God’s Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam

162 Pages·2003·6.45 MB·English

by  Patricia Crone

PATRICIA CRONE & MARTIN HINDS
Religious authority in the
first centuries of Islam

God's Caliph
Religious authority in
the first centuries of Islam
PATRICIA CRONE
University Lecturer in Islamic History and
Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford
and
MARTIN HINDS
University Lecturer in Arabic and
Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
1M rillll of tlw
U11lwr1111 of Clllflbrirllr
,, pr/111 tmJ ""
ull~t~~~rm"ofllool..t
.... , '"'"'Prlby
ncoH urn,r,y. ,,V,;I,I,I ;"," 'I JJf
prilllr~t
""" puhiilltrd 0€fllltmOtUiy
JinniJM
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE
LONDON NEW YORK NEW ROCHELLE
MELBOURNE SYDNEY
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK
40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
Ruiz de Alan:On 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain
Dock House, The Waterfront, CapeTown 8001, South Africa
http://www.cambridge.org
©University ofCambridge Faculty of Oriental Studies
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
University of Cambridge Oriental Publications
published for the
Faculty of Oriental Studies
See page I 56 for the complete Jist
First published 1986
First paperback edition 2003
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Crone, Patricia, 1945-
God's caliph.
(University of Cambridge Oriental publications; no. 37)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Caliphate. 2. Islamic Empire-Politics and government.
3. Islam and state
I. Hinds, Martin II. Title Ill. Series
BPI66.9.C76 1986 297'.65 85-26992
ISBN 0 521 32185 9 hardback
ISBN 0 521 54111 5 paperback
CONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 The title khalf/at Alliih 4
3 The Umayyad conception of the caliphate 24
4 Caliphallaw 43
5 From caliphal to Prophetic sunna 58
The Umayyads 59
The 'Abbisids 80
tt Epilogue 97
Appendix 1 On the date and origin of the caliphate Ill
Appendix 2 The letters of al-Walid II and Yazid III 116
Appendix 3 Abii l;lamza's comments on the caliphs 129
Appendix 4 al-Ma'miin's letter of designation of 'Ali
al-Ri4i as his successor 133
Works cited 140
Index 153

1
Introduction
What was the nature of the early caliphate? lslamicists generally
believe it to have been a purely political institution. According to
Nallino, no caliph ever enjoyed religious authority;' according to
other lslamicists, some caliphs did lay claim to such authority, but
only by way of secondary development and only with limited
success1.1n what follows we shall challenge this belief. It is of course
true that religious authority was the prerogative of scholars rather
than of caliphs in classical Islam, but we shall argue that this is not
how things began. The early caliphate was conceived along lines very
different from the classical institution, all religious and political
authority being concentrated in it; it was the caliph who was charged
with the definition of Islamic law, the very core of the religion, and
without allegiance to a caliph no Muslim could achieve salvation. In
short, we shall argue that the early caliphate was conceived along the
lines familiar from Shi'ite Islam.
The conventional Islamicist view of the caliphate is that enshrined
in the bulk of our sources. Practically all the literature informs us
that though the Prophet was God's representative on earth in both
political and religious matters, there ceased to be a single represen
tative in religious matters on the Prophet's death. Political power
passed to the new head of state, the caliph; but religious authority
remained with the Prophet himself or, differently put, it passed to
I C. A. Nallino, • Appunti sulla natura del "Califa lto·· in genere e sui presunto
"Califatto ottomano" ·,in his Raccolta di scritti editi e inediti, vol. 111, Rome 1941 ;
compare also T. W. Arnold, The Caliphate!, London 1965, p. 14.
2 Thus T. Nagel, Rechtleitr.mg und Kalifat, Bonn 1975; D. Sourdel, 'L'autorite
califienne dans le monde sunnite' in G. Makdisi, D. Sourdel and J. Sourdel
Thomine(eds.). Lo notion d'autorite au moyen iige: Islam, Byzance, Occident. Paris
1982, pp. IO Sf; G. Rotter. Die Umayyaden und tier zweite Biirgerkrieg ( 68(}-692),
Wiesbaden 1982, pp. 34, 52, 248ft'.
I
2 God's Caliph
those men who remembered what he had said. These men, the
Companions, transmitted their recollection of his words and deeds
to the next generation, who passed it on to the next, and so forth,
and whoever learnt what the Prophet had said and done acquired
religious authority thereby. In short, while political power continued
to be concentrated in one man, religious authority was now dispersed
among those people who, owing their authority entirely to their
learning, came to be known as simply the 'ulama', the scholars. As
it happened, however, the first three caliphs (Abu Bakr, 'Umar,
'Uthmiin) were themselves Companions, so that in practice religious
and political authority continued to be united, if no longer concen
trated, in the head of state, and during this period the caliphs could
and did issue authoritative rulings on law. But though the fourth
caliph ('Ali) was also a Companion and moreover a kinsman of the
Prophet, he failed to be generally accepted, and on his death the
caliphate passed to men who had converted late and unwillingly (the
Umayyads), so that the happy union of religion and politics now
came to an end. Caliphs and 'ulamii' went their separate ways, to be
briefly reunited only under the pious 'Umar II.
Most Shi'ites disagree with this view. According to the Imiimis and
related-sects, the legitimate head of state ('Ali) inherited not only the
political, but also the religious authority of the Prophet. In practice,
of course, the legitimate head of state after 'Ali was deprived of his
political power by his Sunni rivals, so that he could only function
as a purely religious leader of his Shi'ite following; but in principle
he was both head of state and ultimate authority on questions oflaw
and doctrine in Islam.
Modem Islamicists however generally regard the Shi'ites as deviant.
Some take them to have started off as adherents of a political leader
who was not, at first, very different from that of their opponents, but
who was gradually transformed into a religious figurehead. 3 Others
believe them to have elevated their leader into a religious figurehead
from the start, but to have done so under the influence of foreign
ideas, their model being the supposedly charismatic leadership of
pre-Islamic south Arabia.' Either way, it is the Shi'ites, not the
Sunnis, who are seen as having diverged from the common pattern.
It certainly makes sense to assume that Sunnis and Shi'ites started
3 Thus for example B. Lewis, The Arabs in Historyt, London 1966, p. 71.
4 Thus W. M. Watt, Islam and the Integration of Society, London 1961, pp. 105f.;
repeated by Watt in numerous other publicatons; accepted by Nagel, Rechtleitung.
pp.45f.
Introduction J
with a common conception of the caliphal office; and given that we
owe practically all our sources to those who were in due course to
become the Sunni majority, it is not surprising that we automatically
assume this conception to have been of the Sunni rather than the
Shi'ite type. There is, however, much evidence to suggest that this
is a mistake.
2
The title kha/ifat Allah
We take as our starting point the well known fact that the Umayyads
made use of the title kha/ifat Alliih,1 an expression which we along
with many others understand to mean 'deputy of God'.
This translation is scarcely in need of much defence. A khalifa is
somebody who stands in the place of another, that is a deputy or
a successor depending on whether the other is absent or dead; since
the Muslims assumed God to be alive, kha/ifat Alliih cannot mean
'God's successor'. However, in order to accomodate the conventional
view that the caliphate is succession to Mul;tammad rather than
deputyship on behalf of God, Goldziher construed it as meaning
' successor (of the prophet approved) by God ',1 and this interpretation
has found favour with some. It might now be defended with reference
to Paret's conclusion that Qur'inically kha/ifa means successor. 3 Two
Qur'inic verses were customarily invoked by those who called
themselves kha/ifat Alliih, that is 2:28, in which God announces that
'I am placing a kha/ifa on earth' with reference to Adam, and 38: 25,
I Cf.l. Goldziher, Muslim Studies, London 1967-71, vol. 11, p. 61 of the original
pagination; id., 'Du sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu, Khalife de Dieu
pour designer les chefs dans l'lslam ', Revue de I' Histoire des Rlligioru 3S { 1897);
D. S. Margoliouth, 'The Sense of the Title Kha/ifah' in A Volr.~~M of Oriental
Studies Presented to E. G. Browne, Cambridge 1922; E. Tyan,/nstitutions du droit
public: mu.sulnulll, vol. 1 (I.e c:alifat), Paris 19S4, pp. 202, 439ft'; H. Ringgren, •S ome:
Religious Aspects of the Caliphate', Studies in tiN! Hisrory of Religions
(supplements to Nr.~~Mn), IV: TIN! sac:ra/ kingship, Ia rega/itti sac:ra, Leiden 1959.
W. M. Watt, 'God's Caliph: Qur'inic Interpretations and Umayyad Oaims ·in
Iran and Islam, ed. C. E. Bosworth, Edinburgh 1971; R. Paret, 'Jjalifat Allih ·
Vicarius Dei: ein ditferenzierender Vergleich' in Mtlanges d'lslamologie (Fesu·
c:hri/1 A. A~l). Lciden 1974. It is with some surprise that one notes Hitti"s claim
that· such extravagant titles as khaDfat Alliih ... were evidently first bestowed on
ai-Mutawakkil' (P. K. Hitti, Hisrory ofrhe Arabs'. London 1961, p. 317).
2 Goldziher, • Du sens propre ', p. 337.
3 R. Paret, •S ignification coranique de Ualifa et d'autres derives de Ia racine:
Qa/afa', Studia lslamic:a 31 (1970).
4