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God's Caliph

Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam

Patricia Crone author Martin Hinds author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:18th Sep '03

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God's Caliph cover

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.

ISBN: 9780521541114

Dimensions: 216mm x 140mm x 10mm

Weight: 210g

164 pages