Rituals of Islamic Monarchy: Accession and Succession in the First Muslim Empire Hardcover - 2009 - 1st Edition

From the rear cover

Rituals of Islamic Monarchy Andrew Marsham Rituals of Islamic Monarchy is a history of the oath of allegiance by which the caliph was recognised at his accession. Beginning in pre-Islamic Arabia, it traces the development of a formal ceremonial of Islamic monarchy in Syria and Iraq during the 7th-9th centuries CE. Author Andrew Marsham 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. Engaging with current debates about the reliability of the Islamic tradition for early Islamic history, he 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. Andrew Marsham is a Lecturer in Islamic History at the University of Edinburgh.