Caliphate: The History of an Idea

Kennedy (The Great Arab Conquests), a medieval historian and professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London, follows the threads of the centuries-long debate within the wider Islamic community over how to establish a secular system of governance capable of enforcing divine law. With no blueprint in the Qur’an and little thought given during the Prophet Muhammad’s life as to what would come after, early Muslims struggled to decide how rulers should be chosen, what their roles should be, and how laws should be adjudicated and applied. The various caliphates were no more nefarious or violent than any other type of government, and Kennedy’s engrossing and entertaining introduction highlights their impressive diversity. Many caliphs were great patrons of the arts and intellectual pursuits. For example, Abbasid Baghdad was “the first society in the history of the world in which a man or a woman could make a living as an author.” Fatimid caliph Haˉkim, on the other hand, “made decrees and new laws entirely on his own initiative, neither taking advice nor supporting them with traditions and precedents.” The Ottoman title of caliph “was never more than a vague honorific,” and its final abolition in 1924 changed little in the Muslim world, but Kennedy clearly shows the continuing power of this idea to incite controversy. (Oct.)