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The Caliphate of Man: Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought
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 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?
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 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?
- GenresIslamNonfictionPolitics
328 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 16, 2020
“a core thesis of my analysis is that the divine and popular elements in Islamic democratic theory are often defined from the same commitments and materials. Divine command is not just the constraint on human freedom, and human freedom is not just the absence of divine command. Rather, the foundation of Islamic democratic theory is the same as the foundation of Islamic theocratic theory. The foundation is the relationship between divine address and the divine delegation. The political theology of popular sovereignty in Islam is that the umma has been entrusted by God with the realisation of His law on Earth.”
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When we think of sovereignty within Islam, we often think of the notion of Caliphate, a system of rulership that is tied to the will of a single individual who is solely responsible for the affairs of the Muslim body. The process of this person coming to power is contested depending on which Islamic tradition you follow, with allowances being made for despotic rulership by some.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
What March does with this book is to show how a theory of a democratic Islam, particularly within modernity, can be situated within the traditions of Islam itself, that calls for a more democratic schema of governance is as much from within Islam as any other tradition.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I thought the work was exceptionally helpful in presenting both classical and modern ideas on the notion of sovereignty, the focus being largely on the latter. We are treated to the reformers of the 20th century including Rida, Mawdudi and Qutb, whose works were seminal in confronting what they saw as opportunities in the colonial/post-colonial world.
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I don’t really have the standing to critique this work as such, because Islamic governance is a huge area of weakness in the development of my thinking. I have some vague notions percolating around the possibilities of technocracies that could be formulated around centring the ahl al-hall wa’l-‘aqd or different domains, but need to give this much more thought. I think perhaps, in my own political life, I have too much trauma from seeing so-called liberal society acquiescing continually to racist and violent policies, that I have deep distrust of the notion of popular sovereignty.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I, perhaps, would have liked to have seen a more in-depth tackling of ‘modernisation’ itself of the Muslim world, as a system that is tied to nationalism and capitalist concerns in particular. As I read the book, my mind kept on returning to the violence to law and sovereignty during the period of colonisation in India, Egypt and Malaya described by Iza Husin in her excellent book ‘The Politics of Islamic Law’. There is almost no escaping that colonisation indelibly changed the landscape of the world Muslims found themselves in, particularly through the production of colonial elites, an ossified judicial system and capitalism as its centrally defining ideological feature.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I think the last point becomes particularly salient as we think about March’s treatment of Rachid al-Ghannushi’s ‘islamist’ project in Tunisia. I know the wider family a little, and so had some hope in the project when it emerged, but quickly began to become disenfranchised as I realised that existence of a Muslim-centred polity from within the logic of neoliberalism, would never produce anything other than what modernity has prescribed. The contestations between those critical of Ghannushi’s project coupled with the continued torturous practices of the national security state, presented a troubling continuity from the time of Ben Ali was somewhat revealing of how much an Islam-based reform agenda might achieve. I really think Azadeh Maoveni’s recent book ‘Guest House for Young Widows’ is such an excellent background to what this looked like on the ground for those who became disenfranchised with Elnahda.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I’m thinking about all this keenly because as we see calls for defunding the police, for universal base salaries, for the ending of racist and violent policies, it is clear that something does need to change. I constantly ask myself the question: is this it? Is this neoliberal system the last manifestation of how we, as Muslims, see governance in this world? Is the violence of a free trade system and trickle down economics the last way in which humans will interact in a system that has complete global hegemony, until the Day of Judgement? Or is there something else? Could there be other opportunities to think more creatively, to think beyond a poverty of ambition when seeking rights and justice?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I’m still unsure about the final form, but I know that I remain dissatisfied with the status quo, and so inshallah will continue to do my best to bring about justice in both the small and large spaces in the world I inhabit. I pray Allah swt guides us all to what is best, and grants us an imagination to conceive a world that is better than this, Ameen.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
When we think of sovereignty within Islam, we often think of the notion of Caliphate, a system of rulership that is tied to the will of a single individual who is solely responsible for the affairs of the Muslim body. The process of this person coming to power is contested depending on which Islamic tradition you follow, with allowances being made for despotic rulership by some.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
What March does with this book is to show how a theory of a democratic Islam, particularly within modernity, can be situated within the traditions of Islam itself, that calls for a more democratic schema of governance is as much from within Islam as any other tradition.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I thought the work was exceptionally helpful in presenting both classical and modern ideas on the notion of sovereignty, the focus being largely on the latter. We are treated to the reformers of the 20th century including Rida, Mawdudi and Qutb, whose works were seminal in confronting what they saw as opportunities in the colonial/post-colonial world.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I don’t really have the standing to critique this work as such, because Islamic governance is a huge area of weakness in the development of my thinking. I have some vague notions percolating around the possibilities of technocracies that could be formulated around centring the ahl al-hall wa’l-‘aqd or different domains, but need to give this much more thought. I think perhaps, in my own political life, I have too much trauma from seeing so-called liberal society acquiescing continually to racist and violent policies, that I have deep distrust of the notion of popular sovereignty.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I, perhaps, would have liked to have seen a more in-depth tackling of ‘modernisation’ itself of the Muslim world, as a system that is tied to nationalism and capitalist concerns in particular. As I read the book, my mind kept on returning to the violence to law and sovereignty during the period of colonisation in India, Egypt and Malaya described by Iza Husin in her excellent book ‘The Politics of Islamic Law’. There is almost no escaping that colonisation indelibly changed the landscape of the world Muslims found themselves in, particularly through the production of colonial elites, an ossified judicial system and capitalism as its centrally defining ideological feature.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I think the last point becomes particularly salient as we think about March’s treatment of Rachid al-Ghannushi’s ‘islamist’ project in Tunisia. I know the wider family a little, and so had some hope in the project when it emerged, but quickly began to become disenfranchised as I realised that existence of a Muslim-centred polity from within the logic of neoliberalism, would never produce anything other than what modernity has prescribed. The contestations between those critical of Ghannushi’s project coupled with the continued torturous practices of the national security state, presented a troubling continuity from the time of Ben Ali was somewhat revealing of how much an Islam-based reform agenda might achieve. I really think Azadeh Maoveni’s recent book ‘Guest House for Young Widows’ is such an excellent background to what this looked like on the ground for those who became disenfranchised with Elnahda.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I’m thinking about all this keenly because as we see calls for defunding the police, for universal base salaries, for the ending of racist and violent policies, it is clear that something does need to change. I constantly ask myself the question: is this it? Is this neoliberal system the last manifestation of how we, as Muslims, see governance in this world? Is the violence of a free trade system and trickle down economics the last way in which humans will interact in a system that has complete global hegemony, until the Day of Judgement? Or is there something else? Could there be other opportunities to think more creatively, to think beyond a poverty of ambition when seeking rights and justice?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I’m still unsure about the final form, but I know that I remain dissatisfied with the status quo, and so inshallah will continue to do my best to bring about justice in both the small and large spaces in the world I inhabit. I pray Allah swt guides us all to what is best, and grants us an imagination to conceive a world that is better than this, Ameen.
May 6, 2021
Very good book, surprisingly so to my jaded eyes. I did feel it petered off a bit though it picks up again in the final chapter. No let’s be specific; I don’t feel Ghannoushi’s an interesting or as important writer that March feels he is and I think March’s insight and perspicacity is far more interesting as he tackles every writer but Ghannoushi. Still, this one will make you think.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews