Professor of Business Law John Winn, J.D., and Dean of the Harry F. Byrd, Jr., School of Business and Professor of Management Miles Davis, Ph.D., have collaborated on a contribution to a new book: “Entrepreneurship and Management in an Islamic Context.” The project was initially propelled by Winn’s interest in authentic Islamic leadership models drawing upon the earliest doctrinal examples. Dr. Davis is the George Edward Durrell Chair of Management and regularly writes and speaks about effective leadership. Winn has a long-standing interest in the history of the Middle East and often looks to past examples seeking understanding of current societal issues and problems. The two of them together began to research what was known and, most importantly, unknown about how Islam views leadership. The topic was extremely timely as groups like ISIS claim a caliphate and that they aspire to be leaders in the Islamic world. In fact, the pair found that such groups represent the exact opposite of what Islam teaches about effective leaders.
Abstract from “Entrepreneurship and Management in an Islamic Context”:
“Few events of history are as commonly misunderstood in the West in general, and the U.S. in particular, as are the Muslim Conquests of the 7th and 8th Century or the “Crusade Periods” of the 11th and 12th Centuries. Unfortunately, much of what Americans know about early Islam and the Crusades are skewed by post-9/11 politics or obscured by popular culture such as Ridley Scott’s recent movie, “Kingdom of Heaven.” As early as the 8thCentury, cities under Muslim rule (i.e. the “Pax Islamica”) hosted theological debates with invited Christian scholars. Jews fleeing brutal persecution within Christendom were promoted to high-level administrative posts under Caliphate rulers. During the same period, the “House of Wisdom” in Baghdad was the multicultural intellectual center of the world for the study of humanities as well as sciences including mathematics, engineering, astronomy, medicine, cartography, chemistry, and zoology. What have not been adequately critiqued, at least in a contemporary business/management context, are successful leadership traits of both the Prophet Muhammad and these early civil and military successors during this period. Meritocracy, honesty, tolerance, personal courage, and compassion for others were essential underpinnings of the expansion of Islam from the borders of China to the Atlantic coast of Spain. Davis and Winn’s article develops a model for a conceptualization and examination of Islamic Leadership that involves a refinement of previously proposed, but not fully conceptualized, frameworks of Islamic Leadership.”