Excellence and Precedence

Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership
Erscheinungsjahr 2002
ISBN: 978-90-04-12043-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 36, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 167 mm x 243 mm, Gewicht: 730 g

Reihe: Islamic History and Civilization

This volume focuses on how legitimate leadership came to be defined in the formative period of Islam in terms of two key Qur'anic concepts: moral excellence ('fadÌ£l/faḍīla') and precedence ('sÄbiqa'). These two concepts undergirded a specific discourse on leadership which developed in the first century of Islam. This discourse is reconstructed through careful scrutiny of the 'manÄqib' literature in particular, which contains detailed accounts of the excellences attributed to the RÄshidÅ«n caliphs. This book stresses that all early factions, including the proto-ShÄ«‘a, subscribed to the Qur'Änically-mandated vision of a righteous polity guided by its most morally excellent members. Such a conclusion forces us to rethink the nature of leadership in the earliest period and reconsider the criteria invoked to establish its legitimacy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Afsaruddin, Asma

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien

Über Autor(innen)

Asma Afsaruddin, Ph.D. (1993) in Near Eastern Studies, the Johns Hopkins University, is Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She recently edited Hermeneutics and Honor: Negotiating Female "Public" Space in Islamic/ate Societies (Cambridge, Mass., 1999).