In recent times the Islamic religious movement has been steadily gaining importance in the Muslim world, demonstrating a clear desire to modify existing institutions in order that they conform to the values of traditional Islamic culture. This new book examines the application of such norms to modern finance: Islamic banking. This work addresses the surprising lack of familiarity with modern Islamic banking among Western bankers and lawyers and the virtual absence of competent discussion and correct information on the subject. The author provides a thorough review of Islamic banking, its development, participants' aims and structure, goes on to study its contractual basis and finally, by way of a case study of the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt, determines the financial viability of Islamic banks. He proposes that Arab Islamic banking is a fundamentally different financial system from the system currently dominant throughout the world, and further, is a viable financial phenomenon.