The Regulations Of Authority In Localization Of Commerce Activities In Medieval Muslim Society

Abstract

The location of economic and commerce activities has long been a central concern in economic discussion because it plays an important role in generating profit, meeting the needs of the locals and driving the development of an area. Due to the non-strategic location plan and ineffective implementation related commercial property location, it leads to few issues such consumer inconvenience and less attractive. In order to mitigate these unresolved issues, the local authorities need to improve their management in urban planning, mainly, the location of business premises. The idea of designating a certain site of the commercial activities which focusing on markets (suq) and industry areas was started by the Prophet PBUH in Madinah in the traditional Islamic environment. During medieval Islamic civilization, muhtasib as the responsible authority in urban planning has put several guidelines on the layout of the internal and external commercial properties. Hence, this qualitative study aims to highlight the implementation of Islamic policy in determining the location of a commerce activities such as market and industrial site. This study adopts content analysis method on several manuals of the muhtasib written in medieval times. Throughout this study, researchers found that the muhtasib as municipal officer has underlying the regulations pertaining to the location of business premises based on Islamic principles such the policy of dharar, the concept of tahara (hygiene), concept of similarity and the concept of inhabitants’ needs. Therefore, this study is considered as significant, particularly for the local authority towards the urban management implementation.