Book

The caliphate of man : popular sovereignty in modern Islamic thought

March, Andrew F., 1976- author

2019

Overview

The Arab Spring precipitated a crisis in political Islam. In Egypt Islamists have been crushed. In Turkey they have descended into authoritarianism. In Tunisia they govern but without the label of \"political Islam.\" Andrew March explores how, before this crisis, Islamists developed a unique theory of popular sovereignty, one that promised to determine the future of democracy in the Middle East. This began with the claim of divine sovereignty, the demand to restore the sharīʻa in modern societies. But prominent theorists of political Islam also advanced another principle, the Quranic notion that God's authority on earth rests not with sultans or with scholars' interpretation of written law but with the entirety of the Muslim people, the umma. Drawing on this argument, utopian theorists such as Abū'l-Aʻlā Mawdūdī and Sayyid Quṭb released into the intellectual bloodstream the doctrine of the caliphate of man: while God is sovereign, He has appointed the multitude of believers as His vicegerent. The Caliphate of Man argues that the doctrine of the universal human caliphate underpins a specific democratic theory, a kind of Islamic republic of virtue in which the people have authority over the government and religious leaders. But is this an ideal regime destined to survive only as theory?-- Provided by publisher

• Publisher: The Belknap Press, Harvard University Press
• Subject: Islam and politics / Islam and state / Ummah (Islam) / Islamic countries Politics and government
• ISBN: 9780674987838

Item info:

2 items available

2 items total in all locations

Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
BP 173.7 .M371 2019	2	BOOK	AUTOSTORE