Early Islamic Empire Research Articles

Political Islam

This volume surveys the complex roles Islamic ideologies play in thepolitics of the Muslim world. The authors are distinguished scholars inIslamic history, philosophy, and law as well as specialists in the sociologyand politics of various Muslim countries. Despite their varied disciplinarybackgrounds and the vastness of their subject, the book features aremarkable degree of interconnection and does not sacrifice the analyticalspecificity needed for each essay.The volume's fourteen articles ate grouped into six broad categories:History of Islamic Political Theory and Practice. These essays offer twointerpretive histories of the evolution and cutrent status of Islam's role inthe political sphere. Ira Lapidus argues that Islamic political theory hasbeen governed by two paradigms, each grounded in a separate vision ofthe Islamic "golden age." The first paradigm is the "seamless" Islamicethos, a holistic conception of law, politics, and personal morality thatexisted at M a d i i under the Prophet and his four immediate politicalsuccessots. Even though this period lasted for barely four decades, it continuesto serve as the vision of the Islamic ideal, especially for the recurrentrevivalist movements and thinkes who have based their appealsupon this "first golden age." The second paradigm is chatactenzed by diffemtiatedreligious and secular institutions. Despite attempts by medievaljurists to maintain the theoretical church-state unity, Islamic Societies developedtacit and clearly articulated spheres of religious and secularauthority. This made it possible for the early Islamic empires to absorband then live with non-Islamic traditions and peoples (i.e., Persians andTurks). This "second golden age" is epitomized by the Ottoman Empire,which nxognized Islam as the "official" religion and whose ruler was acceptedas the titular caliph. Nevertheless, the fusion of teligion andpolitics was never complete, as reflected in the emergence of distinctly"religious" institutions parallel to those of the state.Modem Muslim states, Lapidus argues, are proof of the triumph ofthe second over the first paradigm. "Modern states can be seen as anexpression of the historical separation of state and Islam .... All hope ofsalvation has been concentrated in the nonstate realm, in the religio-civilcommunity, and in personal piety" (p. 23). As a result, states are notviewed by their own people, by and large, as the bearers of their religious ...

A history of Islamic societies

This new edition of one of the most widely used course books on Islamic civilizations around the world has been substantially revised to incorporate the new scholarship and insights of the last twenty-five years. Ira Lapidus' history explores the beginnings and transformations of Islamic civilizations in the Middle East and details Islam's worldwide diffusion. The history is divided into four parts. Part I is a comprehensive account of pre-Islamic late antiquity; the beginnings of Islam; the early Islamic empires; and Islamic religious, artistic, legal and intellectual cultures. Part II deals with the construction in the Middle East of Islamic religious communities and states to the fifteenth century. Part III includes the history to the nineteenth century of Islamic North Africa and Spain; the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires; and other Islamic societies in Asia and Africa. Part IV accounts for the impact of European commercial and imperial domination on Islamic societies and traces the development of the modern national state system and the simultaneous Islamic revival from the early nineteenth century to the present.

Plague in Early Islamic History

The appearance of epidelmics in early Islamic history may be attributed in part to the cyclical recurrences of plague in the Middle East following the Plague of Justinian, beginning in A.D. 541. Based primarily on the Arabic plague treatises written after the Black Death (the second plague pandemic in the mid-fourteenth century), the history of the plague epidemics through the Umaiyad Period has been reconstructed. These epidemics provoked medical and religio-legal explanations and prescriptions, which have strongly influenced the attitudes and behavior of the Muslim community toward the disease. Besides the deaths of important men by plague, it is suggested that the endemic nature of plague during the early Islamic Empire may have significantly retarded population growth and debilitated Muslim society in Syria and Iraq during the Umaiyad Period.