Miriam R. Lowi, in her latest book, interrogates two sources of authority and legitimacy for the states of the Gulf: oil and Islam. She focuses, therefore, her analysis on the financial and moral resources of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, explaining the ways in which and extent to which Islam influences their political leaderships and distributive decisions. Instead of highlighting these states' relationships with independent Islamists or their use of disbursements to “buy off” opposition, for instance, as other scholars have done, Lowi focuses on “Islam as a tool of governance and statecraft, hence [focusing] on ruling elites” (2). She breaks new ground theoretically by examining the links specifically between oil wealth (and its distribution) and religion in the Gulf. Lowi effectively summarizes her argument: “[R]egime behavior is not merely detached from religious principles, but more significantly, norms are either reconfigured or their interpretation revised for the sake of narrow (political) interests. Maintaining dynastic states is the priority; oil and Islam are its principal tools” (5).

After foregrounding her argument, Lowi gives a concise overview of the normative tradition of Islam, with a focus on how Muslims tend to consider their relationship with resources and with sharing these resources. This gr