S. E. Finer
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207900
- eISBN:
- 9780191677854
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207900.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
No one has hitherto had the breadth of imagination and intellectual boldness to describe and analyse government throughout recorded history and throughout the world. Ranging over 5,000 years, from ...
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No one has hitherto had the breadth of imagination and intellectual boldness to describe and analyse government throughout recorded history and throughout the world. Ranging over 5,000 years, from the Sumerian city state to the modern European nation state, five themes emerge in this book: state-building, military formats, belief systems, social stratification, and timespan. The three volumes examine both representative and exceptional polities, and focus on political elites of different types. This text is the second volume and it analyses the ‘church’ politics of the Byzantine Empire and the Caliphate; the evolution of the T'ang and Ming Empires in China; the characteristics of feudal Europe, the ‘republican alternatives’ of Florence and Venice, and finally the growth of representative assemblies across Europe.Less
No one has hitherto had the breadth of imagination and intellectual boldness to describe and analyse government throughout recorded history and throughout the world. Ranging over 5,000 years, from the Sumerian city state to the modern European nation state, five themes emerge in this book: state-building, military formats, belief systems, social stratification, and timespan. The three volumes examine both representative and exceptional polities, and focus on political elites of different types. This text is the second volume and it analyses the ‘church’ politics of the Byzantine Empire and the Caliphate; the evolution of the T'ang and Ming Empires in China; the characteristics of feudal Europe, the ‘republican alternatives’ of Florence and Venice, and finally the growth of representative assemblies across Europe.
Gerhard Bowering (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691164823
- eISBN:
- 9781400866427
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164823.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
In sixteen concise chapters on key topics, this book provides a rich, authoritative, and up-to-date introduction to Islamic political thought from the birth of Islam to today, presenting essential ...
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In sixteen concise chapters on key topics, this book provides a rich, authoritative, and up-to-date introduction to Islamic political thought from the birth of Islam to today, presenting essential background and context for understanding contemporary politics in the Islamic world and beyond. Selected from the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, and focusing on the origins, development, and contemporary importance of Islamic political ideas and related subjects, each chapter offers a sophisticated yet accessible introduction to its topic. Written by leading specialists and incorporating the latest scholarship, the alphabetically arranged chapters cover the topics of authority, the caliphate, fundamentalism, government, jihad, knowledge, minorities, modernity, Muhammad, pluralism and tolerance, the Qur'an, revival and reform, shari'a (sacred law), traditional political thought, ‘ulama’ (religious scholars), and women. Read separately or together, these chapters provide an indispensable resource for students, journalists, policymakers, and anyone else seeking an informed perspective on the complex intersection of Islam and politics.Less
In sixteen concise chapters on key topics, this book provides a rich, authoritative, and up-to-date introduction to Islamic political thought from the birth of Islam to today, presenting essential background and context for understanding contemporary politics in the Islamic world and beyond. Selected from the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, and focusing on the origins, development, and contemporary importance of Islamic political ideas and related subjects, each chapter offers a sophisticated yet accessible introduction to its topic. Written by leading specialists and incorporating the latest scholarship, the alphabetically arranged chapters cover the topics of authority, the caliphate, fundamentalism, government, jihad, knowledge, minorities, modernity, Muhammad, pluralism and tolerance, the Qur'an, revival and reform, shari'a (sacred law), traditional political thought, ‘ulama’ (religious scholars), and women. Read separately or together, these chapters provide an indispensable resource for students, journalists, policymakers, and anyone else seeking an informed perspective on the complex intersection of Islam and politics.
Shafique N. Virani
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195311730
- eISBN:
- 9780199785490
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311730.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
In the period following the Mongol invasion, we witness the primacy of the belief in the soteriological necessity of the imamate and, in particular, of the current Imam. While this conviction was ...
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In the period following the Mongol invasion, we witness the primacy of the belief in the soteriological necessity of the imamate and, in particular, of the current Imam. While this conviction was basic to Shi'ism, previous elaborations of the imamate had generally given a place to the Imam's political role and his right to rule the Muslim polity. In documents spanning the entire period, 250 years after Alamut's fall to the Mongols, we find an emphasis on the absolute and uncompromising necessity for a present (hadir) and living (mawjud) Imam, the manifest guide who could lead believers to a recognition of God. The Imam is the speaking Quran, the talisman by which the treasury of creation's spiritual meaning can be opened. In Ismaili thought, to come in contact with the Imam of one's time is the aim of every seeker of truth.Less
In the period following the Mongol invasion, we witness the primacy of the belief in the soteriological necessity of the imamate and, in particular, of the current Imam. While this conviction was basic to Shi'ism, previous elaborations of the imamate had generally given a place to the Imam's political role and his right to rule the Muslim polity. In documents spanning the entire period, 250 years after Alamut's fall to the Mongols, we find an emphasis on the absolute and uncompromising necessity for a present (hadir) and living (mawjud) Imam, the manifest guide who could lead believers to a recognition of God. The Imam is the speaking Quran, the talisman by which the treasury of creation's spiritual meaning can be opened. In Ismaili thought, to come in contact with the Imam of one's time is the aim of every seeker of truth.
Wadad Kadi and Aram A. Shahin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691164823
- eISBN:
- 9781400866427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164823.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter discusses the political, historical, and institutional aspects of the caliphate. The term “caliphate” is most commonly restricted to five periods or dynasties: the Rightly Guided ...
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This chapter discusses the political, historical, and institutional aspects of the caliphate. The term “caliphate” is most commonly restricted to five periods or dynasties: the Rightly Guided Caliphate (632–61), the Umayyad caliphate (661–750), the Abbasid caliphate (750–1258 and 1261–1517), the Fatimid caliphate (909–1171), and the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba (928–1031). Throughout the centuries, however, various other rulers have made claims to the caliphate or adopted the caliphal titulature—that is, one or more titles usually associated with caliphs. The first four successors of the Prophet Muhammad are usually called the Rightly Guided Caliphs. But those Muslims who do not accept the legitimacy of some of these rulers refrain from applying this expression to them.Less
This chapter discusses the political, historical, and institutional aspects of the caliphate. The term “caliphate” is most commonly restricted to five periods or dynasties: the Rightly Guided Caliphate (632–61), the Umayyad caliphate (661–750), the Abbasid caliphate (750–1258 and 1261–1517), the Fatimid caliphate (909–1171), and the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba (928–1031). Throughout the centuries, however, various other rulers have made claims to the caliphate or adopted the caliphal titulature—that is, one or more titles usually associated with caliphs. The first four successors of the Prophet Muhammad are usually called the Rightly Guided Caliphs. But those Muslims who do not accept the legitimacy of some of these rulers refrain from applying this expression to them.
Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144870
- eISBN:
- 9781400842483
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144870.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter studies how literate Jewish farmers abandoned farming and became small, urban populations of skilled craftsmen, shopkeepers, traders, money changers, moneylenders, scholars, and ...
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This chapter studies how literate Jewish farmers abandoned farming and became small, urban populations of skilled craftsmen, shopkeepers, traders, money changers, moneylenders, scholars, and physicians. The literacy of the Jewish people, coupled with a set of contract-enforcement institutions developed during the five centuries after the destruction of the Second Temple, gave the Jews a comparative advantage in occupations such as crafts, trade, and moneylending—occupations that benefited from literacy, contract-enforcement mechanisms, and networking. Once the Jews were engaged in these occupations, they rarely converted, which is consistent with the fact that the Jewish population grew slightly from the seventh to the twelfth century. Subsequently, the establishment of the Muslim caliphates during the seventh and eighth centuries, and the concomitant vast urbanization and growth of manufacture and trade in the Middle East, acted as a catalyst for the massive transition of the Jews from farming to crafts and trade.Less
This chapter studies how literate Jewish farmers abandoned farming and became small, urban populations of skilled craftsmen, shopkeepers, traders, money changers, moneylenders, scholars, and physicians. The literacy of the Jewish people, coupled with a set of contract-enforcement institutions developed during the five centuries after the destruction of the Second Temple, gave the Jews a comparative advantage in occupations such as crafts, trade, and moneylending—occupations that benefited from literacy, contract-enforcement mechanisms, and networking. Once the Jews were engaged in these occupations, they rarely converted, which is consistent with the fact that the Jewish population grew slightly from the seventh to the twelfth century. Subsequently, the establishment of the Muslim caliphates during the seventh and eighth centuries, and the concomitant vast urbanization and growth of manufacture and trade in the Middle East, acted as a catalyst for the massive transition of the Jews from farming to crafts and trade.
F. E. Peters
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199747467
- eISBN:
- 9780199894796
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199747467.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
The legacy of each man is the subject of this chapter. Though it presents grave problems to the historian, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead — there were reportedly witnesses to the risen Jesus — ...
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The legacy of each man is the subject of this chapter. Though it presents grave problems to the historian, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead — there were reportedly witnesses to the risen Jesus — empowers the Twelve and sets in train the Jesus movement that soon begins to worship him as the Son of God. What followed Muhammad’s perfectly natural death was more political: a struggle over the succession to the leadership of the community, overshadowed perhaps by the expanding military conquest of Arabia and then the Middle East. Muhammad meanwhile grows in stature after his death: he becomes the ideal Muslim, the paragon and model of all the virtues he preached in the Quran.Less
The legacy of each man is the subject of this chapter. Though it presents grave problems to the historian, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead — there were reportedly witnesses to the risen Jesus — empowers the Twelve and sets in train the Jesus movement that soon begins to worship him as the Son of God. What followed Muhammad’s perfectly natural death was more political: a struggle over the succession to the leadership of the community, overshadowed perhaps by the expanding military conquest of Arabia and then the Middle East. Muhammad meanwhile grows in stature after his death: he becomes the ideal Muslim, the paragon and model of all the virtues he preached in the Quran.
Mona Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691166780
- eISBN:
- 9781400883714
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166780.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
In the United States and Europe, the word “caliphate” has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim ...
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In the United States and Europe, the word “caliphate” has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim culture remains poorly understood. This book explores the myriad meanings of the caliphate for Muslims around the world through the analytical lens of two key moments of loss in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. The book explores the rich constellation of interpretations created by religious scholars, historians, musicians, statesmen, poets, and intellectuals. The book fills a scholarly gap regarding Muslim reactions to the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in 1258 and challenges the notion that the Mongol onslaught signaled an end to the critical engagement of Muslim jurists and intellectuals with the idea of an Islamic caliphate. It also situates Muslim responses to the dramatic abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924 as part of a longer trajectory of transregional cultural memory, revealing commonalities and differences in how modern Muslims have creatively interpreted and reinterpreted their heritage. The book examines how poignant memories of the lost caliphate have been evoked in Muslim culture, law, and politics, similar to the losses and repercussions experienced by other religious communities, including the destruction of the Second Temple for Jews and the fall of Rome for Christians. A global history, the book delves into why the caliphate has been so important to Muslims in vastly different eras and places.Less
In the United States and Europe, the word “caliphate” has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim culture remains poorly understood. This book explores the myriad meanings of the caliphate for Muslims around the world through the analytical lens of two key moments of loss in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. The book explores the rich constellation of interpretations created by religious scholars, historians, musicians, statesmen, poets, and intellectuals. The book fills a scholarly gap regarding Muslim reactions to the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in 1258 and challenges the notion that the Mongol onslaught signaled an end to the critical engagement of Muslim jurists and intellectuals with the idea of an Islamic caliphate. It also situates Muslim responses to the dramatic abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924 as part of a longer trajectory of transregional cultural memory, revealing commonalities and differences in how modern Muslims have creatively interpreted and reinterpreted their heritage. The book examines how poignant memories of the lost caliphate have been evoked in Muslim culture, law, and politics, similar to the losses and repercussions experienced by other religious communities, including the destruction of the Second Temple for Jews and the fall of Rome for Christians. A global history, the book delves into why the caliphate has been so important to Muslims in vastly different eras and places.
John C. Wilkinson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588268
- eISBN:
- 9780191595400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588268.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter discusses pre-Islamic religion and the conversion of the Arab tribes in Oman, how they drove the Persian occupants out and took possession of the settled lands. It then examines the ...
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This chapter discusses pre-Islamic religion and the conversion of the Arab tribes in Oman, how they drove the Persian occupants out and took possession of the settled lands. It then examines the conflicting histories of the ridda (apostasy) wars in some detail, not only because anything new relevant to the period of the Prophet and the immediate aftermath of his death is of concern to Muslim history, but also because the tribal and religious bias of the classical Arabic sources against the Yamani tribes and the much feared Ibâḍi ‘shurât’ has downplayed the role of Oman. The chapter concludes with an examination of the system of Caliphate government as it became incorporated into the Islamic state and the tribes became involved in campaigns in Sasanid territory, first based on Tawwaj and then on Basra (Ch IV), with the consequence that Oman itself lapsed into a tribal backwater under the pre-Islamic dynasty of the Julandâ.Less
This chapter discusses pre-Islamic religion and the conversion of the Arab tribes in Oman, how they drove the Persian occupants out and took possession of the settled lands. It then examines the conflicting histories of the ridda (apostasy) wars in some detail, not only because anything new relevant to the period of the Prophet and the immediate aftermath of his death is of concern to Muslim history, but also because the tribal and religious bias of the classical Arabic sources against the Yamani tribes and the much feared Ibâḍi ‘shurât’ has downplayed the role of Oman. The chapter concludes with an examination of the system of Caliphate government as it became incorporated into the Islamic state and the tribes became involved in campaigns in Sasanid territory, first based on Tawwaj and then on Basra (Ch IV), with the consequence that Oman itself lapsed into a tribal backwater under the pre-Islamic dynasty of the Julandâ.
Sara Savage and Jose Liht
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199548781
- eISBN:
- 9780191720673
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199548781.003.0025
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter outlines key ingredients of Islamist radical religious speech and the social psychological needs to which they appeal, particularly among second and third generation young Muslims living ...
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This chapter outlines key ingredients of Islamist radical religious speech and the social psychological needs to which they appeal, particularly among second and third generation young Muslims living in Europe and Britain. Key structural features of Islamist radical religious speech include: a three-part narrative, promoting low levels of complexity, rhetorical strategies, the closed way in which the belief system is organized, and the ‘rationalistic’ word-based emphasis. The chapter discusses the social psychological tendencies to which the extreme speech appeals: self-definitional uncertainty among young Muslims, intensified perceptions of ingroup and outgroups, and perceptions of the world-wide status hierarchy that is deemed unstable and liable to change (post 9/11). Extreme speech is most powerfully ‘activated’ under totalist group conditions.Less
This chapter outlines key ingredients of Islamist radical religious speech and the social psychological needs to which they appeal, particularly among second and third generation young Muslims living in Europe and Britain. Key structural features of Islamist radical religious speech include: a three-part narrative, promoting low levels of complexity, rhetorical strategies, the closed way in which the belief system is organized, and the ‘rationalistic’ word-based emphasis. The chapter discusses the social psychological tendencies to which the extreme speech appeals: self-definitional uncertainty among young Muslims, intensified perceptions of ingroup and outgroups, and perceptions of the world-wide status hierarchy that is deemed unstable and liable to change (post 9/11). Extreme speech is most powerfully ‘activated’ under totalist group conditions.
Andrew Marsham
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748625123
- eISBN:
- 9780748653157
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748625123.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This history explores the ceremony of the oath of allegiance to the caliph from the time of the Prophet Muhammad until the fragmentation of the caliphate in the late ninth and tenth centuries in ...
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This history explores the ceremony of the oath of allegiance to the caliph from the time of the Prophet Muhammad until the fragmentation of the caliphate in the late ninth and tenth centuries in Syria and Iraq. The book examines how caliphs sought to proclaim their status as the representatives of God's covenant on earth through syntheses of Roman and Iranian royal ritual and customs and practices brought from pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia. The study of royal rituals of accession and succession in Christian Rome, Byzantium and the early Medieval West has generated an extensive literature. This has however remained unexplored in scholarship on the Islamic world. This book redresses that by examining the ceremonial of accession to the caliphate in early Islam, covering the place of ritual in political practice, changes and continuities in that practice, and the problem of how best to understand accounts of ritual. The book also offers a contribution to major, current debates in Islamic history — development of Arab-Muslim identity and the formation of the ‘Islamic state’. Engaging with current debates about the reliability of the Islamic tradition for early Islamic history, the book identifies key turning-points in the formation of classical Islamic political culture. An early chapter discusses the importance of the Qur'an as a historical source for the time of the Prophet Muhammad.Less
This history explores the ceremony of the oath of allegiance to the caliph from the time of the Prophet Muhammad until the fragmentation of the caliphate in the late ninth and tenth centuries in Syria and Iraq. The book examines how caliphs sought to proclaim their status as the representatives of God's covenant on earth through syntheses of Roman and Iranian royal ritual and customs and practices brought from pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia. The study of royal rituals of accession and succession in Christian Rome, Byzantium and the early Medieval West has generated an extensive literature. This has however remained unexplored in scholarship on the Islamic world. This book redresses that by examining the ceremonial of accession to the caliphate in early Islam, covering the place of ritual in political practice, changes and continuities in that practice, and the problem of how best to understand accounts of ritual. The book also offers a contribution to major, current debates in Islamic history — development of Arab-Muslim identity and the formation of the ‘Islamic state’. Engaging with current debates about the reliability of the Islamic tradition for early Islamic history, the book identifies key turning-points in the formation of classical Islamic political culture. An early chapter discusses the importance of the Qur'an as a historical source for the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
Christian C. Sahner
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691179100
- eISBN:
- 9780691184180
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691179100.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? This book explains how Christians across the ...
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How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? This book explains how Christians across the early Islamic caliphate slowly converted to the faith of the Arab conquerors and how small groups of individuals rejected this faith through dramatic acts of resistance, including apostasy and blasphemy. Using previously untapped sources in a range of Middle Eastern languages, the book introduces an unknown group of martyrs who were executed at the hands of Muslim officials between the seventh and ninth centuries CE. Found in places as diverse as Syria, Spain, Egypt, and Armenia, they include an alleged descendant of Muhammad who converted to Christianity; high-ranking Christian secretaries of the Muslim state who viciously insulted the Prophet; and the children of mixed marriages between Muslims and Christians. The book argues that Christians never experienced systematic persecution under the early caliphs, and indeed, they remained the largest portion of the population in the greater Middle East for centuries after the Arab conquest. Still, episodes of ferocious violence contributed to the spread of Islam within Christian societies, and memories of this bloodshed played a key role in shaping Christian identity in the new Islamic empire. The book examines how violence against Christians ended the age of porous religious boundaries and laid the foundations for more antagonistic Muslim–Christian relations in the centuries to come.Less
How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? This book explains how Christians across the early Islamic caliphate slowly converted to the faith of the Arab conquerors and how small groups of individuals rejected this faith through dramatic acts of resistance, including apostasy and blasphemy. Using previously untapped sources in a range of Middle Eastern languages, the book introduces an unknown group of martyrs who were executed at the hands of Muslim officials between the seventh and ninth centuries CE. Found in places as diverse as Syria, Spain, Egypt, and Armenia, they include an alleged descendant of Muhammad who converted to Christianity; high-ranking Christian secretaries of the Muslim state who viciously insulted the Prophet; and the children of mixed marriages between Muslims and Christians. The book argues that Christians never experienced systematic persecution under the early caliphs, and indeed, they remained the largest portion of the population in the greater Middle East for centuries after the Arab conquest. Still, episodes of ferocious violence contributed to the spread of Islam within Christian societies, and memories of this bloodshed played a key role in shaping Christian identity in the new Islamic empire. The book examines how violence against Christians ended the age of porous religious boundaries and laid the foundations for more antagonistic Muslim–Christian relations in the centuries to come.
Mona Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691166780
- eISBN:
- 9781400883714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166780.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book explores the complex constellations of meanings and networks that shaped Muslim reactions to the remarkably ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book explores the complex constellations of meanings and networks that shaped Muslim reactions to the remarkably unexpected disappearance of an Islamic caliphate in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. It probes the collective memories encircling the caliphate, as an institution enmeshed with the early history of Islam, which circulated widely across Afro-Eurasia and created a shared sense of community among disparate peoples at the same time as it gave rise to differing and competing visions of the community's past, present, and future. The book asks two essential questions: What did Muslims imagine to be lost with the disappearance of the Abbasid and Ottoman caliphates in 1258 and 1924 respectively? And how did they attempt to recapture that perceived loss, and in doing so redefine the caliphate for their times, under shifting circumstances?Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book explores the complex constellations of meanings and networks that shaped Muslim reactions to the remarkably unexpected disappearance of an Islamic caliphate in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. It probes the collective memories encircling the caliphate, as an institution enmeshed with the early history of Islam, which circulated widely across Afro-Eurasia and created a shared sense of community among disparate peoples at the same time as it gave rise to differing and competing visions of the community's past, present, and future. The book asks two essential questions: What did Muslims imagine to be lost with the disappearance of the Abbasid and Ottoman caliphates in 1258 and 1924 respectively? And how did they attempt to recapture that perceived loss, and in doing so redefine the caliphate for their times, under shifting circumstances?
Peter Sarris
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199261260
- eISBN:
- 9780191730962
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199261260.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter details attempts on the part of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire to reverse the Arab conquests. Efforts on the part of the Emperors Constans II and Justinian II to restore Roman ...
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This chapter details attempts on the part of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire to reverse the Arab conquests. Efforts on the part of the Emperors Constans II and Justinian II to restore Roman control to the occupied territories are examined in detail, and the reasons for their failure elucidated. As divisions within the Arab elite were surmounted, the new political order in the Near East achieved a measure of stability and the world of the Caliphate acquired a more coherent and cohesive identity. The Arab conquest of North Africa effectively put an end to hopes for Byzantine revival, and the war-torn Empire of Constantinople itself entered a period of major internal cultural, ideological, and organizational reconfiguration. With Byzantine control of the central Mediterranean dislocated, the societies of the West would now follow new paths of developmentLess
This chapter details attempts on the part of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire to reverse the Arab conquests. Efforts on the part of the Emperors Constans II and Justinian II to restore Roman control to the occupied territories are examined in detail, and the reasons for their failure elucidated. As divisions within the Arab elite were surmounted, the new political order in the Near East achieved a measure of stability and the world of the Caliphate acquired a more coherent and cohesive identity. The Arab conquest of North Africa effectively put an end to hopes for Byzantine revival, and the war-torn Empire of Constantinople itself entered a period of major internal cultural, ideological, and organizational reconfiguration. With Byzantine control of the central Mediterranean dislocated, the societies of the West would now follow new paths of development
Massimo Campanini
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748639946
- eISBN:
- 9780748653294
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748639946.003.0012
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter attempts to place al-Ghazālī's political thought in the context of the Seljuq sultanate and the late Abbasid caliphate, based on the two premises: that al-Ghazālī's political thought is ...
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This chapter attempts to place al-Ghazālī's political thought in the context of the Seljuq sultanate and the late Abbasid caliphate, based on the two premises: that al-Ghazālī's political thought is as important as his theological thought; and that it is understandable only in the light of the political developments of his time. The chapter begins by formulating an answer to the issue of whether the Seljuqs revitalised Islam. It is argued that the Seljuqs somehow brought a measure of order to the chaotic Muslim world; however, in doing so, they sacrificed the prestige and the role of the caliphate. It has been debated whether the Seljuqs were the defenders or the enemies of the caliphate. In a sense, they defended the caliphate as they have allowed it to endure for a few centuries but from another point of view, they were enemies of the caliphate as they imposed a secular image of power against the religious legitimisation of the caliphal power. In other words, while the Seljuqs protected the caliphate institution from enemies and adversaries, they however made it evident that the management of power in Islam was no longer a question of the Islamic state but rather of an Islamic mode of the state. These contentions are examined closely in this chapter.Less
This chapter attempts to place al-Ghazālī's political thought in the context of the Seljuq sultanate and the late Abbasid caliphate, based on the two premises: that al-Ghazālī's political thought is as important as his theological thought; and that it is understandable only in the light of the political developments of his time. The chapter begins by formulating an answer to the issue of whether the Seljuqs revitalised Islam. It is argued that the Seljuqs somehow brought a measure of order to the chaotic Muslim world; however, in doing so, they sacrificed the prestige and the role of the caliphate. It has been debated whether the Seljuqs were the defenders or the enemies of the caliphate. In a sense, they defended the caliphate as they have allowed it to endure for a few centuries but from another point of view, they were enemies of the caliphate as they imposed a secular image of power against the religious legitimisation of the caliphal power. In other words, while the Seljuqs protected the caliphate institution from enemies and adversaries, they however made it evident that the management of power in Islam was no longer a question of the Islamic state but rather of an Islamic mode of the state. These contentions are examined closely in this chapter.
Mona Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691166780
- eISBN:
- 9781400883714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166780.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter establishes the intense desire and nostalgia for Baghdad as the Abbasid Caliphate's cosmopolitan capital and its centrality in the Muslim imaginary, among the near and the far. Poetry, ...
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This chapter establishes the intense desire and nostalgia for Baghdad as the Abbasid Caliphate's cosmopolitan capital and its centrality in the Muslim imaginary, among the near and the far. Poetry, historical chronicles, and scholarly literature from Muslim Spain in the west, Yemen in the south, and Egypt, western North Africa, geographical Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and India further east richly illustrate a shared perception among interconnected literary elites about the Abbasids' temporal and spiritual preeminence, despite all of their political reversals. For many premodern Muslims, the world without a caliph was so unimaginable that it boded the imminent end of time itself—an eschatological interpretation that reverses contemporaneous Christian views of empire.Less
This chapter establishes the intense desire and nostalgia for Baghdad as the Abbasid Caliphate's cosmopolitan capital and its centrality in the Muslim imaginary, among the near and the far. Poetry, historical chronicles, and scholarly literature from Muslim Spain in the west, Yemen in the south, and Egypt, western North Africa, geographical Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and India further east richly illustrate a shared perception among interconnected literary elites about the Abbasids' temporal and spiritual preeminence, despite all of their political reversals. For many premodern Muslims, the world without a caliph was so unimaginable that it boded the imminent end of time itself—an eschatological interpretation that reverses contemporaneous Christian views of empire.
Mona Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691166780
- eISBN:
- 9781400883714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166780.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter considers problematic questions of political and legal legitimacy for premodern Muslim states in the wake of the Abbasid Caliphate's demise. Similar to the self-image of Byzantium as a ...
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This chapter considers problematic questions of political and legal legitimacy for premodern Muslim states in the wake of the Abbasid Caliphate's demise. Similar to the self-image of Byzantium as a Second Rome or the way that medieval rulers in western Europe appropriated Roman symbols, the Mamluk State reinvented the Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo through elaborate rituals and ceremonies reminiscent of a glorious past, and legal scholars articulated creative jurisprudential solutions. Within Mamluk domains, the dilemma of caliphal absence was thus resolved by resurrecting the Abbasid Caliphate in Cairo as a doubly political and spiritual institution, where the caliph delegated his authority to govern to the sultan and radiated metaphysical blessings through his continued physical presence. This fraught relationship between caliphal authority and the wielding of power notably continued to surface as a magnet for political activity and debate, including the ever-potent threat of rebellion, over the centuries of Mamluk rule.Less
This chapter considers problematic questions of political and legal legitimacy for premodern Muslim states in the wake of the Abbasid Caliphate's demise. Similar to the self-image of Byzantium as a Second Rome or the way that medieval rulers in western Europe appropriated Roman symbols, the Mamluk State reinvented the Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo through elaborate rituals and ceremonies reminiscent of a glorious past, and legal scholars articulated creative jurisprudential solutions. Within Mamluk domains, the dilemma of caliphal absence was thus resolved by resurrecting the Abbasid Caliphate in Cairo as a doubly political and spiritual institution, where the caliph delegated his authority to govern to the sultan and radiated metaphysical blessings through his continued physical presence. This fraught relationship between caliphal authority and the wielding of power notably continued to surface as a magnet for political activity and debate, including the ever-potent threat of rebellion, over the centuries of Mamluk rule.
Mona Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691166780
- eISBN:
- 9781400883714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166780.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter begins with a discussion of how the embodied practice of the earliest generations of Muslims was essential in consolidating a nearly universal Islamic consensus upon the obligation of ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of how the embodied practice of the earliest generations of Muslims was essential in consolidating a nearly universal Islamic consensus upon the obligation of appointing a leader for the Muslim community. As such, the caliphate was incorporated into Sunni Islamic law as a legal necessity and a communal obligation, and Muslim scholars attempted to address the institution's increasing divergence from ideals over time. Following the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad in 656/1258, Muslim scholars of Mamluk Egypt and Syria drew from this rich tradition of Islamic political thought and jurisprudence to articulate creative solutions that bolstered the socio-legal foundations of the reconstituted caliphate in Cairo. As intellectual predecessors, teachers, disciples, colleagues, rivals, and adversaries, these premodern scholars were connected to each other through intricate social webs that traversed the centuries of Mamluk rule from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of how the embodied practice of the earliest generations of Muslims was essential in consolidating a nearly universal Islamic consensus upon the obligation of appointing a leader for the Muslim community. As such, the caliphate was incorporated into Sunni Islamic law as a legal necessity and a communal obligation, and Muslim scholars attempted to address the institution's increasing divergence from ideals over time. Following the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad in 656/1258, Muslim scholars of Mamluk Egypt and Syria drew from this rich tradition of Islamic political thought and jurisprudence to articulate creative solutions that bolstered the socio-legal foundations of the reconstituted caliphate in Cairo. As intellectual predecessors, teachers, disciples, colleagues, rivals, and adversaries, these premodern scholars were connected to each other through intricate social webs that traversed the centuries of Mamluk rule from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
Mona Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691166780
- eISBN:
- 9781400883714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166780.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter considers a protracted poetic debate between one of the last Ottoman şeyhülislams Mustafa Sabri and the Egyptian Prince of Poets Aṭmad Shawqī, conducted through the Egyptian press in the ...
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This chapter considers a protracted poetic debate between one of the last Ottoman şeyhülislams Mustafa Sabri and the Egyptian Prince of Poets Aṭmad Shawqī, conducted through the Egyptian press in the 1920s, to illustrate how modern regional contexts and professional affiliations created divergent interpretations of the Ottoman Caliphate's significance, even among those Muslim elites who shared an intense devotion to defending its legacy. For Mustafa Sabri, who hailed from the Ottoman religious hierarchy, the abolition of the caliphate meant a loss of the primacy of Islamic law, whereas for Aṭmad Shawqī, who assailed the British with his poetic pen, it meant the loss of the last great Muslim power in an age of colonialism.Less
This chapter considers a protracted poetic debate between one of the last Ottoman şeyhülislams Mustafa Sabri and the Egyptian Prince of Poets Aṭmad Shawqī, conducted through the Egyptian press in the 1920s, to illustrate how modern regional contexts and professional affiliations created divergent interpretations of the Ottoman Caliphate's significance, even among those Muslim elites who shared an intense devotion to defending its legacy. For Mustafa Sabri, who hailed from the Ottoman religious hierarchy, the abolition of the caliphate meant a loss of the primacy of Islamic law, whereas for Aṭmad Shawqī, who assailed the British with his poetic pen, it meant the loss of the last great Muslim power in an age of colonialism.
Alain George and Andrew Marsham (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190498931
- eISBN:
- 9780190498955
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190498931.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Non-Classical
The Umayyads, the first Islamic dynasty, ruled over the largest empire that the world had seen, stretching from Spain in the west to the Indus Valley and Central Asia in the east. They played a ...
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The Umayyads, the first Islamic dynasty, ruled over the largest empire that the world had seen, stretching from Spain in the west to the Indus Valley and Central Asia in the east. They played a crucial rule in the articulation of the new religion of Islam during the seventh and eighth centuries, shaping its public face, artistic expressions, and the state apparatus that sustained it. The present volume brings together a collection of essays that bring new light to this crucial period of world history, with a focus on the ways in which Umayyad elites fashioned and projected their image and how these articulations, in turn, mirrored their times. These themes are approached through a wide variety of sources, from texts through art and archaeology to architecture, with new considerations of old questions and fresh material evidence that make the intersections and resonances between different fields of historical study come alive.Less
The Umayyads, the first Islamic dynasty, ruled over the largest empire that the world had seen, stretching from Spain in the west to the Indus Valley and Central Asia in the east. They played a crucial rule in the articulation of the new religion of Islam during the seventh and eighth centuries, shaping its public face, artistic expressions, and the state apparatus that sustained it. The present volume brings together a collection of essays that bring new light to this crucial period of world history, with a focus on the ways in which Umayyad elites fashioned and projected their image and how these articulations, in turn, mirrored their times. These themes are approached through a wide variety of sources, from texts through art and archaeology to architecture, with new considerations of old questions and fresh material evidence that make the intersections and resonances between different fields of historical study come alive.
B. R. Nanda
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195658279
- eISBN:
- 9780199081394
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195658279.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
The Hindu–Muslim conflict was a major problem during the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. This book shows how Mahatma Gandhi resolved the conflict and even united the Hindus and the ...
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The Hindu–Muslim conflict was a major problem during the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. This book shows how Mahatma Gandhi resolved the conflict and even united the Hindus and the Muslims. It presents a detailed introduction to the Khilafat (Pan-Islamist) movement, a venture that Gandhi supported whole-heartedly. The discussion looks at Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement, which, he believed, could help bridge the gap between the two communities. It discusses concepts such as mass civil disobedience and the Caliphate, and studies notable events such as the brief alliance between the British Raj and the Indian Muslims and the Mappila Rebellion. It also takes note of the responses of the British officials towards Gandhi’s efforts and the confrontation that nearly occurred between the Viceroy and Gandhi. The book introduces readers to some of the people who participated and contributed to these events, including the Ali Brothers, Syed Ahmad Khan, and Ameer Ali.Less
The Hindu–Muslim conflict was a major problem during the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. This book shows how Mahatma Gandhi resolved the conflict and even united the Hindus and the Muslims. It presents a detailed introduction to the Khilafat (Pan-Islamist) movement, a venture that Gandhi supported whole-heartedly. The discussion looks at Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement, which, he believed, could help bridge the gap between the two communities. It discusses concepts such as mass civil disobedience and the Caliphate, and studies notable events such as the brief alliance between the British Raj and the Indian Muslims and the Mappila Rebellion. It also takes note of the responses of the British officials towards Gandhi’s efforts and the confrontation that nearly occurred between the Viceroy and Gandhi. The book introduces readers to some of the people who participated and contributed to these events, including the Ali Brothers, Syed Ahmad Khan, and Ameer Ali.
