Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 28 April 2024 –The first-place winner of the 2024 Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Prize for Impactful Achievement in Islamic Economics, Professor Mehmet Asutay, received the award during a ceremony in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The award was presented by the IsDB Vice President (Operations), Dr. Mansur Muhtar, on behalf of H.E. the President, Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, during the 18^th IsDB Global Forum on Islamic Finance, held on the sidelines of the IsDB Group Annual Meetings and Golden Jubilee Celebration. The first-place prize comes with a US$ 50,000 award and a certificate for the winner.

A professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Political Economy & Finance at Durham University, Prof. Asutay was awarded the prize in recognition of his significant work on Islamic moral economy and the articulation of Islamic finance to be supportive of sustainable development and the welfare of human beings.

The winner was selected by an independent committee of experts from outside the IsDB Group, whose work is coordinated by the Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI).

In his comments on this occasion, Prof. Asutay said: “I am grateful to the Selection Committee for this prestigious prize and the recognition of my work in Islamic Moral Political Economy and the impact it has so far created. I dedicate this award to my students and research collaborators, whose insights have been invaluable.

“I thank Allah (SWT) for giving me the strength to pursue a just and empowering economic framework inspired by Islamic values and norms in essentializing an ihsani (sustenance of an equilibrium-based) governance system to ensure resource accessibility within the defined permissibilities of Islam. I appreciate the Founding Fathers of Islamic Economics and the IsDB Institute for their pioneering works, and I am grateful to have collaborated with many inspiring Founding Fathers and academics and professionals over the past decades.”

Prof. Asutay is the Director of the Durham Center for Islamic Economics and Finance, the Program Director for MSc in Islamic Finance, and the Director of the Durham Islamic Finance Summer School.

He teaches and supervises research on Islamic Political Economy; Islamic Moral Economy; Islamic Banking, Finance and Management; and Political Economy of Development in the Middle East, including Turkish Political Economy and Kurdish Political Economy.

The prize laureate has a Ph.D. in Political Economics and an M.A. in Economics of Public Policy from the University of Leicester (UK);  a Postgraduate Diploma in Economic and Social Policy Analysis from the University of York (UK); and also studied for an MSc in Public Finance at the University of Istanbul (Turkiye).