Social and Political Structures

1. Social and Political Structures Carl Ernst Introduction to Islamic Civilization

2. Outline • Frontiers and Identities • City and countryside • Conversion to Islam • Issue of authority

3. A premodern “Muslim Commonwealth” After fall of Arab Empire, no single ethnic group dominated Inevitable fragmentation caused by debates over monotheistic religious issues Arabic language and shared religious traditions create commonalities in spite of linguistic and cultural differences The rise of new states did not impede commercial and cultural exchange

4. 1. Frontiers Difference between nation-state with borders and porous premodern empires Strait of Gibraltar: border or highway? Power of empires vanished with distance from cities

5. Sea frontiers Muslim settlements and trade on East African coast Swahili language -- Bantu lingua franca with Arabic influence Mediterranean trade between Italian cities and Fatimid Egypt

6. Indian ocean currents

7. Land frontiers – but what is Jihad?  Egger overstates the role of jurists in legislating jihad as state duty – often just a retrospective religious justification of normal warfare  legal distinction between Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb (abode of war) did not correspond to political realities of clients with Christian powers Jihad as a symbol of ethical struggle, frequently invoked for political purposes

8. Problems in defining boundaries Andalus and Anatolia as frontiers of constant raiding, shifting identities Example: El Cid (overly romanticized as a champion of Christianity versus Islam) Turkish ghazi raiders “rationalized their raids as a religious act,” visit Christian shrines  in actuality, anyone (including Greek Christians) who showed up with a horse and weapons could join, no questions asked!

9. Fact checking on “Jihad in the sharia” (page 235) “it is offensive to conduct a military expedition against hostile non-Muslims without the Caliph’s permission.” Ibn al-Naqib, author of this text, died in 1368. The caliphate was extinguished in 1258 What conclusions can you draw about the validity of this legal text as a description of political reality and “fluid loyalties”?

10. Before the age of passports Ease of travel between Muslim realms Common problem of bandits outside protected cities Government for security and taxes, not enforcing laws over a territory Law defined as personal rather than territorial

11. Slavery in Muslim regions Consider legal, but not natural Prohibited for Muslims and protected peoples (Christians, Jews, etc.) Slavery not imposed as punishment Primarily for domestic or military purposes, not agriculture or mining Main slave markets: Africa, Slavic regions, India

12. Aspects of slavery Freeing slaves recommended in Islamic law Concubines and children freed after owner’s death Slave armies as powerful military institutions

13. Ethnicities Arabs Berbers in North Africa Turks Persians and Persian literature

14. 2. City life As many Muslim cities as Chinese cities Shared features of mosque, central market, bath houses, canals, cemeteries Services handled by neighborhood institutions, charitable trusts Urban associations of “youths” as militias or gangs Priority of private space in Islamic law needs to encroachment on streets

15. Mosque of Damascus Ablution fountain

16. Market in old city of Jerusalem

17. Ottoman cemeteries

18. Countryside and villages Problem of abusive tax farming Nomadic incursions and suffering of peasants

19. 3. Conversion to Islam: Muslims as minority Persistence of non-Muslim elites Lack of incentive for conversion of villagers Mountainous regions also preserve local religious groups (example: Chitral) Occasional discrimination against Jews and Christians are milder than Christian anti-Semitism Irregular enforcement of restrictions

20. Muslims as majority after 1300 Dhimmi tax and social mobility as motives for conversion Decline of Caliphal power made life harder for Christians Increasing nomadism eroded landowning and merchant patronage of monasteries What is “conversion”? A personal or community decision? Muslim assimilation to local cultures (Persia)

21. 4. Issues of authority: breakdown caliphate Theoretical concept of caliphate in Rules of Governance by al-Mawardi (d. 1058): an idealized extension of the religious scholars as political authority, despite political irrelevance Symbolic role of Caliph two certificates of “appointment”

22. Persistence of a ghost Coin minted in India (1350) with name of deceased caliph (earlier, in Sanskrit!)

23. Filling the void of authority Increasing importance of religious scholars (`ulama’) Simultaneous and related importance of Sufi saints

24. Outline • Frontiers and Identities • City and countryside • Conversion to Islam • Issue of authority