Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Paul Heck has written an important, rich, and magisterial book that explains tension between rulers and religion-based activism in defense of popular rights throughout the history of Islam.” —Abdulkader H. Sinno, author of Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond
“This excellent and deeply erudite study offers a sweeping yet layered intellectual history of the conceptual continuities and transformations as well as the political operations of sovereignty in Muslim thought and practice, in both premodern and modern periods.” —SherAli Tareen, author of Defending Muḥammad in Modernity
"Ranging widely and deeply across Islamic traditions, Paul Heck demonstrates the plurality and flexibility of political authority in Muslim contexts. From this fascinating book, the reader learns much not only about Islam but about the way power is divinized in supposedly secular societies as well." —William T. Cavanaugh, author of The Myth of Religious Violence
"Here is the book that will define Islamic political theology for a generation. Expansive and synthetic but also carefully detailed, Political Theology and Islam is sure to open essential conversations not only within Islamic studies but also across traditions and among theorists. Negotiating entanglements of the religious and the secular, the sovereign and the divine, Paul Heck ultimately makes a compelling case for understanding the relationship between ethics and politics in a new way." —Vincent W. Lloyd, author of Black Dignity
Table of ContentsPreface
Part 1. Introduction—The Study of Politics in Islam
1. A Moral History
2. Political Theology Revisited
Part 2. Introduction—The Age of the Umayyads
3. Righteous Dominion
4. Imperial Blessing and Prophetic Righteousness
Part 3. Introduction—The Age of the Abbasids
5. Leading by Certainty
6. The Politics of Certainty
Part 4. Introduction—The Age of the Seljuqs
7. The Sovereign Bodies of Kings and Scholars
8. The Sovereign Bodies of Saints
Part 5. Introduction—The Age of Post-Colonial Rule
9. Liberty as the Order of Islam
10. The Struggle for Democratic Culture
Conclusion: Politics in Islam Revisited
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