Nowadays in European, American and most westernized markets, financial institutions such as Credit Swiss, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, the Islamic Bank of Britain etc, are offering more products and services of Islamic finance. Moreover, a great number of financial institutions in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries and Asia are managing funds of over US$300 billion, and are encouraged from their markets to provide Islamic financial products. As a result of the growth market of Islamic finance, the demand for risk management for Islamic financial products and services is becoming a very hot issue for both westernized and Islamic financial markets.

Over 200 Islamic banks - including some of the largest multinational banks - now operate in non-Muslim as well as Muslim countries. This work discusses Islamic financial theory and practice, and focuses on the opportunities offered by Islamic finance as an alternative method of financial intermediation. Key features of profit-sharing (as opposed to debt-based) contracts are highlighted, and the ways in which they can facilitate improved efficiency and stability of a financial system are explored.

Over 200 Islamic banks - including some of the largest multinational banks - now operate in non-Muslim as well as Muslim countries. This work discusses Islamic financial theory and practice, and focuses on the opportunities offered by Islamic finance as an alternative method of financial intermediation. Key features of profit-sharing (as opposed to debt-based) contracts are highlighted, and the ways in which they can facilitate improved efficiency and stability of a financial system are explored.

At no time in recent history have architecture, urban planning, rehabilitation and reconstruction been as important to the Islamic world as they are today. With great opportunities to engender positive change and build better places for everyone, architects are responding to local challenges with understanding and innovation, with global outlook and vernacular and innovative forms. These multifaceted achievements include restoration, landscape design, infrastructure and urban planning, and new buildings.

Since the Aga Khan Award for Architecture was begun in 1977 it has been in the forefront of recognising the full impact of social and environmental upheaval on the built environment in Third World countries. In this volume the jury's selection for the fourth cycle of the awards is presented. The selected projects, which deal with issues pertinent to both the developing and developed world, demonstrate their timeless relevance. The visionary philosophy behind the awards has been to seek to encourage architects, builders, clients and users to learn from and add to the Muslim heritage. The idea has not been to compete with the established scholarship of Islamic culture but to reflect on the continuous relevance of the contemporary expressions of Islam as a religion, culture and civilization.

Of all the major architectural prizes, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture is perhaps the only one that, in addition to celebrating the finest fruit that embellishes the tree of Architecture» encourages the roots that nurture the plant. These dual concerns place the Award in a truly unique position; for in order to make its selections, the Award must of necessity be concerned not only with product but also with process and the issues that generate that process. Thus, since its inception almost twenty-five years ago, the Aga Khan Award has been an extraordinarily inventive and courageous enterprise, seeking always to understand the fundamental issues of the societies it addresses and to identify those subtle but pivotal watersheds that shift our perspective and open up a world of new possibilities.

To many Westerners, the Taj Mahal in all its splendor typifies Islamic architecture. Yet, the overwhelming majority of Muslims live on the very margin of human existence, far from such grandeur. The merging of Islam's rich cultural heritage with modern technology to help solve problems of individual survival in the contemporary world forms the heart of Architecture and Community. The fifteen projects celebrated in this volume are the winners of the first Aga Khan Award for Architecture, a series of prizes honoring the successful creation within the Islamic world of a modern architectural idiom that preserves indigenous forms at the same time it provides for the future. This is architecture of and for the people, meeting their needs and concerns locally, providing a setting for health and for life.