Overview

Mutual aid or zakat giving is a sacred practice in Islam. In Palestinian neighborhoods of the West Bank, where the Islamic tradition shapes public life, a simple gift of money or food to a person in need can invoke the presence of God. In Divine Money, Emanuel Schaeublin shows how zakat institutions and direct zakat donations provide critical support to households in financial distress. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the ancient city of Nablus, Divine Money analyzes how zakat institutions work in the social and political context of contemporary Palestine and explores how embedding care in Islamic scripture helps community members negotiate the social tensions that arise around differences in financial security. In the absence of a reliable public safety net, many interpret acts of zakat giving as an expression of God's generosity and evidence of His infinite ability to provide. Such invocations of the divine in charitable interactions provide both community support and a means to live a good and ethical Muslim life, even during times of political repression and economic stagnation.

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Reviews

"""Divine Money offers an intimate look into the nuances and complexities of economic and religious interactions of often ignored social groups. Schaeublin's ethnography has a fascinating ability to clarify and make explicit the hidden rules and etiquette of life in the margins of one of Palestine's economic capitals. The implications of zakat, as a pillar of Islam, and the way it actually functions on the day to day basis and through face to face interactions have rarely been studied and Schaeublin's contribution to scholarship is thus significant.""--Laurent Bonnefoy, author of Yemen and the World: Beyond Insecurity"

"""Divine Money offers an intimate look into the nuances and complexities of economic and religious interactions of often ignored social groups. Schaeublin's ethnography has a fascinating ability to clarify and make explicit the hidden rules and etiquette of life in the margins of one of Palestine's economic capitals. The implications of zakat, as a pillar of Islam, and the way it actually functions on the day to day basis and through face to face interactions have rarely been studied and Schaeublin's contribution to scholarship is thus significant.""--Laurent Bonnefoy, author of Yemen and the World: Beyond Insecurity ""Through close ethnographic attention to neighborly relations, greetings, coffeeshop encounters, financial transactions, stickers, posters, and gossip, Schaeublin offers an incisive account of how the Islamic tradition shapes public life in Nablus. A highly readable book, Divine Money beautifully illuminates the convergence of political and divine economies, offering an important contribution to our understanding of what it means to live an ethical and pious life under military occupation.""--Amira Mittermaier, University of Toronto"

Author Information

Emanuel Schaeublin is an anthropologist focusing on ethics and political conflict in the Arabic-speaking Middle East and Europe. He is a senior researcher at ETH Zurich and an advisor on film productions.

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