is this something that you study in other classes?
it is important to talk about — but I am certainly not an expert
From hadiths:
https://sunnah.com/muslim/33
Early Muslim history
Pre-Muslim Arabian peninsula
what did it look like?
political organization?
cultural and religious influences …
eg. the Jewish culture of Yemen
Give an overview of the earliest Muslim history
the Rashidun caliphate
the Sunni-Shia split
why does this happen?
The Arab expansion
why are they expanding? — unbelievable success actually … from 632 to 732 — Battle of Tours in France
it cannot be as a way to spread the faith — the faith is spread much later
how to explain their success?
the military advantage of fast horses
Bedouins and Berbers
overrun areas very quickly
A very obvious empire envy …
they are so primitive and the Byzantines and the Sassanians are so sophisticated
why did they get this idea?
the persistence of previous societies
the Muslims are a very small minority
continue to rely on Greek speakers
this is still a Christian world
The caliphates
imperial caliphates
Give an account of each …
Umayyads
Abbasids — Persian cultural influence
Andalucia
Questions
What are the problems here?
problems of succession
problems of teaching
problems of political organization
there are no institutions in place — constant problem
Successor to Muhammad, but in what sense?
not as prophet — that’s impossible by definition
as political leader — as law-giver –
Is this position given by God?
that would give the caliph enormous power
this is a common position, but problematic
the caliph would …
enforce the religious rules
the role of religious scholars? What about theologians? Islamic law? Philosopher?
the ulama is growing — in size and in power — what is the role of the caliph if they take over the right to make laws?
Plato
We only mentioned him briefly before — in connection with fear of water — but The Republic
philosophers are chosen to rule — philosopher kings
easy to equate this with an imam — imamate — or with a caliph — caliphate
a ruler with very unique qualities
knowledge of the forms
Plato’s cave and all that …
In the Muslim tradition:
similar conclusions from Al Farabi and Ibn Rushd
and if the ruler is not a philosopher, the philosophers should try to influence him
Western alternative:
the state and the community with separate origin
a state of statelessness before the first state
unthink the state — a common utopian dream
Crone’s anarchists:
daily prayers are required but not an imam and an imamate
we could have temporary imams
or functionally specific ones
or different ones at the same time — groping towards federalism …
Constant problem:
What to do with rulers who weren’t any good?
What is that unique philosopher king doesn’t show up?
Cf. the problem of virtue in politics — the US constitution or whatever — a government by and for angels
immoral rulers etc. — those who fell away from the true faith
what loyalty do you have to them?
Alternatives:
stay loyal no matter what — the cruel ruler is God’s punishment for our sins
rebel — the right to resist
anarchist alternative (Crone)
Historical reality:
Not so much loyalty — constant cases of fitna — civil wars within the Muslim community
endless fights regarding the spoils of war
“imperial overstretch” — the enormous size of the Arab empire makes it fall apart — there is too much cultural and ethnic diversity
Aristotle: Human being as a zoon politikon
there is a strong connection here — Aristotle influence on the Muslim tradition — and on the Christian medieval
how did this influence happen?
the two translation movements …
European Middle Ages:
Aristotle as “the Philosopher” and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) as “the Commentator”
The role of the polis
In Aristotle:
only the city can make us into human beings — develop our reason
outside of the city we are animals
in the Muslim tradition:
we need to live under the law — the law of God — sharia
we need an enforcer of the law — only in this way can we become good Muslims
Bedouin alternative
Why didn’t they just go with the Bedouin alternative?
It was there after all …
very different kind of social and political organization
but many Bedouins weren’t very good Muslims …
The Muslim community as civil society
This is also an alternative of sorts — the Muslim community organizes itself after all — many different groups and sects — they have their own social live
why would they need a state?
different from medieval Christianity which has a centralized administration
very Roman in a way …
Compare the situation in Uyghuristan
Islam provides the kind of civil society protection that drives the Chinese state crazy
Aristotle: The role of rationality
The reception of Aristotle as another source of authority
he was pre-Christian and pre-Islamic
Greek gods were very different
natural/human reason as a source of authority
an empirical investigations
what is the relationship between these two?
can logic limit the power of God?
eg.
we can logically deduce that 2+2 is 4 — can God change this?
if not, can logic constrain him?
Different positions:
faith comes before reason
reason comes before faith
the two can be combined — faith for the people, philosophy for the elites
Implications for politics
what can reason tell us about the constitution of the state?
natural law?
perhaps something about right to life — right to property — right to move etc.
would this regime fit with the idea of the caliphate as enforcer of God’s law?
can a liberal or democratic order be deduced from these natural premises?
Ibn Khaldun and assabiyah
Something about his life …
interested in the life of Bedouins
The story of the Almoravids and the Almohads
how Africans invaded Europe
but Ibn Haldun is also referring to the original Muslim expansion
how this becomes an entire sociology of history
he is thinking like a social scientist — patters of social organization and change
Muqaddimah, 1377
the famous prolegomena
a lot of emphasis on economic affairs
social classes
asabiyyah
what is this concept?
seems like a kind of nationalism …
doesn’t this go against the idea of a caliphate?
the rise and fall of cities, empires, civilizations
The history of the caliphate
There are many different versions
some theocratic and repressive, some very open and diverse — we will talk more about that next week …
The Ottomans didn’t really need it
they were sultans above all (although they had a lot of different titles)
really only emerged at the end of the 19th century as a way to gain allegiance from independent-minded Arabs
as a kind of Ottomanism
The dream of the caliphate
A Christian idea too
the body of the Christian community
cf. the EU as a Catholic community
the Catholic church as very slow in admitting international law etc.
Christian utopian communities
the United States — at least in the minds of some of the early settlers
ISIS and all that
“radicalization” as a strange term
the problem for Muslim countries
they have outlawed Hizb ut-Tahrir, including Turkey
which is a little strange … threat to the nation-state
they emphasized natural law — there is no need for a state for the wise man who follows natural law
hierarchies and social distinctions are not given to us by nature
society and the state have radically different sources
Cf. Christian ideas about the Fall
the Garden of Eden as a pre-state condition
kings were a sort of punishment for the sins of man — instituted by God — divine right of kings
as a result, Westerners have been able to unthink the state
Western anarchism is always an idea of a return to a prelapsarian state
“the Western tradition has always had a tool labelled ‘does God/nature really want us to have rulers”‘
Muslim premises:
structures of domination have always existed and always will — the universe itself is a kingdom — God is the king and he rules by legislating
the law of God is not in “the hearts of men” and it cannot be reached by “natural reason” — instead it was obvious through legislation
divine law engendered human government: “You acknowledged God as your king by accepting membership of His polity, to live by His law as brought and executed by His agents”
Government has always existed — it was always coercive — always out to punish sinners
there is no myth of a world before government
but instead always myths about the ideal government
the 4 first caliphs — the Rashidun caliphate
politics and religion are fused — they are political and military leaders
“Ideal government was government by an imam, a communal leader who modelled himself on God’s law and who thus set an example to be imitated.” — Adam — then Muhammad — then all the different caliphs
pre-Islamic life was unorderly, Jahiliyya — a state or amorality and disorder — only shored up by Islam and the possibility of an Islamic life
Corruption in two directions:
Those who ignored God and arrogated all power to themselves — a king who wants power at God’s expense
how Muslims had lived in pre-Islamic societies
rulers and peoples who forgot about God
“You could not have a moral order without a revealed law, and you could not have a revealed law without an imam to enforce it.”
“it’s not easy to see how they could get to anarchism from there”
From imamate to kingship
as so often divine law and human government were at loggerheads
the Abbasids were too much like Pharoes — what to do about it?
Different views:
overthrow them
quietist position — better to suffer in silence
the bad ruler as punishment for their sins
Anarchist arguments
if an imam turns into a king, Muslims are legally obliged to right him and depose him
but civil wars are indeed terrible
the best thing is not to set them up in the first place
there might be a perfect ruler in the future, but why risk it?
the first imams were chosen by the community, but this is no longer the case — there could be no imam again, better look for alternatives
daily prayers etc are required by the religion, but an imam is not
since people can follow Islam without one, an imam is not logically necessary
the imamate was a human convention, nothing more
Managing without an imam
an authority of some kind was needed in order to punish moral transgressors
people taking the law in their own hands
enforcing the moral law
or perhaps fathers and local leaders
recipe for actual anarchy
perhaps a temporary imam
retire after the punishment
perhaps many local ones at the same time
grappling with the concept of federation
but this was even more of a crime than no imam at all
tribal traditions — loosely defined as libertarian
but no idea of returning to pre-Islamic traditions
Comparison with Western anarchism
no ideas about social reorganization, equality or end of property rights
no Communism
“What they minded was not the existence of coercive power but rather its distribution”
The Najdite Islam
“Najdite Islam was a do-it-yourself religion. Politically and intellectually a Najdite would have no master apart from God.”
Conclusion
for the Greeks it was the same thing — Aristotle: human life is not possible outside of the state
Muslims: only in a state can you be a slave of God’s — not subject to the rule of humans
but in both cases the political life was undermined by empires
Alexander destroyed the city-state
Muslim conquerors made an empire out of Medina
“Real politics now meant kingship, which the Greeks and Muslims alike equated with enslavement. Read freedom now meant transcending politics, to find the meaning of one’s life elsewhere.”
Muslim writers on the state
Al-Fārābī
Philosophy without the Gaps, “State of Mind: al-Fārābī on Religion and Politics”
compare the leaders to a part of the body
Al Farabi — the rulers as the heart — follows Aristotle — this is where reason rests
compares the good ruler to a doctor
imposes good order
Godlilock’s theory of justice
influenced by Aristotle and above all Plato — Abbasids — but took the city, polis, as being the basic unit
madani — medina
the city needs to be ruled by philosophers
the whole people can become virtuous
the virtuous ruler will guide them
handing down of laws
theory of prophecy
the best possible ruler will receive messages
visions of the future
what to do when the perfect ruler dies?
just follow the law
and when that isn’t enough — just following jurisprudence, fikr
grammar
Al Farabi — grammar culturally specific — logic is universal
religion as cultural — and jurists take it was universal
Further Reading
C.E. Butterworth (trans.), Alfarabi: The Political Writings (Ithaca: 2001).
T.-A. Druart (1996), “Al-Fārābī, Ethics and First Intelligibles,” Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 7 (1996), 403-23.
D.M. Dunlop, Al-Fārābī: Aphorisms of the Statesman (Cambridge: 1961).
E. Gannagé et al. (eds), The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought, special issue of Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 62 (2004).
J. Lameer, “The Philosopher and the Prophet: Greek Parallels to al-Fārābī’s Theory of Philosophy and Religion in the State,” Perspectives arabes et médiévales sur la tradition scientifique et philosophique grecque, ed. A. Hasnawi et al (Paris: 1997), 609-22.
M. Mahdi, Alfarabi and the Foundations of Islamic Political Philosophy (Chicago: 2001).
R. Walzer, Al-Fārābī on the Perfect State (Oxford: 1985).
rise and fall of empires, caliphates and whole civilization
assabiya — a group of people bound together
political changes come in cycles
feelings of solidarity
consolidating power
feelings for luxury
all this happened in Andalusia
the Berbers
Umayyads
Almoravids
Almahads
but also explain the Arab expansion
Christians had retaken most in Ibn Khaldun’s time
Ibn Khaldun tried to give help to anyone trying to unite an empire
ended up in Cairo, died in 1406
Mongols were appearing — Tamerlane — met him in Damascus in 1401
he looked forward to a united north Africa
but prevented by the Mamlucks
didn’t believe a unified political entity could be imposed on ethnically diverse populations
Historical method
he has a realistic and empiricist view of history
not just follow authority
presents himself as the first philosophical historian
not a normative account
humans are political animals
this is the natural history of politics
religious fervor adds to Bedouin assabiya — true of original Arab expansion —
Story of Ali — why his own rule was so contested
“they ruled over men like me, I rule over people like you”
they are losing their military virtues too
sedentary culture is good too though
science and culture
philosophy etc
Arabs were too nomadic to contribute to philosophy and science — most of the big names were Persians etc. — that is, city dwellers
Cairo as example
that’s where he ended up
Hugh Kennedy on the caliphate
ISIS edits out
the diversity of solutions
the combination with actual human life
multiculturalism and diversity
Issues
what power should the caliphate have?
who should be elected
there are many different answers
including the modern relevance
would there be a leader?
how to pick one?
Qurashi leaders take the initiative
Abu Bhakar
Caliph as — two different meanings … profound implications:
God’s deputy … gives him an enormous power — most people would tend to this interpretation
as the successor of Muhammad — couldn’t be another prophet — there was no such person — but would have to take care of the political and admin tasks — but should he be able to interpret the Quran — determine Islamic law
in the Quran mentioned twice:
Adam
David with the temple
also commander of the faithful
but this was less contested
makes great difference which one you pick
ruler as monarchical head
how much power should be give to the caliph
Imperial caliphate
first four — Rashidun — the come to define the office
Sunnis loved them all
Shia the first three deprived Ali of his rightful power — Osman already was a bad guy
fear of fitna
Umayyads gain power
they were from Medina, but had opposed Muhammad
monarchical power of the caliph
decided on legal cases
legitimacy deficit
the Abassids take over
the family of the prophet
but descendants of the Prophet’s uncle not Muhammad himself
an imperial caliphate
similar to the Roman empire
9th century CE, the caliph tries to impose an interpretation of Islam
collecting paraphernalia of the caliph — sword of the prophet etc — check out Topkapi to this day — but basically an add-on
abolition of the sultanate — 1922-1924 they are not sultans but still caliphs
ISIS
most Muslim reformers — a caliphate is a distant prospect
we must reform the Muslim community first
become worthy subjects of a caliphate
expel the foreigners and so on
revivalist idea of the caliphate
in the 1950s
very selective view of the caliphate
secret teachings of the Quran
knowledge is power
idea unlikely to die
get away from a narrow interpretation
not necessarily evil or fascist
Dr Abdul Wahid, “Why I joined Hizb ut-Tahrir”
Hizb ut-Tahrir has been banned in Bangladesh, China, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, and all Arab countries except Lebanon, Yemen and the UAE. In July 2017, the Indonesian government revoked Hizb ut-Tahrir’s legal status, citing incompatibility with government regulations on extremism and national ideology