"The authors provide a comprehensive background for recent international financial crises--rapid expansion of interest-bearing debt and monetary expansion though the fractional reserve banking system. In this context, the authors provide an analysis of the experience and issues associated with international payments systems--the various forms of the gold standard, the Bretton Woods system and the present system of flexible exchange rates. The authors go on to present a case for fixed exchange rates (gold standard and other interesting variations) anchored in Islamic finance. The message of this book is that the gold standard could provide a solution for addressing international financial instability if and only if it is anchored in 100% reserve banking, which is an essential pillar of Islamic finance. The book should appeal to academics, university courses on Islamic finance, international finance, history of the international payments system and proposals for its reform at the undergraduate and graduate levels, to policymakers, financial analysts, bankers, financial regulators and international financial institutions"-