God's Caliph : Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications) (Paperback) (Patricia Crone, Martin Hinds)

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ISBN: 0521541115
Author: Patricia Crone, Martin Hinds
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Reprint edition (September 18, 2003)
Pages: 163 Binding: Paperback

Description from the publisher:

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.

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.

View the Introduction (PDF file)