Items related to God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First...

God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam (University of Cambridge Oriental publications) - Softcover

Patricia Crone; Martin Hinds

 
9780521541114: God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam (University of Cambridge Oriental publications)

Synopsis

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.

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Book Description

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.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.