Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the 1983 reissue
- Note on Transliteration and References
- I THE ISLAMIC STATE
- II THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
- III FIRST VIEWS OF EUROPE
- IV THE FIRST GENERATION: TAHTAWI, KHAYR AL-DIN, AND BUSTANI
- V JAMAL AL-DIN AL-AFGHANI
- VI MUHAMMAD ‘ABDUH
- VII ‘ABDUH'S EGYPTIAN DISCIPLES: ISLAM AND MODERN CIVILIZATION
- VIII EGYPTIAN NATIONALISM
- IX RASHID RIDA
- X CHRISTIAN SECULARISTS: SHUMAYYIL AND ANTUN
- XI ARAB NATIONALISM
- XII TAHA HUSAYN
- XIII EPILOGUE: PAST AND FUTURE
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the 1983 reissue
- Note on Transliteration and References
- I THE ISLAMIC STATE
- II THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
- III FIRST VIEWS OF EUROPE
- IV THE FIRST GENERATION: TAHTAWI, KHAYR AL-DIN, AND BUSTANI
- V JAMAL AL-DIN AL-AFGHANI
- VI MUHAMMAD ‘ABDUH
- VII ‘ABDUH'S EGYPTIAN DISCIPLES: ISLAM AND MODERN CIVILIZATION
- VIII EGYPTIAN NATIONALISM
- IX RASHID RIDA
- X CHRISTIAN SECULARISTS: SHUMAYYIL AND ANTUN
- XI ARAB NATIONALISM
- XII TAHA HUSAYN
- XIII EPILOGUE: PAST AND FUTURE
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
For Ibn Khaldun, the Islamic State, like all stable and virtuous States, is a blend of kingship (mulk) and Shari‘a State. True as this was of the sultanates of its time, it was true also of the Ottoman Empire, which in a sense was the heir of the whole political development of Islam. First of all it was a dynastic kingdom, with its loyalty focused upon an individual—or rather a group of individuals, a family. It was never thought to be illegitimate to depose a sultan regarded as unfit to rule and declared to be so by the guardians of the law, but with rare exceptions those who rebelled did not question the right of the house of Osman to rule. The right was maintained by a military group held together, and kept fast in its loyalty, by natural ‘asabiyya or its equivalent. This group, however, changed its nature (as Ibn Khaldun maintained that all such groups must) once the ruling family had seated itself firmly on the throne. The group which had created the empire was formed of freeborn Turks or turkized Muslims of other ethnic origin who were the cavalry and made the conquests of the early sultans. As the Ottoman domains expanded, the group assumed the position of a ruling class: their leaders were given by the sultan the right to collect and keep the land-tax from a certain district in return for military service, and from being warriors they became landowners.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798–1939 , pp. 25 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983