Mohammad Tewfik Ramzi, M.A. the DEVELOPMENT OP POLITICAL
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Mohammad Tewfik Ramzi, M.A. THE DEVELOPMENT OP POLITICAL THOUGHT AND PRACTICE IN ISLAM 1-232 A.H. = 622-847 A.D Glasgow, 1947. ProQuest Number: 13850491 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 13850491 Published by ProQuest LLC(2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ii CONTENTS Introduction............................. ..p. 1. PART ONE : THE INFLUENCE AND CONTRIBUTION OF MUHAMMAD. ch. i : The Early Achievements of the Prophet..... p. 16. ch. ii : The Consolidation of the State.............p. 50. PART TWO : AN ESTIMATE OF THE POLITICAL IDEAS IN THE QUR'AN AND TRADITION. ch. iii : Evidence from the Qur'an................... p. 100. ch. iv : The Character and Administration of the Muhammadan State p. 140. PART THREE : THE ARISTOCRACY OF ISLAM, ch. v : The Bases of Power, and Extent of Authority of the first Four Caliphs........p. 177. ch. vi : The Political Institutions and their Functions under the Aristocracy........... p. 221. PART FOUR : HEREDITARY RULE IN ISLAM. ch. vii : The Umayyad Monarchy p. 251. ch. viii : The tAhhasid Theocracy........... .. ......p. 293. Bibliography P* 354. Index........................... P • 345. iii ABBREVIATIONS. VAsakir Ibn iAsakir: History. LAsr. A.P. Rifa^i: **Agr al-Ma^un. b. Ibn. B.- Banu. * Bal'-aml Al-Bal^ami: Chronique du Tabari. Bukh. Al-B'uKhari: Traditions. EB Encyclopaedia Britannica. El Encyclopaedia of Islam. ERE Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. ESS Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences. Pakhri Ibn al-Tigtagah: Histoire du Khalifat... Pida Abu ’l-Fida* : Annales Muslemici. Haikal. HM M.H. Haikal: Hayah Muharnmad. 11 AB ,f M : Abu Bakr. u u " : Al-Faruq UJmar. HH Historians History of the World. Hish. Ibn Hisham: Sirah..*(Biography of the Prophet.) Hitti. HA P.K. Hitti: History of the Arabs, tiqd. Ibn VAbd Rabbih: al-lIqd al-farld. JE Jewish Encyclopaedia. Khald. H Ibn Khaldun: History. Khald. P tt . Muqaddimafr (Prolegomena) . Lane E.W. Lane rArabic-English Lexicon. iv LHA N i c ho1s on: Literary History of the Arabs. LHP Browne : Literary History of Persia. Lisan Lisan al-HArab. (Lexicon). M. Muhammad. Marg. M .Margoliouth: Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. Mas. M Al-Mas^udi: Mur un a 1-dhahab. Milal 1Al-Shahrastani: al-milal wa Tl-nihal. Muir. LM Muir: Life of Mohammad. Qur. Qur1 an. Sa^d Ibn Sa^d: Tabaqat... Tab. Al-Tabari: Annales. Tab. taf. if ” : tafslr al-Qur*an. (Exegesis). Taj. Ta.i al-^arus. (Lexicon). Wafayat Ibn Khallikan: wafayat al-avyan. (Biography). Ya^qubI Al-Ya^qubi: History. JOURNALS . BLSOL Bulletin: London School of Oriental HJ Hibbert Journal. IC Islamic Culture. JA Journal Asiatique. JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. MW Moslem World. TG-UOS Transactions of the Glasgow University Oriental Society. V Transliteration and notes. The system of transliteration adopted here is that re commended hy the Royal Asiatic Society (JRAS, 1928, part I.) The hamzah is marked "by an * , and the Layn is marked by an ^ . Some words now common in the English language, though incorrectly transliterated/have beeh left in their usual form; e.g. Mecca and Medina. The nominative form of the word "Abu*1 is adhered to throughout; e.g. LAli b. Abu Talib, and Mu Lawiyah b. Abu Sufyan. The plural of many Arabic words is formed by adding the letter ws” to the original singular; e.g. Muhajlrs, hadiths, and imams. The Qur'anic references are quoted, from the versions current in Muslim States. Thes'e occasionally differ from the European texts of the same book (Plugel’d edition in particular,). In the gadith the number of the kitab is given first, followed by the number of the bab. If KrehlTs edition is used, the figure between brackets should be of help as it identifies the volume and page in which the particular badith may be found. Thus Bukh. 63:9 (iii:8), means kitab 63, bab 9 of any edition of Bukhari; in Krehl’s edition this tradition is found in volume iii, page 8. The notes appropriate to each chapter are given at its conclusion. The bibliography contains full reference to the books consulted. 1 IHTROD U 0 TIOI , 2 In this thesis an attempt is made to examine poli - tical theory and its practice in xslam. The survey begins with the hijrah or emigration of the prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D., and ends with the close of the first century of the »<Abbasid caliphate in 232/847. It thus covers the four most important stages in the deve - 3opment of the Muslim Empire, namely: the politico-religious rule of the Prophet, the reign of the Orthodox Caliphs, the Umayyad dynasty, and the golden age of the lAbbasids. We shall, therefore, observe the growth of a otate from infancy to full manhood. by theory is meant the principles of goverijment enun ciated in the Qur’an, the ffadith or traditions attributed to the Prophet, and the views of the learned among the Muslims. By practice we mean the way in which the rulers actually con ducted the affairs of State. There is reason to believe that the difference between thought and action in the political history of Islam is Immense. While in theory religion is the primary motive of the behaviour of all believers In Allah, the practical application of the noble and lofty ideals em bodied in Islam has on the whole been sadly disappointing. As Arbuthnot says,”the Muhammadan religion may be regarded as creating in theory the purest democracy in existence... but in practice the ways of the world are different." (1) It is this particular relationship that we shall endeavour 3 to test and expound In the following pages. with few exceptions, political considerations derived from the worst kinds of blind lust for power outweighed the religious. The fundamentals of belief and worship changed but little all through the different periods of Islam, but the management of government varied greatly in the course of time and was subject to the Influence of men. ihe successes and failures of the Muslim Empire were not adventitious, rather they were the result of causes amenable to invest igation and account. The Muslims founded an empire because they followed the path of imperial races. «hen they weak ened in energy and resolution their empire was lost and they gave way to more determined and ambitious people. The method of argument followed here is partly Muslim and partly objective. The first is by no means the anti thesis of the second; but since each has a particular field and apjjroach, the division seems necessary. religion is primarily a matter of conviction and is established on belief; philosophy on zne other hand, is essentially the outcome of critical, systematic, and rational thinking. doth aspects have their contribution to bhe life of Islam. @y.f task, then, is to discover whether, and if so, under what conditions, the political side of Muslim history could be attributed to premeditated thought. we shall try to find out whether the i-rophet had established his plans for 4 the government of his people on rational grounds, or just followed his intuitive faculties in all matters temporal and spiritual. ' We also want to decide whether his suc cessors - who could not strictly speaking lay claims to divine inspiration - had a political aim well thought out and carefully constructed, or just followed in the steps of their prophet. Since the Muslim State was a reality in the history of the world, and continued vigorously for at least four centuries, it would he necessary to assess how' it functioned, and judge whether it kept its structure intact as a result of conscious efforts to keep it alive, or whether it continued its course through the original momentum of the first wave of conquests in the name of Allah and Islam. To all Muslims the Qur’an and the Hadlth are the main springs of guidance in all matters. These two sources fere s considered as direct and indirect revelation- of God. This attitude, though exaggerated, is not wholly unreasonable; for had it not been for Tslam as a religion none of the other aspects of civilisation built on that foundation could have originated. As Prof. Browne says,11 it was undoubtedly to Islam, that simple yet majestic creed of which no unprejudiced student can ignore the grandeur, that they owed the splendid part which th^y were destined to play in the history of civilisation.” (2) The Muslims believe that the p,ur’an is the revealed 5 word of God to His Prophet Muhammad.. Be that as it may, for the purposes of the present work which is not directly con cerned with religious issues, wc submit that the Qur’an is the oldest extant record of the revelations of the Prophet. There is reason to suppose that the chances of forged insert ions by interested parties in its text are .remote. Prom another angle the Qur’an gives an accurate account of the knowledge and views of Muhammad. It stands to reason that, since he argued with his opponents in an attempt to convert them to his side, he must have understood well and mastered the teachings embodied in the book he was arguing from.