God's Caliph
God's Caliph
Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam
Patricia Crone
Martin Hinds
Martin Hinds
September 2003
Available
Paperback
9780521541114
$30.00
USDPaperback
This study examines how religious authority was distributed in early Islam. It argues the case that, as in Shi'ism, it was concentrated in the head of state, rather than dispersed among learned laymen as in Sunnism. Originally the caliph was both head of state and ultimate source of religious law; the Sunni pattern represents the outcome of a conflict between the caliph and early scholars who, as spokesmen of the community, assumed religious leadership for themselves. Many Islamicists have assumed the Shi'ite concept of the imamate to be a deviant development. In contrast, this book argues that it is an archaism preserving the concept of religious authority with which all Muslims began.
Product details
September 2003Paperback
9780521541114
164 pages
216 × 140 × 18 mm
0.227kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The title khalifat Allah
- 3. The Umayyad conception of the caliphate
- 4. Caliphal law
- 5. From caliphal to Prophetic sunna
- 6. Epilogue
- Appendices
- Index.
