The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State

Revised Auflage
ISBN: 978-0-691-15624-8
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 136 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 278 g

Perhaps no other Western writer has more deeply probed the bitter struggle in the Muslim world between the forces of religion and law and those of violence and lawlessness as Noah Feldman. His scholarship has defined the stakes in the Middle East today. Now, in this incisive book, Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the shari'a--the law of the traditional Islamic state--in the modern Muslim world. Western powers call it a threat to democracy. Islamist movements are winning elections on it. Terrorists use it to justify their crimes. What, then, is the shari'a? Given the severity of some of its provisions, why is it popular among Muslims? Can the Islamic state succeed--should it? Feldman reveals how the classical Islamic constitution governed through and was legitimated by law. He shows how executive power was balanced by the scholars who interpreted and administered the shari'a, and how this balance of power was finally destroyed by the tragically incomplete reforms of the modern era. The result has been the unchecked executive dominance that now distorts politics in so many Muslim states. Feldman argues that a modern Islamic state could provide political and legal justice to today's Muslims, but only if new institutions emerge that restore this constitutional balance of power. The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State gives us the sweeping history of the traditional Islamic constitution--its noble beginnings, its downfall, and the renewed promise it could hold for Muslims and Westerners alike. In a new introduction, Feldman discusses developments in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and other Muslim-majority countries since the Arab Spring and describes how Islamists must meet the challenge of balance if the new Islamic states are to succeed.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Feldman, Noah

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Ausländisches Recht Islamisches Recht
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Staats- und Regierungsformen, Staatslehre
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islamisches Recht
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Der Islam und die Moderne (Westliche) Welt
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Geschichte des Islam Geschichte des Islam: 20./21. Jahrhundert
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1

PART I: What Went Right? 17

PART II: Decline and Fall 57

PART III: The Rise of the New Islamic State 103

Conclusion 147

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 153

NOTES 155

INDEX 177

Über Autor(innen)

Feldman, Noah
Noah Feldman is the Bemis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is also a contributing writer for the "New York Times Magazine" and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of "Scorpions, What We Owe Iraq", and "After Jihad".

Noah Feldman is the Bemis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is also a contributing writer for the "New York Times Magazine" and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of "Scorpions, What We Owe Iraq", and "After Jihad".