God's Rule - Government and Islam: Six Centuries of Medieval Islamic Political Thought

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Patricia Crone

God's Rule - Government and Islam

Six Centuries of Medieval Islamic Political Thought

Patricia Crone

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English

Columbia University Press
07 December 2005

Islam; Politics & government

Patricia Crone's God's Rule is a fundamental reconstruction and analysis of Islamic political thought focusing on its intellectual development during the six centuries from the rise of Islam to the Mongol invasions. Based on a wide variety of primary sources-including some not previously considered from the point of view of political thought-this is the first book to examine the medieval Muslim answers to questions crucial to any Western understanding of Middle Eastern politics today, such as why states are necessary, what functions they are meant to fulfill, and whether or why they must be based on religious law.

The character of Muslim political thought differs fundamentally from its counterpart in the West. The Christian West started with the conviction that truth (both cognitive and moral) and political power belonged to separate spheres. Ultimately, both power and truth originated with God, but they had distinct historical trajectories and regulated different aspects of life. The Muslims started with the opposite conviction: truth and power appeared at the same time in history and regulated the same aspects of life. In medieval Europe, the disagreement over the relationship between religious authority and political power took the form of a protracted controversy regarding the roles of church and state. In the medieval Middle East, religious authority and political power were embedded in a single, divinely sanctioned Islamic community-a congregation and state made one. The disagreement, therefore, took the form of a protracted controversy over the nature and function of the leadership of Islam itself. Crone makes Islamic political thought accessible by relating it to the contexts in which it was formulated, analyzing it in terms familiar to today's reader, and, where possible, comparing it with medieval European and modern political thought. By examining the ideological point of departure for medieval Islamic political thought, Crone provides an invaluable foundation for a better understanding of contemporary Middle Eastern politics and current world events.

By: Patricia Crone
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 36mm
Weight: 652g
ISBN: 9780231132916
ISBN 10: 0231132913
Pages: 472
Publication Date: 07 December 2005
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Patricia Crone is Mellon Professor of Islamic History at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She is author of several books including Pre-industrial Societies: Anatomy of the Pre-modern World; Roman, Provincial, and Islamic Law; Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam; and Slaves on Horses: the Evolution of Islamic Polity.

Reviews for God's Rule - Government and Islam: Six Centuries of Medieval Islamic Political Thought

This rich and wide-ranging book... is stimulating and provocative... [Crone's] lucid style aims to make a complex, ostensibly alien, tradition intelligible to the general reader as well as to the Islamic specialist. Times Literary Supplement The book is a masterpiece on the history of the tension existing between religion and politics. -- Peter von Sivers Middle East Journal The author, a distinguished Islamic scholar, cuts through a welter of misconceptions. -- Robert Lebling Saudi Aramco World Patricia Crone gracefully covers the first six centuries of Islamic political thought. -- Zouhair Ghazzal Historian Students today... will benefit greatly from this welcome study of early Islamic political thought. -- Ronald J. Stansbury Christian Scolar's Review