Election in Sunni caliphate meant choice by a small qualified college
Evidence
The death of the Prophet posed an immediate question of succession. As Prophet, he could have no successor. But the Prophet had not only created a religious community; he had also founded a state, which was rapidly becoming an empire, and that state urgently needed a sovereign. … The Sunni view, in contrast, as formerly set forth, was that the caliphate should be elective. This should not be understood in modern terms of universal suffrage. The juristic concept of election means that on the death of the caliph the most suitable successor is chosen by a small college of qualified electors. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 538 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
To say, as Lewis and his imitators do, that all such observations are only a matter of espousing “fashionable causes” is not quite to address the question of why, for example, so many Islamic specialists were and still are routinely consulted by, and actively work for, governments whose designs in the Islamic world are economic exploitation, domination, or outright aggression, or why so many scholars of Islam—like Lewis himself—voluntarily feel that it is part of their duty to mount attacks on modern Arab or Islamic peoples with the pretense that “classical” Islamic culture can nevertheless be the object of disinterested scholarly concern. The spectacle of specialists in the history of medieval Islamic guilds being sent on State Department missions to brief area embassies on United States security interests in the Persian Gulf does not spontaneously suggest anything resembling the love of Hellas ascribed by Lewis to the supposedly cognate field of classical philology. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 865 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
In “Muslim First, Arab Second: A Strategic Politics of Race and Gender” (2005), Nadine Naber discusses how college is where many Muslim youth experience a stronger identification with their religious identity. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 519 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: The Sunni-Shi’a split originated from political succession struggles — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 317; The Sunni caliphate was conceived as elective by a narrow college — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 538; Islamic scholarship functions as an arm of state power, not disinterested learning — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 865 (+11 more)
Broader Connections
- The Sunni caliphate was conceived as elective by a narrow college
#corroborates(1.00) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 538 - Islamic scholarship functions as an arm of state power, not disinterested learning
#complicates(0.85) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 865 - College is where many Muslim youth adopt a stronger religious identity
#complicates(0.75) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 519 - Islamic teaching mosques functioned as institutions of political authority over writing
#complicates(0.75) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 288 - Islam is politically constitutive yet positioned outside the political
#complicates(0.75) - Higher education and sophistication can amplify rather than reduce Islamophobia
#complicates(0.70) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 554 - Islamist movements first gained power through student unions and universities
#complicates(0.70) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 307 - Sunni Islam’s beliefs foster a developed historical self-consciousness
#complicates(0.70) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1918 - Medieval Islamic studies were driven by political motives, not ignorance
#complicates(0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1709 - Imperial growth and academic study of Islam collaborated to legitimise power
#complicates(0.70) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 187 - Pre-modern Islamic scholars trained across fields rather than within single disciplines
#complicates(0.70) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 146 - Islamic dynasties picked successors by suitability, not primogeniture
#complicates(0.70)