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Download Thesis This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ On the Origins and Strategic Dynamics of pre-Legal Jihad 610 - 680 C.E. Kader, Mehdi Kurgan Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 On the Origins and Strategic Dynamics of pre-Legal Jihad 610 - 680 C.E. Candidate: Mehdi Kurgan Kader The Department of War Studies, King’s College London For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in War Studies 2016 1 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the strategic dynamics of Jihad across the first 70 years of Islam, surveying how the military instrument dynamically served policy in a means-end relationship; and was the product of both the systemic strategic environment, and the bargaining dynamics of domestic politics. Two distinct concepts of Jihad are distinguished; the first is the theological and perpetual contest or absolute Jihad, that seeks to impose the jurisdiction of God’s sovereignty without challenge; and secondly, Jihad in reality, that is, war in reality subject to the vicissitudes of the strategic setting and environment. Mapping the evolution of Jihad reveals that the initial warfighting practices of the Prophet Muhammad served revolutionary policies that would be transformed by the policies of successive Caliphates (al-Khulafa al-Rashidun) yet remain the idiom of military action in Islam. Specifically, Jihad served the functions of homeland security, defensive expansionism, and most prominently, an emancipatory interventionist Da’wa Policy. In its final evolution, during the first caliphate of the Umayyad Dynasty, Jihad served an imperial agenda designed to regain strategic and regional hegemony. The strategic dynamics of Jihad across the first seventy-years of Islam was infused by the cult of the offensive as early Muslim political leadership competed with regional actors for superior offense-dominance and the strategic initiative, under conditions of anarchy and self-help. The research concludes that the proposition of ‘Jihad as a continuation of politik by other means’ accurately reflects the politico-strategic behaviour of Muslim political administrations during the first century of Islam. Absolute Jihad consistently provided the permissive essence for policies of limited warfare that sought to implement Jihad as the idiom of military action, although objectives were set according to the geo- political and strategic realities of the operational and strategic environment and setting and not upon theological imperatives or absolute war. 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, for a decade of education in War Studies. In particular, I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to my supervisor Professor Michael Rainsborough whose mentorship has been invaluable; Dr. Barrie Paskins (retired) for encouraging my academic path, and Professor Philip Sabin who believed in my potential. Additionally, I would like to thank Professors Guglielmo Verdirame and Isabelle Duyvesteyn, Dr. John Stone, and Dr. James Worrall, for their insightful comments and criticisms, without which this work would never have been. Finally, a special thanks to my wife, son, and daughter, whose enduring patience, love and support, has sustained me during my research. This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/I018050/1]. 3 Table of Contents ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ 3 GLOSSARY ............................................................................................................................ 12 ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................................... 15 1.0. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 16 1.1. THE PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................................ 17 1.2. INTRODUCTORY DEFINITIONS ......................................................................................... 18 1.3. A CRITICAL OVERVIEW OF THE EXISTING LITERATURE ............................................. 21 1.3.1. HISTORICAL REVISIONISM & HISTORIOGRAPHY IN ENGLISH ........................................ 21 1.3.2. TRADITIONAL ARABIC HISTORIOGRAPHY ...................................................................... 23 1.3.2a. Biographical Literature in English (Seera) ................................................................... 24 1.3.2b. Military History in English (Maghazi) ......................................................................... 25 1.3.3. THE FORMATION OF THE EARLY ISLAMIC POLITY (AL-KHILAFAH) ................................. 26 1.3.3a. The Ridda Literature ..................................................................................................... 27 1.3.3b. The Futuh Literature ..................................................................................................... 27 1.3.3c. The Fitna Literature ...................................................................................................... 28 1.3.3d. Umayyad Historiography ............................................................................................. 29 1.3.4. THE RELIGIOUS GENRE ................................................................................................... 32 1.3.4a. The Legal Approach ..................................................................................................... 32 1.3.4b. International Law and Relations (Siyar) ....................................................................... 34 1.3.4c. Just War Theory – The Ethical Approach .................................................................... 35 1.3.4d. The Qur’an & Hadith – The Hermeneutical Approach ................................................ 36 1.4. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................... 37 1.5. RESEARCH PARAMETERS ................................................................................................ 38 1.5.1. LIMITATIONS OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES ................................................................. 40 1.6. THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: BASIC ASSUMPTIONS TO BE INVESTIGATED ................ 42 1.6.1. THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................ 42 1.6.2. Sub-Investigative Questions ........................................................................................... 43 1.7. VERIFICATION .................................................................................................................. 44 1.8. THE STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................... 47 1.9. ON ARABIC CONVENTIONS AND TRANSLATIONS ........................................................... 49 4 CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................... 50 2.0. STRATEGIC THEORETICS ................................................................................................. 50 2.1. ON WAR ............................................................................................................................ 51 2.2. THE TRINITARIAN SYSTEM .............................................................................................. 51 2.2.1. PROPOSITION 1 – RATIONAL CALCULATION (POLICY) ................................................... 51 2.2.2. SUB-PROPOSITION A – VERTICAL DESIGN (STRATEGY) ................................................ 54 2.2.3. SUB-PROPOSITION B - HORIZONTAL DESIGN (STRATEGIC) ........................................... 56 2.3. THE STRATEGIC SETTING ................................................................................................ 57 2.3.1. PROPOSITION 2 – RATIONAL ACTORS SEEK TO CONTROL BLIND FORCES
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