Islam, the State, and Political Authority

Islam, the State, and Political Authority

Author: A. Afsaruddin

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2011-12-05

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 1137002026

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The expert essays in this volume deal with critically important topics concerning Islam and politics in both the pre-modern and modern periods, such as the nature of government, the relationship between politics and theology, Shi'i conceptions of statecraft, notions of public duty, and the compatibility of Islam and democratic governance.


State and Government in Medieval Islam

State and Government in Medieval Islam

Author: Ann K. S. Lambton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-28

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 1136605207

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First published in 2004. For the Muslim the foundation from which all discussion of government starts is the law of God, the sharī‘a. Theoretically pre-existing and eternal, it represents absolute good. It is prior to the community and the state.‘ Part of London Oriental Series, this volume’s concern wis with the political ideas of the period extending from the 2nd/8th century to the 11th/17th century and to the central lands of the caliphate, including Persia, and North Africa.


God's Rule

God's Rule

Author: Patricia Crone

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 9780231132916

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Patricia Crone's God's Rule is a fundamental reconstruction and analysis of Islamic political thought focusing on its intellectual development during the six centuries from the rise of Islam to the Mongol invasions. Based on a wide variety of primary sources--including some not previously considered from the point of view of political thought--this is the first book to examine the medieval Muslim answers to questions crucial to any Western understanding of Middle Eastern politics today, such as why states are necessary, what functions they are meant to fulfill, and whether or why they must be based on religious law. The character of Muslim political thought differs fundamentally from its counterpart in the West. The Christian West started with the conviction that truth (both cognitive and moral) and political power belonged to separate spheres. Ultimately, both power and truth originated with God, but they had distinct historical trajectories and regulated different aspects of life. The Muslims started with the opposite conviction: truth and power appeared at the same time in history and regulated the same aspects of life. In medieval Europe, the disagreement over the relationship between religious authority and political power took the form of a protracted controversy regarding the roles of church and state. In the medieval Middle East, religious authority and political power were embedded in a single, divinely sanctioned Islamic community--a congregation and state made one. The disagreement, therefore, took the form of a protracted controversy over the nature and function of the leadership of Islam itself. Crone makes Islamic political thought accessible by relating it to the contexts in which it was formulated, analyzing it in terms familiar to today's reader, and, where possible, comparing it with medieval European and modern political thought. By examining the ideological point of departure for medieval Islamic political thought, Crone provides an invaluable foundation for a better understanding of contemporary Middle Eastern politics and current world events.


Political Thought in Medieval Islam

Political Thought in Medieval Islam

Author: Erwin I. J. Rosenthal

Publisher: CUP Archive

Published: 1958

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13:

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Dr Rosenthal discusses the later Muslim philosophers who were influenced by the political thought of Plato and Aristotle. He shows how Greek thought modified the Islamic and yet was always subordinated to Muslim categories of thought and political needs. Dr Rosenthal thus surveys the chief traditions of Islamic political thought from the eighth to the end of the fifteenth centuries.


Medieval Islamic Political Thought

Medieval Islamic Political Thought

Author: Patricia Crone

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2014-03-11

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 0748696504

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This book presents general readers and specialists alike with a broad survey of Islamic political thought in the six centuries from the rise of Islam to the Mongol invasions.


The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State

The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State

Author: Noah Feldman

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-01-10

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1400824079

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Perhaps no other Western writer has more deeply probed the bitter struggle in the Muslim world between the forces of religion and law and those of violence and lawlessness as Noah Feldman. His scholarship has defined the stakes in the Middle East today. Now, in this incisive book, Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the shari'a--the law of the traditional Islamic state--in the modern Muslim world. Western powers call it a threat to democracy. Islamist movements are winning elections on it. Terrorists use it to justify their crimes. What, then, is the shari'a? Given the severity of some of its provisions, why is it popular among Muslims? Can the Islamic state succeed--should it? Feldman reveals how the classical Islamic constitution governed through and was legitimated by law. He shows how executive power was balanced by the scholars who interpreted and administered the shari'a, and how this balance of power was finally destroyed by the tragically incomplete reforms of the modern era. The result has been the unchecked executive dominance that now distorts politics in so many Muslim states. Feldman argues that a modern Islamic state could provide political and legal justice to today's Muslims, but only if new institutions emerge that restore this constitutional balance of power. The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State gives us the sweeping history of the traditional Islamic constitution--its noble beginnings, its downfall, and the renewed promise it could hold for Muslims and Westerners alike.


Islam and the Secular State

Islam and the Secular State

Author: Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2010-03-30

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0674261445

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What should be the place of Shari‘a—Islamic religious law—in predominantly Muslim societies of the world? In this ambitious and topical book, a Muslim scholar and human rights activist envisions a positive and sustainable role for Shari‘a, based on a profound rethinking of the relationship between religion and the secular state in all societies. An-Na‘im argues that the coercive enforcement of Shari‘a by the state betrays the Qur’an’s insistence on voluntary acceptance of Islam. Just as the state should be secure from the misuse of religious authority, Shari‘a should be freed from the control of the state. State policies or legislation must be based on civic reasons accessible to citizens of all religions. Showing that throughout the history of Islam, Islam and the state have normally been separate, An-Na‘im maintains that ideas of human rights and citizenship are more consistent with Islamic principles than with claims of a supposedly Islamic state to enforce Shari‘a. In fact, he suggests, the very idea of an “Islamic state” is based on European ideas of state and law, and not Shari‘a or the Islamic tradition. Bold, pragmatic, and deeply rooted in Islamic history and theology, Islam and the Secular State offers a workable future for the place of Shari‘a in Muslim societies.


Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment

Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment

Author: Ahmet T. Kuru

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-08

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1108419097

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Analyzes Muslim countries' contemporary problems, particularly violence, authoritarianism, and underdevelopment, comparing their historical levels of development with Western Europe.


The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Author: Gerhard Bowering

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 704

ISBN-13: 0691134847

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"In 2012, the year 1433 of the Muslim calendar, the Islamic population throughout the world was estimated at approximately a billion and a half, representing about one-fifth of humanity. In geographical terms, Islam occupies the center of the world, stretching like a big belt across the globe from east to west."--P. vii.