The Formation of Islam Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800

There were two basic patterns in medieval political life which had a profound impact on the religious life of the Muslim communities of the Near East. The first was a persistent and constantly shifting diffusion of power away from the center and towards more local and limited regimes. The central fact here was the decline in the power and authority of the cAbbasid caliphs. So much of early Islamic discourse and conflict had focused on the institution of the caliphate, yet in the Middle Period, despite moments of resurgence, its authority flickered and finally died. The jurists held a deep attachment to the office of the caliph as an integral part of the sharica; nonetheless they too were forced to confront the political realities. Toward the end of the Buyid period, the Baghdadi Shafici qadi al-Mawardi (d. 1058) wrote a treatise on the law of government, in the first chapter of which he outlined the position and powers of the caliph. His famous description is a classic treatment of the caliph as an active centerpiece of the unity of the Islamic umma, as the cornerstone of the administration of God's law, in the face of the growing political fragmentation of the medieval period. There is a certain irony here, as al-Mawardi wrote his treatise at a time when the caliphate had ceased to wield effective authority.