God's Caliph
Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam

This study examines how religious authority was distributed in early Islam.

Patricia Crone (Author), Martin Hinds (Author)

9780521541114, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 September 2003

164 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1 cm, 0.21 kg

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.

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.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]