Rituals of Islamic Monarchy
Accession and Succession in the First Muslim Empire
Published on 31. May 2009
Book
Hardback
360 pages
978-0-7486-2512-3 (ISBN)
Description
Rituals of Islamic Monarchy is a history of the oath of allegiance by which the caliph was recognised at his accession. It begins in pre-Islamic Arabia and traces the development of a formal ceremonial of Islamic monarchy in Syria and Iraq during the 7th-9th centuries CE. It examines how the caliphs sought to proclaim their status as the representatives of God's covenant on earth through syntheses of Roman and Iranian royal ritual and customs and practices brought from pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia. It engages with current debates about the reliability of the Islamic tradition for early Islamic history and identifies key turning-points in the formation of classical Islamic political culture. An early chapter discusses the importance of the Qur'an as a historical source for the time of the Prophet Muhammad. For the caliphal period, close readings of the sources for specific rituals alternate with the examination of later copies of documents used at these accession rituals.This study of the invention and re-invention of a central institution of early Islamic political culture is the first such account of Islamic accession ceremonial and will appeal to both specialists in early Islamic history and non-specialists alike.
Reviews / Votes
The book impresses particularly because of the author's critical treatment of the sources and resulting historical approach. Andrew Marsham has not only filled a gap by presenting a comprehensive study of the caliphal bay'a up to the tenth century, his study is also an example of how to deconstruct a normative view of Islamic history that uncritically takes classical sacralizing Sunnite interpretations of the Muslim past for granted. -- Almut Hofert * Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies * The book impresses particularly because of the author's critical treatment of the sources and resulting historical approach. Andrew Marsham has not only filled an important gap by presenting a comprehensive study of the caliphal bay'a up to the tenth century, his study is also an example of how to deconstruct a normative view of Islamic history that uncritically takes classical sacralizing Sunnite interpretations of the Muslim past for granted. -- Almut Hofert * Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies * 'It [Rituals of Islamic Monarchy] could not be more timely. The scale of its achievement and historiographical value will not have to wait to emerge in the fullness of time: it is already making its mark.' -- Jinty Nelson, King's College London * Early Medieval Europe Vol. 22 Issue 1 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 274 mm
Width: 218 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
1769 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-2512-3 (9780748625123)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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E-Book
05/2009
Edinburgh University Press
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Person
Andrew Marsham is Professor of Classical Arabic Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Queens' College, specialising in the Late Antique and Early Medieval History of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. His publications include The Umayyad World (Routledge, 2021), Power, Patronage and Memory in Early Islam (Oxford, 2018, with Professor Alain George), and Rituals of Islamic Monarchy (Edinburgh, 2009).
Content
Introduction; Section I: Rituals of Rulership in Arabia and the Conquest Polity (c.570-692); 1. Ritual and Authority in the Late Antique Near East; 2. The Bay'a: the Expression of Loyalty in the First Century of Islam.; 3. Authority and Succession in the 'Conquest Polity' (622-661); 4. Near Eastern Kingship: The Sufyanid and Zubayrid Caliphates (661-692); Section II: The Marwanid State (692-749); 5. The Wilayat al-'ahd: Dynastic Succession in Early Islam; 6. State Ceremonial: the Bay'a in the Early Marwanid Period; 7. Revolutionary Bay'as: Loyalty at the End of the Marwanid Caliphate and During the Abbasid Revolution; Section III: The Early Abbasid Caliphate (749-817); 8. Succession in the Early Abbasid Period; 9. Documents and the Bay'a from al-Wal?d II to al-Mu'tazz (743-870); 10. Al-Mansur and the Succession of al-Mahdi: 136/754-160/776; 11. Succession and Civil War; 12. Al-Ma'muen and al-Rida; Section IV: The Rise of the Turks (817-870); 13. Al-Mu'tasim and al-Wathiq; 14. Al-Mutawakkil and the Third Century Civil War; Conclusion and Comparisons.