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God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam
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God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam Hardcover - 1986

by Patricia Crone; Martin Hinds

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.

Details

  • Title God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam
  • Author Patricia Crone; Martin Hinds
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 155
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
  • Date 1986
  • ISBN 9780521321853 / 0521321859
  • Weight 0.66 lbs (0.30 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.5 x 5.43 x 0.47 in (21.59 x 13.79 x 1.19 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Islam and state, Islamic Empire - Politics and government
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 85026992
  • Dewey Decimal Code 297.65

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