The Caliphate of Man : Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought

Andrew F. March

ISBN 10: 0674987837 / ISBN 13: 9780674987838

Published by Harvard University Press Feb 2020, 2020

About this Item

Neuware - Islamist thinkers used to debate the doctrine of the caliphate of man, which holds that God is sovereign but has appointed the multitude of believers as His vicegerent. Andrew March argues that the doctrine underpins a democratic vision of popular rule over governments and clerics. But is this an ideal regime destined to survive only in theory.

Seller Inventory # 9780674987838

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Caliphate of Man : Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought
• Publisher: Harvard University Press Feb 2020
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674987837
• ISBN 13: 9780674987838
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 243W x 159H x 27D millimeters 243 millimeters width by 159 millimeters height by 27 millimeters depth
• Weight: 638 grams

About this title

Synopsis

A political theorist teases out the century-old ideological transformation at the heart of contemporary discourse in Muslim nations undergoing political change.

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 sharīʿa 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-Aʿlā 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?

About the Author

Andrew F. March is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. March’s first book, Islam and Liberal Citizenship, won the Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion from the American Academy of Religion.