Ziaul Haque (academic)

Dr. Ziaul Haque worked in the Islamic Research Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan, from September 1964 to June 1984 as Researcher/Associate Professor. Later he would join the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad, as a consultant and rose up to the position of Chief of Research there.

Dr. Haque was educated at the University of Sindh and the University of Chicago, focusing on subjects like Economics, Arabic and Islamic Studies. He specialized in the economic history of early Islam and the Middle East, and also wrote extensively about the current economic issues in Islamic countries. He served as Editor of the quarterly research journal Islamic Studies, and also as Associate Editor of The Pakistan Development Review and South Asia Bulletin.

Amongst Dr. Haque's many well-known publications is Prophets and Progress in Islam (Kuala Lumpur: Utusan, 2008). His earlier book Landlord and Peasant in Early Islam (Islamabad, 1977) was appreciated throughout the world as an original contribution toward our understanding of the economic history of early Islam. A number of his articles and books were published throughout the 1980s-1990s, including Islam and Feudalism: The Economics of Riba, Interest and Profit (1985), later expanded as Riba: The Moral Economy of Usury, Interest and Profit (Kuala Lumpur: Ikraq, 1995). He also published Revelation & Revolution in Islam in 1987, a work that encouraged much debate.

Dr. Haque died on 8 August 1998.He belonged to a very humble working class family, hailing form a very meager background form Sukkur, known in the family as "Haqqi" as telling the truth, and suffered a lot psyhcological, social and economic torture, paradoxically from his synoname general Zia ul Haq. He read many languages and had a wide interest in several social science disciplines.Having a strong command in 7 languages including German and Spanish, Dr. Haque was an active member of research bodies in many countries. His contributions have enriched the social science discourse, especially in Islamic economics and initial Islamic economic development.