Antony Black - History of Islamic Political Thought

The History of Islamic Political Thought

From the Prophet to the Present

Second Edition

ANTONY BLACK

Edinburgh University Press

To Aileen, and Christopher

Antony Black, 2001, 2011

First published 2001 by
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com

Second edition 2011

Reprinted 2012

Typeset in Trump Medieval
by Koinonia, Bury, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

A CIP record for this book is available
from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 7486 3986 1 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 3987 8 (paperback)

The right of Antony Black
to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

T his aspires to be a complete history of Islamic political thought from the beginning (c.622) to the present. It aims to be both a description and an interpretation. I have explored the milieu, meaning and significance of thinkers, ideas and political cultures. This work encompasses religion, law, ethics, philosophy and statecraft. These have been expressed in systematic treatises, occasional writings, official rhetoric and popular slogans.

The history of Islamic political thought is a gripping story in its own right. Up to now it has been neglected by all but a few specialists. Islam was, and is, one of the most powerful means of explaining human life and giving meaning to our activity. As a political ideology, it has motivated, and still motivates, individuals and groups. It is especially important today because, rightly or wrongly, it is perceived as the antagonist of Western values. Yet little attention has been paid to the history of Islamic political thought. One cannot understand political Islam today without understanding where it is coming from. Political and social movements within contemporary Islam are at least partly grounded on ideas; ideas based on historical precedents and earlier models.

The present volume was conceived as the first stage in a systematic comparison between the histories of Western and Islamic political thought. This seemed to be the best way forward if one wanted to throw new light on why either tradition developed in the way that it did. The rationale, indeed urgency, of such comparison is further discussed in the Introduction (see also Black 2009). I have attempted to consummate this undertaking in The West and Islam: Religion and Political Thought in World History (2008). In recent years, comparative political thought has become increasingly popular. Sometimes it means little more than incorporating non-Western ideas and authors into the study of political theory (Dallmayr 2010) an admirable enterprise, but not strictly comparative, multi-cultural rather than inter-cultural.

There are several reasons why a second edition is necessary. The first edition was published in July 2001. Since the jihadist attack on the United States in September 2001, there have been developments in Muslim political thought that need to be seen in a broad historical context. I have attempted to incorporate the new trends in Islamic political thinking, reformist no less than Islamist. The relationship between Islamic and Western political thinking has become a matter of urgency.

), that less sophisticated humans have within them resources of spirit that others fail to recognise at their peril. They might have thought twice about playboy acts of childish (because not properly thought-out) revenge not the best advertisement, you might say, for a civilisation that some claim to be Christian. And these gave their opponents a kudos they did not deserve.

There have been advances in scholarship in recent years. Patricia Crones Medieval Islamic Political Thought (2004a) stands out as a combination of precise analysis and broad insights. The works of Wael B. Hallaq (1997, 2005) throw new light on the development of law and jurisprudence. Abdesselam Cheddadi (2006) has given us the most complete analysis and reinterpretation of Ibn Khaldun to date. Finally, there are the imperfections in ones work which one only becomes aware of over time. It is a bonus to be able to remedy these.

The book is divided into five parts: the period of Western influence and interaction, from c.1830 until today.

For this second edition, I have reorganised, supplemented and completely re-written remain as they were in the first edition.

I have attempted to present ideas remote from ourselves in time and place as far as possible in the idiom of those who expressed them and in the categories of their own culture. Many of the categories of European historiography (such as medieval, renaissance, feudalism and class) are not directly applicable to the Islamic world, and I have avoided them where possible. I have given the meaning of original words or concepts (for example, Shari'a) at its first mention and in the Glossary; I have subsequently used either the original term or the closest English equivalent (with a capital letter: Law, Code, Religious Law). Diacritical marks are omitted in the main text but are given in the Glossary and Index. Sometimes terms like religio-political or moral-legal best describe what is being discussed. Dates are based on the (Western) Common Era (BC/AD).