Islam and interests. Remarks on Turkish civil law and recent Turkish monetary policy

This article is intended to depict the historical approach to interests in Turkey and in the Ottoman Empire as well as to describe the current the Turkish interest-related legal framework and its historical changes. This is to verify whether the recent governmental rhetoric and turn to Islam anyhow affect the shape of the Turkish civil law. To do so, the article refers to the Swiss private law (as a “donor” legal system for Turkey) and the Ottoman laws and customs related to charging interests. The reason for such examination is due to Turkey’s latest non-conventional monetary policy. Namely, despite high inflation, the central bank does not increase interest rates. At the same time, the Turkish President makes statements that any interests are not compliant with Islam and the holy texts ban making interest-bearing transactions. This context makes checking the shape of the Turkish private law particularly interesting for comparative private law researchers.