God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam

by Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds

Book Overview

This study examines how religious authority was distributed in early Islam. It argues the case that, as in Shi'ism, it was concentrated in the head of state, rather than dispersed among learned laymen as in Sunnism. Originally the caliph was both head of state and ultimate source of religious law; the Sunni pattern represents the outcome of a conflict between the caliph and early scholars who, as spokesmen of the community, assumed religious leadership...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521541115
• ISBN13: 9780521541114
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 164 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"