oldest European legal institutions are not rooted in the Roman law, the Anglo-Saxon
customary rules or the Napoleonic codification, but are directly descended from the
Pedro A. Martin-Cervantes would like to thank Pr. Abdul Azim Islahi for having given him, during a
now distant 2017, some brief indications about the study of Islamic Banking and Finance: the most
important element is respect and rigor, guidelines that I will never forget.
Sharīʿah, a circumstance that even today remains unknown to a large number of Western Contemporary
scholars: we are referring to two archaic institutions of Andalusian origin: the Water Court Islamic
of Valencia and the Council of Wise Men of Murcia. Both regulatory bodies have been
carrying out their functions for more than 700 years without any interruption, with hardly
banking and
notable changes in terms of their solemnity, objectives and protocols, being protected by the finance
custom and the general acceptance of their judgments, which are the result of the absolute
credibility of their resolutions.
For these reasons, in 2009, the intergovernmental committee of the United Nations 321
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization included these two organizations in the
“Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” based on the moral
authority and respect enjoyed by its members, who are democratically elected to resolve the
disputes they face according to an oral, rapid and transparent process, characterized by their
complete impartiality (Sala, 2013). However, both institutions must be considered more than
simple elements of a historical or folkloric nature as, in our view, replicating their basic
structure and operational mechanism can contribute to solve one of the most important
problem, if not the greatest, faced by Islamic banking and finance in Western countries: the
feasible conflicts between Western jurisdiction (secular) and the Islamic jurisdiction,
exclusively based on religious precepts.
The replication of the Andalusian water courts must be highlighted as a viable model in
the regulation of Islamic banking and finance in Western countries based on two
fundamental premises: on the one hand, they suppose resilient regulatory bodies of clearly
Islamic origin, as can be historically confirmed (Fairén Guillén, 2010) and, on the other hand,
they allow the configuration of a “floating,” subordinate and, at the same time, independent
jurisdiction, in which the basic principle of jurisdictional unity, a key element in Western
countries legislation, is never contravened: in other words, the Andalusian regulatory
scheme can settle once and for all the legal conflict derived from confronting a civil and a
regulatory jurisdiction in the area of Islamic banking and finance.
Note that contextualization has been an essential element of this research, for this reason,
it has been duly structured according to the following sections. First, Section 2 analyzes to
what extent the contributions of Islamic thought influenced the construction of the Western
cultural heritage, making special emphasis on al-Andalus, people sociologically and
anthropologically differentiated from medieval Europe (Caro Baroja, 1957; Imamuddin,
1981; Gil, 2002), which served as a nexus between East and West. Section 3 describes the
material and immaterial functions of water in Islamic culture, its strong symbolic character
and the factors that led to its being specially regulated by this civilization according to
guidelines based on sustainability or respect for the environment. In this sense, Section 4
summarizes the historical development of the Andalusian water courts and how they were
incorporated after the Muslim period into the Spanish legal system in the kingdoms of
Aragon and Castile while continuing to use an approach directly adopted from the Sharīʿah.
Section 5 establishes the main defining features of these tribunals, their basic legal
regulations and how the replication of the basic scheme of the Andalusian water courts can
assist in the resolution of disputes in contemporary Islamic banking and finance because of
the advantages derived from the processes judged according to this centuries-old model.
Finally, Section 6 renders the main conclusions of this study.

Contribution of the Islamic civilization to the cultural growth of Western

societies
The interest of Western scholars in Islamic banking and finance is far from being a recent
phenomenon subject to the economic emergence of the Middle East countries or the
JIABR relatively recent introduction of this discipline in most of the Occidental societies. Looking
12,3 back to the 19th century, grosso modo, we roughly find two major trends among Western
researchers when it comes to analyzing Islamic culture and, therefore, Islamic banking and
finance: a first trend that examines in a scarcely rigorous way the historical, economic and
socio-cultural aspects that define Islam, contemplating them from an uncertain and unjust
ethical-moral superiority (Irving, 1849) or denoting a limited knowledge of Islam and its
322 primary sources and idiosyncrasy (Iqbal and Mirakhor, 2011) and another trend, to which
this research work intends to join that, from the respect and deep analysis (Arnold, 1896),
considers that the defining characteristics of Islam ended up generating a sophisticated
society which would reach times of splendor, not only in the strictly economic area but also
in the cultural.
This second tendency would come to consider that the world, in a general sense as it is
known today, is the result of an incessant transfer of multidisciplinary knowledge between
Islam and the West, highlighting the development of a great number of areas in the economy
and finance, ancestrally promoted from several fields of Islamic banking and finance.
Aghnides (1916) is undoubtedly one of these and it represents, to the best of our knowledge,
the oldest work focused on Islamic banking and finance signed by Western authors. This
manuscript, still practically unknown to the general public, in our opinion should be the
style guide for any Westerner scholar who for the first time is instructed in the Islamic
Finances, as in it is deeply evidenced what constitutes the main difference with regard to the
conventional finance (also named “Western” or “secular” finances): in Islamic banking and
finance, the financial system is completely subordinated to the omnipresent mandate of a
law of divine origin (the Sharīʿah), while in conventional finance, it seems that it is the civil
law which is subordinated to finance or to the temporal casuistic of the financial systems.
Islamic banking and finance are more than a “system that prohibits interest (rib
a)” (Iqbal
and Mirakhor, 2011), they also represent the supremacy of the collective interest over
individual interests (As-Sadr, 1984), the strengthening of human brotherhood, cooperation
and assistance (Abu Sa’ud, 2002) – hence, the sharing of risks by the community (Abdul-
Rahman, 2010) – or the advocacy of equitable and solidarity-based distribution of natural
resources (Hardy, 2001), unaware in front of the arbitrariness and injustice of the markets as
the sole mechanism in the allocation of productive factors. For the sake of achieving these
objectives (maq
asid al-Sharī’ah; Asutay, 2010), historically Muslim societies, from al-
Andalus to Indonesia, built a complex network of legal systems governed by the Sharīʿah
(Belabes, 2017), with genuine ethical-moral codes, while developing an Islamic axiological
component (Alam, 1991), according to which the human being was exonerated from the
tyranny of risk associated with speculation and chance, in the same way, that a series of
legal channels were established to regulate those risks concomitant with the real economy
and commercial practices (Belabes, 2017).
To some extent, the so-called “conventional finance” could be considered an extension or
revision of Islamic banking and finance. In effect, Heck (2006) suggests that the latter, even
since the times of Charlemagne, are present in “the roots of Capitalism”, a hypothesis that is
amplified if we take into account how Fibonacci, considered by Westerners as the father of
financial mathematics, from the Maghrebi city of Bejaia (Bijayah), decided to replace in
mercantile transactions the rigid Roman numeration by another one extremely open to the
quantification of the economic-financial phenomena (Askari et al., 2009; Scott and Marketos,
2014), the Arabic-Hindu (Liber Abaci, 1202), explicitly taking as a model the commercial uses
and customs of the Muslim merchant cities bordering the central Mediterranean shores.
In what could be assimilated to a symbiotic (or better syncretic) process, during a first
phase, an uncountable number of uses and financial instruments were adopted by the still-
nascent European economies that, with the passage of time, were taken over as their own. Contemporary
Among these we would have, just naming a few: cheque (sakk), funduq (“shopping centers” – Islamic
predecessors of the Venetian fondacci), hawalah (letter of credit), mo’unah (a kind of private
bank), mathessep (muhtasib), mukhatarah (muhatarah), mudarabah (commenda), suftajah (bills
banking and
of exchange) and many others (Islahi, 2005, p. 81; Islahi, 2011, p. 312). However, this sharing of finance
knowledge was not limited to the commercial sphere given that Islamic culture allowed the
philosophical structures of thought to be shared throughout Europe, facilitating the arrival of
the Greek-Latin philosophical legacy. According to Gonzalez (2013b):
323
This work of executor of the Greek intellectual heritage was assumed by the civilization that
emerged in the Islamic world of the East. In such a way that this cultural contact between the
Greek heritage and the Arab-Islamic culture gave rise, among others, to a current of thought that
assimilated and reinterpreted Greek philosophy from Muslim postulates and that later permeated
European culture, especially that of the Middle Ages: the falsafah.
As Calvo (1996) points out, with the exception of logic, whose elementary rudiments were
already known in Europe since Boethius, the Aristotelian philosophy remained unknown
until the 12th century, that is, until the translations, the commentaries and the
interpretations of the classics of Greek thought that began to arrive in Europe through the
“Islamic route” (O’Leary, 2015), describing a completely different perspective than that
exhibited by the underlying negationism of the “Schumpeterian hiatus” (Schumpeter, 2006,
p. 70). The contribution of the Muslim researchers of those times was transcendental, if not
essential, for the creation of the future cultural identity of the West countries, in the same
way that they had a wide repercussion on the economic thought, fundamentally of the
Scholastic philosophy, reaching its maximum peak toward the 13th century, defined by
Chenu (1944) as the “economic and spiritual revolution.”
As a summary, in Figure 1, this process is schematized: it can be observed that the
Islamic falsafah is enriched by Al-Kindī and his closest collaborators (“The circle of Al

Figure 1.
Contributions of
Islamic falsafah to the
formation of the
Western
philosophical thought
Sources: Own elaboration from Islahi (2005, p. 98); González (2013b, p. 72); D’Ancona (2019)
JIABR Kindī”; D’Ancona, 2019), initiating the golden age of Muslim philosophical thought
12,3 (Gannagé, 2017), in which the Islamic teachings are contextualized and put into the
perspective of the Greek classics. Undoubtedly, the thought of Ibn Rush (Averroes) would be
key, acting as a transmission belt between classical culture and Scholasticism, advocating
the following idea, one of the essential bases of his philosophical doctrine: “All societies
must be regulated by (fair) laws, these being the ultimate result of the will of an honest
324 legislator.”
Therefore, within this unique framework, the faith is presented as the sole guarantor of
social order, preserving political-social relations and economic activities. It should be noted
that in the case of Spain and, to a lesser extent, Portugal, the imprint of the Averroism was
even more lasting than in the rest of Europe, with the existence of a late Scholastic
movement, “The School of Salamanca,” formed by a group of Spanish thinkers of the 15th–
16th centuries who aroused an uncontained admiration by renowned contemporary liberal
economists such as M.N. Rothbard (Ahmad, 1995) or F. A. von Hayek (Grice-Hutchinson,
1952).
However, the titanic labor of the numerous Islamic contributions to the formation and
subsequent development of the Western philosophical thought has been habitually omitted
by certain sectors of the contemporary literature, a fact that is especially significant in
Schumpeter’s “History of Economic Analysis” (Schumpeter, 2006) which, as Islahi (1991, p. 8)
states, it possibly deserves a thorough revision given the relative scientific rigor derived
from the consideration of a gap (or “hiatus”) between the Greek classics and the
Scholasticism: accepting such a philosophical-cultural vacuum it might be derived from the
unjustified denial or omission of the real meaning of the Arab-Islamic culture for late
medieval Europe. In a perspective completely antagonistic to Rothbard (1995), Schumpeter’s
works also doubts on the real importance of the School of Salamanca, even denying its
existence:
But the core of this school was made up of late scholastics, many of the most eminent of whom
happened to be Spaniards; and there was nothing specifically Spanish about their teaching; the
rest of Spanish sixteenth-century economists, [. . .] , do not form a school (Schumpeter, 2006, p.
161).
In a well-remembered cite by one of the most eminent members of the School of Salamanca,
D. de Soto (Tittenbrun, 2011, p. 6), it can be inferred how the influence of Averroes is evident:
“The price of goods is not determined by their nature, but by how (they) serve humanity,”
with the prevalence of the idea of the collective good of society as a whole being placed
before any other preliminary precept (Mufti, 2017). The coordinates of the Averroist thought
are equally evident in the conceptualization of the economic thought present in the work of
T. Aquinas (Langholm, 2007), as well as in the latent economicism in the bulk of Scholastic
philosophers, beginning from the term indigentia (Grice-Hutchinson, 1952, p. 82; Langholm,
1998, pp. 83–84,87,110,129), that is to say, the ultimate reason according to which Ibn Rushd
explains the target for economic transactions: “scarcity is the motive that pushes economic
agents to undertake exchanges” (Gonzalez, 2013b, p. 69).
In this transmission of knowledge from East to West, it is clear that al-Andalus would
play a crucial role (Chejne, 1980), serving as a sounding board echoing the achievements of a
cultured and enterprising civilization that, in all fairness, would become mythical, especially
after the dissemination of Al-Maqqari of Tlemcen’s works (Rubiera and de Epalza, 2007).
Only in the field of finance, properly said the Kit
ab Ahk
am al-Sūq de (Yahya Ibn Umar al-
Kinani, 9th century), it represents a treatise that initiates the reflection on the perennial
diatribe of intervening or allowing the prices of a given market to fluctuate freely. According
to Islahi (2005, p. 20), this manuscript supposes the first analysis exclusively centered on the Contemporary
study of the joint dynamics of supply and demand of prices, openly criticizing the behavior Islamic
of the monopolies to the detriment of society.
To get an idea of how influential the Andalusian legacy was in medieval Europe, it is
banking and
enough to observe how one of the symbols of Western culture, “The Divine Comedy” by D. finance
Alighieri is based, as it was demonstrated in detail by Asín Palacios (1919), on several Sufi
sources and, very especially, on Ibn Arabi’s symbolism (Futūb
at). Likewise, other sources
pointed out that Alighieri was directly inspired on the Islamic culture (Asín Palacios, 1927), 325
which is by no means a minor circumstance if any researcher wants to know in depth the
true transcendence of Islamic civilization in Europe’s cultural heritage.

Fundamental role of water in the Islamic civilization

In all cultures, it is usually found as a common denominator that the function of water is the
generation and guarantor of life, but in Islamic civilization, it is even more important: it is an
element expressly taken into account by the Qu’r
an, in which it is mentioned more than 60
times (Hamid, 2017) that, at times, it can be quantified as a tangible asset from a merely
economic point of view. It is undoubtedly an element of singular transcendence in the
Islamic faith, which in many circumstances and contexts is consubstantially attached to a
certain symbolic-semiotic content. As an example, in the following Qur’anic
ayah, the role of
water in the genesis of all living beings is extolled:
“And Allah has created

Every animal from water:

Of them there are some

That creep on their bellies;

Some that walk on two legs:

And some that walk on four.

Allah creates what He wills;

For verify Allah has power

Over all things.” (Qu’r
an, 24:45).

It could be stated that with water, or rather because of water, this civilization was born, as
documented in the Islamic tradition, glossed over from an unquantifiable number of hadīth,
Qur’anic commentaries (tafsir) or in the stories of the prophets (Qisas al-Anbiy
a), some of
which were the work of Andalusian sages such as Ibn Mutarrif al-Taraf (Tottoli, 1998).
There is no doubt that the mythical epic of Hagar and Ishmael, mother and son, abandoned,
wandering helplessly through the desert in search of water, until the miraculous discovery
of the Well of Zamzam (Castillo, 2007) is an unequivocal proof both of the Arab people’s
eagerness to survive and of their complete admiration for the liquid element, in an
environment characterized by its total scarcity.
The simple possession of water, like that of any other item of whatsoever nature, is
conditioned by the concept of “property” according to the Qu’r
an, not so much for the mere
JIABR fact of possessing it by itself, but in the delimitation of what is the explicit function of the
12,3 human being in terms of compliance with the Koranic laws. In this sense, it could speak of
“subrogated private property” given that for the Qu’r
an, everything on Earth belongs to
Allah, with man behaving like a mere trustee of the natural resources that she/he
administers and the goods she/he possesses before Allah, to whom she/he must always give
due account of the righteousness of her/his acts by applying a divine law, the Sharīʿah. This,
326 one of the main pillars in the conceptualization of property in Islam (Askari et al., 2009), does
not establish any kind of obstacle to the right to private property, as long as it is exercised
within the ethical channels firmly marked by the Qu’r
an (Hunt-Ahmed, 2013).
Objectively, water has a fundamental value for every Muslim, destined to the
achievement of certain ends, not only materials but also spirituals (Martínez, 2006), being
precisely the accurate legislation ad hoc of this element of dual nature one of the factors of
growth of the Muslim societies from their origins. From an exclusively material perspective,
Montaner (2008) illustrates the elemental regulation to which water is subject in Islam, just
as it was in al-Andalus, a society in which more than 500 years ago such current aspects as
environmental pollution or the negative influence of contamination in urban population
centers were already legislated (Martínez, 2006):
Water is conceived as an element of reward or sanction, however the right of any person,
regardless of their religion, to drink water to quench their thirst and water their animals is legally
recognized. But in addition, Muslim laws (Sharī’ah) recognize three other rights, based on the
possibility of private ownership of water and its use as irrigation: the right to rent it, the right to
sell it and the right to mortgage it.
In the scrupulous regulation of water (Martos, 2003), as in the regulation of any other natural
resource, there underlies a concept of economic efficiency that is unique to Islam (El-Ashker
and Wilson, 2006, p. 41), related to both consumption (isr
ab) and the production of goods
(tabzīr) and in which, under a concept that is also characteristic of “social justice,” it is urged
that in an equitable manner, the population be covered in its minimum vital needs. For this
reason, water legislation was always a constant in Islamic law in general terms and, very
particularly, in Andalusian law (Martínez, 2006). On the other hand, the technicalization of
agriculture, in which water was always the protagonist in terms of its extraction,
canalization and distribution, was the other great factor in the development of Islamic
societies, so that, on a global level, it is because of Islamic agronomy (fil
aha) the passage
from subsistence agriculture to scientific-technical agriculture (Gil, 2002). In this process,
which would be several centuries ahead of J. Tull’s British Agricultural Revolution,
Andalusian agronomists would play an essential role given that their treatises on agronomy
(“Books of fil
aha”; Fitzwilliam-Hall, 2011) provided the technical structures and knowledge
for the definitive expansion of European agriculture (Alvarez de Morales, 2002).
Scott (1904) stated that the Andalusian agrarian structure was “the most complex, the
most scientific, the most perfect, ever devised by the ingenuity of man,” a statement that is
not exaggerated if we consider that in the Andalusian agronomy, treaties other disciplines
are combined, such as economics (ilm tadbir al-manzil; Islahi, 2005, p. 15), philosophy,
medicine, pharmacopeia, zootechnics or literature. Consequently, the Andalusian
agronomists of the 10th–14th centuries already glimpses the prototype of the Renaissance
man, eager to bring together any kind of scientific knowledge. Ibn Luyun (Almería, 1282–
1349/681–750), poet and philosopher who frequently glossed over the Greek-Latin classics
(Anaxagoras, Aristotle, Columella, Democritus, Empedocles or Galen, among others),
represents the last and perhaps the maximum exponent of the Andalusian agronomy school,
in which names such as Ibn Bass
al, al-Tighnarī, Ibn al-Aww
am or Ibn Abī al-Jaw
ad also
stood up.
 It should be noted that the contributions of Andalusian agronomists would have the Contemporary
following effects: on the one hand, as previously indicated, it made feasible to evolve from a Islamic
subsistence economy to another highly technological one, in which the sustenance of the
population was entirely guaranteed. This degree of technicalization would gradually arrive
banking and
to Europe, still anchored in the late Roman means of production and still lacking an efficient finance
and stable economy, if compared with the standards of growth achieved in al-Andalus,
contributing decisively to their economic and social welfare (Nuez, 2002). Similarly,
improvements in the means of agricultural production allowed the creation of surpluses that
327
would be channeled into trade, satisfying the inherent commercial vocation of the Arab
civilization. But even more important to highlight would be the parallel accumulation of
capitals that, in the same way, would lead to the generation of an “early capitalism”
(Koehler, 2014), alien to speculation and governed by rules diametrically opposed to what
would later direct the guidelines of European capitalism, the Sharīʿah.
The advances mentioned (technical, economic or social) in no case would have taken
place if it had not been, precisely, for the successful regulation of water, a fact that is even
more remarkable in Andalusian society (Martos, 2003). Below we detail the fundamental
elements that characterize the Andalusian water courts, institutions still in force,
reminiscent of that time which should be taken as a reference on several of the challenges
currently faced by the contemporary Islamic banking and finance.

Andalusian water courts that still remain in force

Without reaching the exorbitant aridity of the Arabian Peninsula, the southeastern area of
the Iberian Peninsula presents a meager annual rainfall regime, a basic element to which
should be added the non-existence of rivers with a sufficiently significant flow to be
effectively transferred to agricultural use. Notwithstanding the above, on the basins of these
extremely short and zigzagging rivers that run between shallow and stony soils, Andalusian
societies were able to generate authentic orchards in which water, far from being scarce,
became a relatively abundant resource, being the object of a series of singularly effective
irrigation laws. The efficacy of the Islamic institutions created around the water was such,
that some of them were not dismantled by the new settlers of the Spaniard East but were
protected and preserved, following a subordinate and independent jurisdiction which has
been maintained until nowadays.
In the Kingdom of Aragon, the promoter of these measures would be the King James I,
the conqueror who was obstinate in perpetuating the regulatory Andalusian institutions of
irrigation in his kingdom as well as the knowledge of the Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) in this
matter. In effect, at that time, the Islamic written sources on irrigation were the main
legislative reference, at the same time that they coexisted with other auxiliary regulations in
use by the Muslim peasants of the area, of mainly oral transmission (sam’a), which would be
codified after the conquest of the Kingdom of Valencia in 1238 (Martínez, 2015).
Essentially, two measures were taken by the Aragonese king to safeguard the productive
Andalusian agricultural structure (Fairén Guillén, 2010) created into the Turia River (Wadi
al-Abyad), given that the new settlers completely lacked the technical and legal knowledge
necessary to keep the production of the farmlands: it was recognized that Muslims would
continue to regulate the water disputes according to their own rules and traditions; and in
the same way, they were granted with the competence of imposing penalties and sanctions,
also according to their own customs:
“[. . .] e que prenats aquelles aygues segons que antigament es e fo stablit e acostumat en temps de
sarrahins.”
JIABR “[. . .] and let those waters be taken as in ancient times it was made and established in the times of
the Saracens.”
12,3
(Aureum Opus Privilegiorum Civitatis et Regni Valentie; Fol. 2 vto. Valencia, 1238).

“[. . .] de exhigant et extorqueant poenas constitutas in consuetudine.”

328 “[. . .] punishments constituted in accordance with the tradition must be demanded and
promulgated.”
(Aureum Opus Privilegiorum Civitatis et Regni Valentie; Fol. XI vto. Morella, 1250).
Extending this juridic approach, a few generations later, King James II of Aragon would
come to act as the guarantor of the interests of the Muslim population subject to the
irrigation system on the outskirts of Valencia (Martínez, 2015), especially in those cases in
which their rights were undermined by an intermediate jurisdiction (nominally, “El
Procurador del Reino”), which often interfered on the normal development of the irrigation
system. Meanwhile, in Murcia, a city in the neighboring Kingdom of Castile, it was also
decided to preserve the Islamic institutions related to the irrigation of the orchards based on
a rallied system in which water could never be privatized against the interests of the peasant
community (Martínez, 2005, p. 25).
Thus, in 1266, King Alfonso X of Castile established a series of privileges for the
Andalusian agrarian population of Murcia based on the particularity of choosing,
periodically, two men of exceptional conduct and morals (omes bonos; “wised men”) as
mediators in any dispute resulting from the irrigation of those lands (Montaner, 2008):
“[. . .] escojan cada anno dos omes bonos que fagan limpiar los açarbes mayores de la huerta, e los
jueces e la justicia tomen jura deellos en concejo que lo fagan bien e lealmientre.”

“[. . .] each year choose two men of integrity to clean up the great azarbes of the Huerta, and let the
judges and justice take an oath from them as long as they do it well and loyally.”
Those two men chosen by the community, enjoyed its total confidence as they were
considered both men of proven honesty and perfect connoisseurs of Andalusian irrigation
legislation, so it is not very difficult to infer that their duties were similar to those carried out
by the q
adī, from whom they were historically descended, being also called, in parallel to the
Muslim custom, “lords of the ditches” (sahib al saqiya; Martínez, 2005).
Certainly, neither the Aragonese nor the Castilian kings were motivated by benevolence
but by mere practicality, given the intrinsic value of water in that context. More specifically,
their inspiration for the maintenance of the Andalusian legal system was perhaps
conditioned by the perception of the value of P. I. Olivi, a scholastic philosopher
contemporary of the King James II, who was particularly known to be in favor of increasing
prices in a context marked by scarcity (Islahi, 2005, p. 31). Concerning the value, Olivi stated
that it depends on three fundamental factors (Gonzalez, 2013a): scarcity (or raritas); the
objective utility or capacity that a good has to satisfy needs (or virtuositas); and, above all,
the subjective utility or desire that a person has to consume a good (or complacibilitas).
According to these three factors applied to water in a scarce environment, it is not at all
strange that the Hispanic regents did everything possible to maintain in their respective
kingdoms the Andalusian legal regulations on irrigation which had given such excellent
results for centuries.
Although it is known that Jaime I of Aragon promoted the maintenance of the
Andalusian water law in several towns, the data related to his ordinances that have reached
the present time are quite scarce (Hinojosa, 2002; Martínez, 2015), in the same way that it Contemporary
would also be necessary to point out that the sources coming from the Kingdom of Castilla Islamic
(Murcia) are even more limited, which fortunately has not prevented its uninterrupted
functioning during nearly a millennium. Since the Valencia Water Court is the one with the
banking and
greatest availability of data and historical sources and because, in our opinion, it represents finance
the institution that has faithfully maintained the Arab-Andalusian tradition that gave rise to
(Mellado, 1855), we have focused our research in this institution which already served as
admiration in the 19th century for many visitors to Valencia, such as S.C. Markham
329
(Markham, 1867), who was able to observe its functioning in situ:
All owe their origins, their rules and customs by which they were guided, to the former Arab
legislators of the peninsula and have worked with perfect harmony over a thousand years; also, in
some cases, they have been expanded and improved in modern times. It is probable that in Roman
times there were some, but few, irrigation works in this region when Spanish agriculture was
represented by Lucio Columela; but this is not certain and the fame of the Spanish Arabs is due to
the fact of having instituted a system, by which, rocky deserts and dry valleys of the peninsula
became fanned orchards and fertile valleys.

Organizational structure of the Water Court of Valencia

Before analyzing in-depth the structure and functions of this tribunal, it is necessary to
highlight its enormous anthropological links with al-Andalus, more than evident proof of the
undeniable influence of this culture in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula.
Undoubtedly, the anthropological and socio-cultural aspects of this institution verify its
Islamic origin, a fact that was already contrasted in the 19th century by several scholars
(Jaubert de Passa, 1823; Borrull y Vilanova, 1828; Jaubert de Passa, 1844; Mellado, 1855;
Markham, 1867; Davillier, 1874) against a minority tendency represented by Ribera y
Tarrago (1928) who, obstinately and not properly grounded in historical events, on the one
hand, misinterpreted the true nature of this court (Glick, 1988) and, on the other, denied what
was irrefutable in the light of literature: a direct relationship between this organization and
Andalusian civilization.
There is a myriad of Andalusian toponyms in this area such as Rascanya, Mestalla,
Massanassa, Favara, Algiros and Al-Mazil (Caro Baroja, 1990; Sala, 2013), as well as many
other mercantile and agricultural terms and uses that are used nowadays (Sala, 2013).
Delving even deeper into the perennial anthropological component of the water court, it can
be observed in its ceremonial protocol a symbolism that the tradition of these lands claims to
come from al-Andalus times. To begin with, the Tribunal meets at 12:00 noon in one of the
doors of the Valencian dome (at the “door of the apostles”), exactly the same place where it
had been meeting for more than 700 years ago, as that point is where the Aljama Mosque of
Valencia was originally located. It is believed that this is the same place from which the q
adī
of the old Valencian medina (Balansiya) imparted justice publicly following the mandates of
the Sharīʿah. In this sense, the members of the Tribunal wear long black ceremonial tunics
that seem to recall those worn by the Andalusian ulama
.
The sessions of the Court are held every Thursday. Note that, according to this centenary
tradition, this day specifically corresponds to the “day of the trial” (as the Murtian omes
bonos court, see Montaner, 2008), equally at 12 noon (“the hour of the beginning”), when the
Sun is at its zenith, given that this fact meant ancestrally for the Valencian peasants the
implicit renewal derived of the change of the day. It is also worth mentioning a ritual that
nowadays has fallen into disuse: in quite distant times, the maximum authority of the Court
granted the word to those present, no longer with his hands, but with his feet, in accordance
JIABR with how it is done by “the great lords and doctors of Muslim law in the desert” (Huarte,
12,3 2006, p. 192).
In relation to the knowledge of the organization and functionality of the Water Court of
Valencia in modern times, as an independent institution subject to an exclusive procedural
regulation, the prolific contribution of J. Fairén Guillén is fundamental. In chronological
order, Fairén Guillén (1978) analyses how the sentences are taken by this regulatory
330 organization do not contravene the principle of jurisdictional unity. In the same way, Fairén
Guillén (1985) specifies the scope of its sanctioning regime (“contempt of court”) while
Fairén Guillén (1988) highlights the main differentiating features of the Court. By his
part, Fairén Guillén (1989) analyzes its present and immediate future perspectives. Equally,
Fairén Guillén (2003) makes a brief schematic review of its regulatory principles and Fairén
Guillén (2010) focuses on what is perhaps its main characteristic: the effectiveness of the
principle of orality.
As a whole, the intricate hydric structure of the Valencian farmlands is regulated by
different irrigator communities named “acequias”’ (s
aqiya) entrusted of watering the city
(Fairén Guillén, 2010), depending on whether they are located on the old left bank of the
Turia River (Tormos, Rascanya and Mestalla) or on the old right bank (Cuart, Benacher-
Faitanar, Mislata, Favara and Rovella). Note that the numerous public works that over time
have reconditioned the course of the Turia River as it passes through Valencia, have not
served at all to alter this fixed order.
Each “acequia” is represented by a “síndico,” an individual in charge of enforcing the
interests of the irrigators corresponding to each of the eight communities, who is also
assigned to the task of materializing the sentences taken by the Court. Likewise, all
“acequia” has an “alguacil” (al-wa
zr) who diligently observes whether there have been any
acts that can be denounced to the institution, for instance: water theft in times of shortage,
breakages in infrastructures, unjustified alterations in irrigation shifts and throwing water
into neighboring ditches with the aim of damaging other people’s crops. The processes
initiated by the Court, in which the vernacular language used is Valencian, are characterized
by their extreme speed and economy, adapting to the urgent nature of the decisions required
by the irrigators for the normal development of agricultural activity. Fairén Guillén (1978)
distinguishes three phases on which the operation of the Court is governed, which are
summarized below.

Preparation of the oral (or instructional) trial

The complaints about alleged infringements are filed by the bailiff of the corresponding
“acequia” or by any of its private users. From this moment, the “síndico” of the respective
“acequia” will carry out an investigation which necessarily may not last more than one week
(from Thursday to Thursday). Normally, he must carry out an ocular investigation
(“visura”) either alone, or accompanied by the ditch’s experts (“veedores”). If he finds that
the complaint is in line with reality, he can take precautionary measures to prevent the
damage from being prolonged, informing both the Court and the interested parties, who are
then summoned to the Valencian water institution.

Appearance of the denounced

Those accused of having committed an infraction harmful to the community must be
present on the Thursday following the summons, being called by the Court following an
established order by default: from the first “acequia” where the River Turia arrives to the
last one. If the complainant was a bailiff (equivalent in this context to the public prosecutor’s
office), the Court grants him the word first and the respondent can access to his defense act,
before the members of the institution deliberate in public and in a low voice, almost in Contemporary
silence, to preserve the privacy of decisions as well as the respect of the denounced. Islamic
The sentence is also made public orally and for its record, is embodied in writing in an
act of protocol signed jointly by the secretary of the Court and the bailiff of the
banking and
corresponding “acequia.” As a sign of the proven independence and impartiality of this finance
regulatory body, the “síndico” of each community (instructor) takes a seat among the other
judges but during the process, he has no voice or vote as he can only speak when authorized
by the court president (thus distinguishing the separation between instructor and decision- 331
maker).

Execution of the sentence

The sentence can be executed in two ways: by the administrative channel (very rarely) or by
applying the ordinances of each “acequia,” that is, in a coercive manner by momentarily
suppressing the access to water of the defendant that the Water Court of Valencia considers
guilty of having committed any type of punishable infraction.
According to Fairén Guillén (1978), the success of the processes judged by the Water
Tribunal lies in the fact that they are carried out entirely orally, in an uninterrupted,
concentrated and public act, extremely quickly (one week) and at a fairly low cost. In the
event of having committed an infringement, the public discredit weighs considerably more
heavily before all the members of the community than the economic penalty itself. The
acceptance of this institution is such that it is assumed that any sentence handed down by
the institution has to be a priori fair (hence they are unappealable). In this way, a strong
principle of credibility and mutual trust has been generated which can be summarized
according to the testimony of Jaubert de Passa (1844):
No soldier is seen to protect the Court, no doorman, no lawyer or solicitor to defend the parties; the
auditorium forms a circle around the banks and a deep silence announces that justice can be
enforced without the help of force [. . .].

Basic scheme of the Water Court of Valencia applied to the current Islamic
banking and finance
The idea of extrapolating the original Water Court of Valencia scheme, in purity, is not
entirely new. In the 19th century, Jaubert de Passa (1823) proposed to mimic its functional
structure to be applied as a reference in the water regulation of the French Roussillon.
Equally, our research work suggests replicating the operational structure of this court for
the regulation of Islamic banking and finance in those countries where the Muslim
population is not a majority, and where Islamic and Western finances coexist under a same
legal framework. As it has been pointed out, this tribunal assumes its own legal statute
within a given single jurisdiction, that is, in a certain sense it would be referring to a
“floating legislation” by establishing an exception to the principle of the “unique
jurisdiction.” Under this principle, one of the fundamental pillars of the Western legal
systems emerged in the liberal-bourgeois revolutions of the 19th century that no jurisdiction
can exist outside the jurisdictional power that is entrusted, solely and exclusively to the
judges and magistrates who are members of the “official” judicial branch. This is the scheme
on which the Spaniard legislative system is based, as well as in the rest of the Western
nations with very few nuances whether they follow the precepts of the Continental law (the
systematic codification of laws) or of the Anglo-Saxon (the prevalence of jurisprudence).
According to both legal frameworks, it is by no means permissible to allow exceptions
represented by “ad hoc” courts or “special” tribunals outside the established judiciary
JIABR system. This vicissitude was faced by the Water Court of Valencia in 1813, a period in which
12,3 it was on the verge of disappearing had it not been for the uncontrollable defense of it by F. J.
Borrull (Borrull y Vilanova, 1828), who demonstrated that the abolition of this millenary
institution would entail a profound economic crisis in the Valencian society, driving to the
uprooting of those whose interests were always protected by this institution.
To a certain extent, our proposal of establishing the legal-functional scheme of the Water
332 Court of Valencia as a model in the regulation of Islamic banking and finance in Western
countries is based on similar premises to those alleged by Borrull y Vilanova (1828) to avoid
its abolition. Even maintaining the principle of single jurisdiction in these countries, a
special court focused on the area of Islamic banking and finance will always be more
efficient, representative and equitable for a very simple reason: Western judges and
magistrates are unaware of the basic principles of Islamic banking and finance and are also
generally unaware of the Sharīʿah, the divine law regulating the functioning of Islamic
capital markets.
Given the growing influence of Islamic banking and finance on the international
economic scenario, it is essential to arbitrate alternatives that can make them flourish in
Western countries without establishing any restrictions on their growth and without their
regulation necessarily having to mean the abandonment of the principle of jurisdictional
unity. Therefore, the adoption of the regulatory scheme used by the Water Court of Valencia,
a priori can be a completely viable solution for the development and expansion of Islamic
banking and finance, taking into account that even coming from a completely different area
as is the regulation of agricultural irrigation, its effectiveness in disputes resolution has been
proven for centuries.
As outlined in Figure 2, the regulation of Islamic banking and finance would be carried
out independently, although completely subordinated to the judiciary power without
conforming a collegiate jurisdiction (Hinojosa, 2002), given that the “síndicos” act as trustees
deciding whether an individual farmer is, in their opinion, guilty or not. On the contrary, the
model to be replicated consists of a jury of gremial characteristics in which the tribunal
cannot establish or apply sanctions for any infraction, which is the exclusive responsibility

Figure 2.
Transposition of the
jurisdictional scope of
the Water Court of
Valencia to the
regulation of
contemporary Islamic
banking and finance
Source: Own elaboration
of the “síndicos” of each “acequia” who, on the other hand, for the sake of fairness, cannot Contemporary
intervene in the deliberations of the verdicts, limiting to enforcing them. Islamic
It would no longer be talking about “acequias” or watering farmlands but about Islamic
financial institutions that once established in the Western countries decided to settle their
banking and
possible disputes similarly as it was done in al-Andalus. The first step to follow is applying finance
the basic approach of the ordinances of Jaime I of Aragon concerning the Muslims of the
Kingdom of Valencia, that is, that they regulate themselves as their ancestors did centuries
ago and that they enjoy the capacity to endow penalties or sanctions whenever such acts do 333
not contravene the laws and norms of superior rank established under the principle of
unique jurisdiction. Logically, the regulatory model of Islamic banking and finance forms
part of Spain’s historical and cultural heritage, one of the reasons why it has been
maintained in this country along with its proven efficiency, by demonstrating special courts
can be established in the West for certain distinct sectors, such as Islamic banking and
finance, without this fact has to be a burden on the legal system or a detriment to the
collective good, but precisely the opposite.
The adoption of this model for the auto regulation of Islamic financial institutions in
Western countries can generate broad benefits in the future such as the assimilation of its
solidarity-based character (Simo, 2011), so close to the original spirit of Islamic banking and
finance, the democratic nature of the election of its members and/or subordinates (Fairén
Guillén, 1978, p. 21; Fairén Guillén, 2010, p. 11) and, evidently, its resilient and enduring
character in the face of historical vicissitudes, given that the first mentions of this tribunal
already appear under the Umayyad dynasty of Cordoba (Abd ar-Rahman II, Al-Hakam II
and Abd ar-Rahman III; Huarte, 2006, p. 192; Fairén Guillén, 2010, p. 1), as well as the total
impartiality and credibility of its members (or “contradiction principle”; Fairén Guillén,
2010, p. 11) according to which every defendant always has the opportunity to defend
herself/himself and present any objection prior to a verdict that is unappealable by nature.
Following the Andalusian approach, the members of the tribunal are not per se judges
belonging to the judiciary power but rather members of the same industry who periodically
meet in public to settle their disputes, integrating juries among equal individuals (i.e. inter
pares, essentially very similar to the English Charta Magna; see Fairén Guillén, 2010) in a
very simple but highly effective protocol, that has hardly been altered over time.
Our research suggests that the characteristic elements of the Water Court of Valencia
should be adopted as far as possible to the regulation of contemporary Islamic banking and
finance, in the understanding that the main advantages of this ancestral legal institution in
the resolution of disagreements between members of the same industry are (without
forgetting others such as credibility, moral authority, integrity, transparency, simplicity or
debureaucratization), those pointed out by Fairén Guillén (1988): economy, concentration,
orality and speed, briefly outlined in Figure 3.
In the context of the Valencian tribunal, the principle of “Economy” refers to the minimal
costs associated with each process, the “Concentration” to the union of all procedural acts in
a single document, the “Speed” is related to the celerity with which sentences are issued (in a
short period of time) while the “Orality”, one of the hallmarks of the Medieval law (Symes,
1993), ensures that each verdict enjoys the necessary publicity and transparency for the
defendants, the present audience and the community as a whole.

Discussion and conclusion

According to Alam et al. (2017), the number of Islamic financial institutions present
throughout the world has increased from 1 in 1975 to over 300 today in at least 75 countries,
bearing in mind that around a 25% of these firms already operate in countries that do not
JIABR have a Muslim majority (Rizvi and Alam, 2016). In addition, the volume of operations that,
12,3 in one way or another, is related to the Sharīʿah-compliant assets represents a figure of
nearly $2.6tn, showing a self-sustained annual growth of around 10–15%. At the supra-
regional level, the increase in Islamic financial assets in countries where Islam is not the
majority faith (Australia/Europe/America; Askari et al., 2009) is close to 6%.
These figures describe the particular importance of the current Islamic banking and
334 finance in today’s international finance, which is also subject to several constraints, such as
the fact that when Islamic financial institutions operate in non-Islamic countries they are
regulated by laws other than the Sharīʿah. Indeed, as Belabes (2011) and Belouafi and
Belabes (2011) pointed out, common regulation is one of the most important challenges
facing this discipline. It should be noted that there are many factors that determine the
incorporation of these institutions into the national laws of each country, but when they are
allocated in non-Muslim countries, the problems are even greater as they depend explicitly
on the legal form in which they carry out their activities. Even if they are constituted in the
form of banks (full-fledged and subsidiaries), branches or windows, these institutions must
jealously respect the Sharīʿah, being subordinated to the primacy of a set of secular laws
that have nothing to do with Islam, its principles or its laws.
Studies to harmonize Islamic banking and finance in the European context are becoming
increasingly numerous (Khan and Porzio, 2010; Belouafi and Belabes, 2011), highlighting the
monographs focused on those European countries with a greater presence of Muslim
population, specifically the UK (Belouafi, 2011; Belouafi and Chachi, 2014) and France
(Affaki, 2008). Nonetheless, given the huge number of regulatory models (Belabes, 2011), a
plausible solution has yet to emerge to this legal dispersion, and to the fact of finding an
appropriate juridic space for Islamic banking and finance in Western countries. Therefore,
as stressed by Oseni (2009) and Keshavjee (2013), it is peremptory to establish alternative
measures which, in practice, will lead to the definitive expansion of this area of knowledge.
In this sense, our research work involves a proposal based on an “Occam’s razor” (or lex
parsimoniae), i.e. “other things being equal, simpler explanations are generally better than
more complex one,” as the Andalusian water courts model, although not limited to the same
era, nor based on the same interlocutors or industry, was able to reconcile the interests of
populations of different religions living in the same community in a simple, fast and

Figure 3.
Principles of the
Water Court of
Valencia directly
applicable in the
regulation of Islamic
banking and finance
democratic process. Even more important to be highlighted is the fact that, being a “Special Contemporary
Court” historically based on the principles of the Sharīʿah, in no way does it implies a Islamic
collision or conflict with the established legal power; let us call it, “laic.” The trustworthiness
of this institution can be summarized in the following statement (Fairén Guillén, 1978):
banking and
finance
In more than twenty-three years of experience and among more than 3,000 observed cases, we
have never found that the defendant alleged such lack of jurisdiction or competence of the Court.
And here again appears the auctoritas that it enjoys, its prestige and the security of obtaining a 335
fast, cheap and effective trial.

References
Abdul-Rahman, Y. (2010), The Art of Islamic Banking Tools and Techniques for Community-Based
Banking, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken.
Abu Sa’ud, M. (2002), “Money, interest and qirad”, International Journal of Economics, Management
and Accounting, Vol. 10 No. 1.
Affaki, G. (2008), “L’accueil de la finance islamique en droit français: Essai sur le transfert d’un système
normatif”, in Laramée, J.P. (Ed.), La Finance Islamique à la Française: Un Moteur Pour
L’économie, Une Alternative Éthique, Secure Finance, Paris, chapter 4, pp. 145-172.
Aghnides, N.P. (1916), “Mohammedan theories of finance with an introduction to Mohammedan
law and a bibliography”, Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Political Science. Columbia University, New York,
NY.
Ahmad, I-A-D. (1995), “Islam and the medieval progenitors of Austrian economics”, Minaret of
Freedom Institute, Bethesda. A Paper presented for the Durell Institute Fall 1995 Conference,
available at: www.minaret.org/austrian.htm
Alam, Z. (1991), “A study of the Islamic concept of education in the light of its concepts of man and
society”, Thesis submitted for the award of the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Education.
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.
Alam, N., Gupta, L. and Shanmugam, B. (2017), “Islamic finance”, A Practical Perspective, Springer
International Publishing, Cham.
Alvarez de Morales, C. (2002), “Agronomos andalusíes y su legado”, in Nuez, F. (Ed.), La Herencia
Árabe en la Agricultura y el Bienestar de Occidente, Fundacion la Huella Arabe; Universidad
Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, pp. 9-69.
Arnold, T. (1896), The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith, Archibald
Constable and Co., Westminster.
As-Sadr, M.B. (1984), “Iqtisaduna (English translation, our economics)”, World Organization for Islamic
Services, Tehran.
Askari, H., Iqbal, Z. and Mirakhor, A. (2009), New Issues in Islamic Finance and Economics Progress and
Challenges, John Wiley and Sons (Asia) Pte., Singapore.
Asín Palacios, M. (1919), La Escatologia Musulmana en la Divina Comedia: Discurso Leído en el Acto de
su Recepcion, Imprenta de E. Maestre, Madrid.
Asín Palacios, M. (1927), Dante y el Islam, Biblioteca Hispania, Editorial Volvntad, Bogota.
Asutay, M. (2010), “Islamic microfinance: fulfilling social and developmental expectations”, in Gardner,
C., Hickling, B. and Latham, S. (Eds), Islamic Finance Instruments and Markets, Bloomsbury
Information, London, pp. 25-29.
Belabes, A. (2011), “Variety of models for welcoming Islamic finance into national law”, in Al-Harbi, K.
S. and Abdulghani, O. (Eds), Wednesday Seminar: Academic Year 2010-2011G/1431-1432H,
King Abdulaziz University. Islamic Economics Institute, Jeddah, pp. 275-290.
JIABR Belabes, A. (2017), “The notion of risk in economics revisited in the light of Arab-Muslim classical
literature”, Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 3-12.
12,3
Belouafi, A. (2011), “Islamic finance outside the Muslim world: the experiment of the United Kingdom”,
Forthcoming Article in Les Cahiers de la Finance Islamique, Strasbourg Business School,
University of Strasbourg, No. 3.
Belouafi, A. and Belabes, A. (2011), “Islamic finance and the regulatory challenge: the European case”,
336 pp. 149-179.
Belouafi, A. and Chachi, A. (2014), “Islamic finance in the United Kingdom: factors behind its
development and growth”, Islamic Economic Studies, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 37-78.
Borrull y Vilanova, F.J. (1828), “Discurso sobre la distribucion de las aguas del turia y deber
conservarse el tribunal de los acequieros de Valencia que dijo D”, Francisco Xavier Borrul y
Villanova, Diputado Por el Reyno de Valencia en la Sesion de 31 de Julio de 1813, de Las
Llamadas Cortes Generales y Extraordinarias, Imprenta de D, Benito Monfort, Valencia.
Calvo, T. (1996), “Aristoteles y el aristotelismo”, Vol. 11 of Historia Del Pensamiento y la Cultura,
Ediciones Akal, Madrid.
Caro Baroja, J. (1957), Los Moriscos Del Reino de Granada: Ensayo de Historia Social, Instituto de
Estudios Políticos, Madrid.
Caro Baroja, J. (1990), “Regadíos y agnaciones”, Aragon Vive su Historia: II Jornadas Internacionales de
Cultura Islamica, Teruel 1988, Al-Fadila (Instituto Occidental de Cultura Islamica), Madrid,
pp. 161-164.
Castillo, C. (2007), “Abraham, agar e ismael en la tradicion musulmana”, Ámbitos: Revista de Estudios
de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (Ejemplar Dedicado a: El Mundo Árabe), Vol. 18, pp. 11-15.
Chejne, A. (1980), “The role of al-Andalus in the movement of ideas between Islam and the west”, in
Semaan, K. (Ed.), Islam and the West, State University of New York, NY Press, Albany.
Chenu, M.-D. (1944), “Révolution économique et révolution spirituelle”, Revue de L’Economie
Contemporaine, Vol. 3 No. 26, pp. 30-32.
D’Ancona, C. (2019), “Greek sources in Arabic and Islamic philosophy”, in Zalta, E.N. (Ed.), The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, fall 2019 edn, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford
University.
Davillier, J.C. (1874), Voyage en Espagne, L. Hachette et Compagnie, Paris.
El-Ashker, A.A.-F. and Wilson, R. (2006), “Islamic economics: a short history”, Vol. 3 of Themes in
Islamic Studies, Brill, Leiden.
Fairén Guillén, V. (1978), “El principio de la unidad jurisdiccional y el tribunal de las Aguas de
Valencia”, Revista de Administracion Pública, No. 85, pp. 9-28.
Fairén Guillén, V. (1985), “Refuerzo de las ordenes judiciales por medio de medidas específicas
indirectas. Las ‘astreintes’ y el ‘contempt of court’ en el tribunal de las Aguas de Valencia”,
Revista de Derecho Procesal, No. 1, pp. 43-64.
Fairén Guillén, V. (1988), El Tribunal de Las Aguas de Valencia y su Proceso. (Oralidad, Concentracion,
Rapidez, Economía), Caja de Ahorros de Valencia, Valencia.
Fairén Guillén, V. (1989), “El tribunal de las aguas de Valencia y su proceso. Presente y porvenir”, En
Torno al 750 Aniversario. Antecedentes y Consecuencias de la Conquista de Valencia, Vol. II,
Generalitat Valenciana.
Fairén Guillén, V. (2003), “Breve examen del tribunal de las Aguas de Valencia y de su proceso”, Arbor:
Ciencia, Pensamiento y Cultura, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) No. 691,
pp. 1295-1330.
Fairén Guillén, V. (2010), “El proceso oral y eficaz ante el milenario tribunal de las Aguas de Valencia”,
in Montoya Melgar, A. (Ed.), Cuestiones Actuales de la Jurisdiccion en España, Editorial
Dykinson, Madrid, pp. 1161-1174.
Fitzwilliam-Hall, A.H. (2011), “An introductory survey of the arabic books of fila
ha and farming Contemporary
almanacs”, The Fila
ha text project: The Arabic books of Husbandry, available at: www.filaha.
org/introduction.html
Islamic
Gannagé, E. (2017), “The rise of falsafa: Al-kind
ı (d. 873), on first philosophy”, in El-Rouayheb, K. and
banking and
Schmidtke, S. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy, Oxford handbooks, Oxford finance
University Press, Oxford, chapter 2, pp. 30-62.
Gil, L.T. (2002), “La influencia musulmana en la cultura hispano-cristiana medieval”, Anaquel de
Estudios Árabes, Vol. 13, pp. 37-66. 337
Glick, T.F. (1988), Regadío y Sociedad en la Valencia Medieval, Del Cenia Al Segura, Valencia.
Gonzalez, M. (2013a), “Líneas maestras del ideario economico de la Escolastica (i): valor, precio justo y
dinero”, eXtoikos No, Vol. 12, pp. 51-55.
Gonzalez, M. (2013b), “Origen y transmision del pensamiento economico (y ii): Al-Andalus como
puente entre Grecia, la escolastica medieval y la Escuela de Salamanca”, eXtoikos, No. 11,
pp. 65-72.
Grice-Hutchinson, M. (1952), The School of Salamanca, Readings in Spanish Monetary Theory, 1544-
1605, by Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson Lecturer in Spanish at Birkbeck College University of
London, 1948 to 1951, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Hamid, Z. (2017), “Significance of water in Islam. State times, 12/31/2017”, available at: https://news.
statetimes.in/significance-of-water-in-islam/
Hardy, K. (2001), “Islamic perspectives on natural resources management and sustainability”,
Microbehavior and Macroresults: Proceedings of the Tenth Biennial Conference of the IIFET.
Compiled by Richard S. Johnston and Ann L. Shriver, International Institute of Fisheries
Economics and Trade (IIFET), Corvallis.
Heck, G.W. (2006), Charlemagne, Muhammad, and the Arab Roots of Capitalism, Studien Zur
Geschichte Und Kultur Des Islamischen Orients, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.
Hinojosa, J. (2002), “Tribunal de las aguas, diccionario de historia medieval del reino de Valencia”, Vol.
IV (S-Z) of Coleccion Historia/Estudios, Generalitat Valenciana, Biblioteca Valenciana, Valencia,
pp. 289-290.
Huarte, P. (2006), “El agua: un elemento común pero extraño”, in Sanchez, B. lst ed., Agua: un Recurso
Escaso, ArCiBel, Sevilla, pp. 179-196.
Hunt-Ahmed, K. (2013), “Contemporary Islamic finance innovations, applications, and best practices”,
The Robert W. Kolb Series in Finance, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken.
Imamuddin, S. (1981), “Muslim Spain 711-1492 A.D.: a sociological study, vol. 2 of medieval Iberian
Peninsula”, Texts and Studies (Revised and Enlarged Edition of Some Aspects of the Socio
Economic and Cultural History of Muslim Spain 711 1492 A.D. Leiden, 1965), Brill, Leiden.
Iqbal, Z. and Mirakhor, A. (2011), An Introduction to Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice, 2 edn, John
Wiley and Sons (Asia) Pte., Singapore.
Irving, W. (1849), “Mahomet and his successors”, Vol. 9 of Complete Works of Washington, DC Irving,
The Co-operative Publication Society, London and New York, NY.
Islahi, A.A. (1991), “Market and pricing mechanism in pre-classical literature”, University Library of
Munich, MPRA Paper No. 22793.
Islahi, A.A. (2005), Contributions of Muslim Scholars to Economic Thought and Analysis, 11-905 A.H./
632-1500 A.D, 1st edn, King Abdulaziz University, Islamic Economics Research Centre.
Scientific publishing centre, Jeddah.
Islahi, A.A. (2011), “Linkages and similarities between economics ideas of Muslim scholars and
scholastics”, in Al-Harbi, K.S. and Abdulghani, O. (Eds), Wednesday Seminar: Academic Year
2010-2011G/1431-1432H, King Abdulaziz University. Islamic Economics Institute, Jeddah,
pp. 307-331.
JIABR Jaubert de Passa, F.J. (1823), Voyage en Espagne, Dans Les Années 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, ou
Recherche Sur Les Arrosages, Sur Les Lois et Coutumes Qui Les Régissent, Mme Huzard,
12,3 Paris.
Jaubert de Passa, F.J. (1844), Canales de Riego de Cataluña y Reino de Valencia, Leyes y Costumbres Que
Los Rigen; Reglamentos y Ordenanzas de Sus Principales Acequias, Imprenta de D. Benito
Monfort, Valencia.
Keshavjee, M.M. (2013), Islam, Sharia and Alternative Dispute Resolution: Mechanisms for Legal
338 Redress in the Muslim Community, I.B.Tauris, London.
Khan, M.F. and Porzio, M. (2010), “Islamic banking and finance in the European union a challenge”,
Studies in Islamic Finance, Accounting and Governance Series, Edward Elgar Publishing,
Cheltenham.
Koehler, B. (2014), Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism, Lexington Books, Lanham.
Langholm, O. (1998), “The legacy of scholasticism in economic thought: antecedents of choice and
power”, Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Langholm, O. (2007), “L’economia in tommaso d’Aquino”, Universidad Andrés Bello, Revista
Observaciones Filosoficas.
Markham, S.C.R. (1867), “Report on the Irrigation of Eastern Spain, Printed by Order af the Secretary of
State for India”.
Martínez, M. (2005), “Vigencia de una institucion medieval: El consejo de hombres buenos de Murcia”,
Revista Murgetana, No. 112, pp. 21-67.
Martínez, M.M. (2006), “Derecho de Aguas. malos usos y contaminacion en el derecho andalusí”,
Anuario de Historia Del Derecho Español No, Vol. 76, pp. 323-410.
Martínez, M.M. (2015), “Agua, derecho de uso y utilidad en el regadío de tradicion andalusí del reino de
Valencia”, Glossae: European Journal of Legal History, Vol. 12, pp. 483-520.
Martos, J. (2003), “Legislacion del agua en la españa musulmana”, Ingeniería Hispano Musulmana.
Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Madrid, pp. 179-197.
Mellado, F. D P. (1855), “Tribunal de aguas de Valencia”, Enciclopedia Moderna. Diccionario Universal
de Literatura, Ciencias, Artes, Agricultura, Industria y Comercio, Vol. 33 of Biblioteca Popular,
Establecimiento Tipografico de Mellado, Madrid, pp. 504-505.
Montaner, E. (2008), “El consejo de hombres buenos, patrimonio oral e inmaterial de la region de
Murcia”, Papeles de Geografía No. 47-48, pp. 185-191.
Mufti, M. (2017), “Ibn Rushd’s political philosophy in contemporary Arab scholarship: a transient
revival?”, Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 17-35.
Nuez, F. (2002), “La herencia arabe en la agricultura y el bienestar de occidente”, Repertorio Español de
Bibliografía Árabe e Islamica, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia.
O’Leary, D.L.E. (2015), How Greek Science Passed on to the Arabs, Kegan Paul Arabia library, Taylor
and Francis, London.
Oseni, U.A. (2009), “Dispute resolution in Islamic banking and finance: current trends and future
perspectives. 8/26/2009”, available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1461895 or 10.2139/
ssrn.1461895.
Ribera y Tarrago, J. (1928), “El sistema de riegos en la huerta de Valencia no es obra de los arabes”,
Disertaciones y Opúsculos, Vol. 2, Imprenta de Estanislao Maestre, Madrid, pp. 309-313.
Rizvi, S.A.R. and Alam, N. (2016), “Islamic Capital market research: past trends and future
considerations”, in Alam, N. and Rizvi, S.A.R. (Eds), Islamic Capital Markets: Volatility,
Performance and Stability, Palgrave CIBFR Studies in Islamic Finance, Palgrave Macmillan,
London, chapter 3, pp. 1-13.
Rothbard, M.N. (1995), “Economic thought before Adam Smith”, An Austrian Perspective on the History
of Economic Thought, Vol. 1, Edward Elgar Publishing/Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn.
Rubiera, M.J. and de Epalza, M. (2007), “Al-Andalus: between myth and history”, History and Contemporary
Anthropology, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 269-273.
Islamic
Sala, D. (2013), “El tribunal de las Aguas de La Vega de Valencia. Patrimonio cultural inmaterial de la
humanidad”, Revista Valenciana d’Estudis Autonòmics No. 58. banking and
Schumpeter, J.A. (2006), History of Economic Analysis, Routledge. Taylor and Francis e-Library, finance
Abingdon.
Scott, S.P. (1904), History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, Vol. 3, J. B. Lippincott and Co., Philadelphia.
339
Scott, T.C. and Marketos, P. (2014), “On the origin of the Fibonacci sequence”, MacTutor History of
Mathematics, pp. 1-46.
Simo, V.L. (2011), La Solidaridad Foral de Las Aguas, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia.
Symes, C. (1993), History in Deed: Medieval Society and the Law in England, 1100-1600: An Exhibition
of Deeds and Charters from the Harvard Law School Library, November-December 1993,
Harvard Law School, Cambridge.
Tittenbrun, J. (2011), “Economy in society: economic sociology revisited”, EBSCO Ebook Academic
Collection, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge.
Tottoli, R. (1998), “The qisas al-anbiya
of ibn mutarrif al-taraf
ı (d. 454/1062): stories of the prophets
from al-andalus”, Al-Qan
tara, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 131-160.

Further readings
Qu’r
an (1989), The Holy Qu’r
an: English Translation of the Meanings and Commentary, Revised and
Edited by the Presidency of Islamic Researches, IFTA Call and Guidance (Abdullah Yusuf Ali),
King Fahd Glorious Qu’ra
n Printing Complex, Medina.
ESA (2018), “Valencia. European space agency, 07/20/2018”, available at: www.esa.int/
Space_in_Member_States/Spain/Valencia
Ginena, K. and Hamid, A. (2015), “Foundations of Shari’ah governance of Islamic banks”, The Wiley
Finance Series, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.

Corresponding author
Pedro Antonio Martín-Cervantes can be contacted at: pmc552@ual.es

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com