Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

Adam Smith

آدم سميث

The Scottish economist and thinker Adam Smith, as presented in Tareq al-Suwaidan's lessons: author of The Wealth of Nations (1776) and of the division-of-labour principle he drew from watching a pin factory; counted among the founders of modern management.

Depth

At a glance

Region
Global / Diaspora
Review

Politics, governance and authority

Summary

Tareq al-Suwaidan presents Adam Smith as one of the West's founders of modern management, through his book The Wealth of Nations (1776) and the pin-factory story from which he drew the principle of division of labour 1.

The pin-factory story

Al-Suwaidan recounts that Smith sat in a pin factory watching the workers, and saw each worker performing every stage of production: melting the iron, forming it into wires, cutting them, adding the head and sharpening the point 2. He then reorganised the work so that each worker performed a single step, adding workers wherever delay appeared, and the factory's output rose tenfold with the same workers, machines and materials — only the management had changed 3. Al-Suwaidan counts this story as the beginning of the Western industrial revival and of modern management and economics together 4.

People and things also explored

Ahl al-Diwan (those paid from the state register of soldiers and officers, and the rules of their conditions and distribution)· Ahl al-Hall wa al-Aqd (those who loose and bind: the men of power whose choice confirms the imam)· Ahl al-Mahalla (the people of a quarter, their imam, call to prayer, and their part in the oath and blood money where a body is found)· Islamic management· Experience versus service, and self-development· The nominal group technique· Leadership and the leader's six roles· Situational leadership

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:20:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:21:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:22:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:21:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Adam Smith”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/adam-smith/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Wing

People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story. Related

Ahl al-Diwan (those paid from the state register of soldiers and officers, and the rules of their conditions and distribution)

Diwan is a Persian loan-word meaning a collection of sheets and writings, in which the army and those given grants were written; for the jurists it is the register in which the names of those in state service who receive a stipend from the public treasury are recorded, and the office that keeps it. Umar ibn al-Khattab was the first to set up the diwan, according to two accounts. The people of the diwan are of several kinds: soldiers, on conditions that are regulatory, such as puberty, freedom, Islam, health and fitness for fighting; holders of office, such as governors, judges, scholars, collectors, imams and muezzins; and the needy. The Companions differed on preference in distribution: Abu Bakr and Ali made it equal, while Umar and Uthman preferred by precedence in Islam, and Umar added kinship to the Prophet; Abu Hanifa and Ahmad followed the latter view.