The Mercy of Allah

Hilaire Belloc dressed his attack on modern finance in the robes of an Eastern fable. The wealthy merchant Mahmoud, surrounded by admiring nephews, recounts how he climbed from poverty to riches, and after each swindle, cornered market, and betrayed partner he piously credits his success to the mercy of Allah. Belloc uses the Arabian Nights framing to skewer the acquisitive methods of the capitalist he despised, turning stories of fraud and fortune into a wry moral comedy. First published in 1922, it sits alongside his Distributist writing, mocking the gap between how great fortunes are made and how they are afterward explained. The book is offered here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.