The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran

The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran PDF

Author: Patricia Crone

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-06-28

Total Pages: 585

ISBN-13: 1139510762

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Patricia Crone's book is about the Iranian response to the Muslim penetration of the Iranian countryside, the revolts subsequently triggered there and the religious communities that these revolts revealed. The book also describes a complex of religious ideas that, however varied in space and unstable over time, has demonstrated a remarkable persistence in Iran across a period of two millennia. The central thesis is that this complex of ideas has been endemic to the mountain population of Iran and occasionally become epidemic with major consequences for the country, most strikingly in the revolts examined here and in the rise of the Safavids who imposed Shi'ism on Iran. This learned and engaging book by one of the most influential scholars of early Islamic history casts entirely new light on the nature of religion in pre-Islamic Iran and on the persistence of Iranian religious beliefs both outside and inside Islam after the Arab conquest.

God's Caliph

God's Caliph PDF

Author: Patricia Crone

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-09-18

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9780521541114

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

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 for themselves. Many Islamicists have assumed the Shi'ite concept of the imamate to be a deviant development. In contrast, this book argues that it is an archaism preserving the concept of religious authority with which all Muslims began.

Slaves on Horses

Slaves on Horses PDF

Author: Patricia Crone

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1980

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9780521529402

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

An explanation of the Muslim phenomenon of slave soldiers, concentrating on the period AD 650-850.

Roman, Provincial and Islamic Law

Roman, Provincial and Islamic Law PDF

Author: Patricia Crone

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2002-07-18

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 9780521529495

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book tests the hypothesis that Roman law was a formative influence on Islamic law.

The Sufi Saint of Jam

The Sufi Saint of Jam PDF

Author: Shivan Mahendrarajah

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-04-08

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1108879497

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The Sunni saint cult and shrine of Ahmad-i Jam has endured for 900 years. The shrine and its Sufi shaykhs secured patronage from Mongols, Kartids, Tamerlane, and Timurids. The cult and shrine-complex started sliding into decline when Iran's shahs took the Shiʿi path in 1501, but are today enjoying a renaissance under the (Shiʿi) Islamic Republic of Iran. The shrine's eclectic architectural ensemble has been renovated with private and public funds, and expertise from Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization. Two seminaries (madrasa) that teach Sunni curricula to males and females were added. Sunni and Shiʿi pilgrims visit to venerate their saint. Jami mystics still practice ʿirfan ('gnosticism'). Analyzed are Ahmad-i Jam's biography and hagiography; marketing to sultans of Ahmad as the 'Guardian of Kings'; history and politics of the shrine's catchment area; acquisition of patronage by shrine and shaykhs; Sufi doctrines and practices of Jami mystics, including its Timurid-era Naqshbandi Sufis.

Early Islamic Iran

Early Islamic Iran PDF

Author: Edmund Herzig

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2011-11-08

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1786724464

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

How did Iran remain distinctively Iranian in the centuries which followed the Arab Conquest? How did it retain its cultural distinctiveness after the displacement of Zoroastrianism - state religion of the Persian empire - by Islam? This latest volume in "The Idea of Iran" series traces that critical moment in Iranian history which followed the transformation of ancient traditions during the country's conversion and initial Islamic period. Distinguished contributors (who include the late Oleg Grabar, Roy Mottahedeh, Alan Williams and Said Amir Arjomand) discuss, from a variety of literary, artistic, religious and cultural perspectives, the years around the end of the first millennium CE, when the political strength of the 'Abbasid Caliphate was on the wane, and when the eastern lands of the Islamic empire began to be take on a fresh 'Persianate' or 'Perso-Islamic' character. One of the paradoxes of this era is that the establishment throughout the eastern Islamic territories of new Turkish dynasties coincided with the genesis and spread, into Central and South Asia, of vibrant new Persian language and literatures. Exploring the nature of this paradox, separate chapters engage with ideas of kingship, authority and identity and their fascinating expression through the written word, architecture and the visual arts.

Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran

Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran PDF

Author: Wilferd Madelung

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1988-09-22

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 9780887067013

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book deals with the major Islamic movements in Iran from the time of the Arab conquest in the 7th century to the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. They range from a sect amalgamating Iranian dualist with Islamic traditions, like the Mazdakite Khurramiyya, to trends and schools of mainstream Sunnite Islam like the Murji’a, traditionalism, Hanafism and Shaf'ism, the ascetic and mystical trends of the Karramiyya and Sufism, and the religio-political opposition movements of Kharijism and Imami, Zaydi, and Isma'ili Shi'ism. The author traces the origins, development, and interaction of these movements and relates them to their specific Iranian environment in order to reveal their significance in the religious and social evolution of Iran independent of their ramifications elsewhere in the Islamic world. Special attention is paid to the socially integrative aspects of the doctrine of these religious groups and to their relations with the established governments. Much recent research and new perspectives are integrated for the first time to offer an original survey of major currents of Islam in Iran before its transformation by the Mongol conquest and the Safavid adoption of Twelver Shi’ism as the state religion.

The Iranian Reception of Islam: The Non-Traditionalist Strands

The Iranian Reception of Islam: The Non-Traditionalist Strands PDF

Author: Patricia Crone

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2016-06-10

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 9004319298

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Patricia Crone's Collected Studies in Three Volumes brings together a number of her published, unpublished, and revised articles. The present volume examines the reception of pre-Islamic legacies in Islam, above all that of the Iranians.

God's Rule

God's Rule PDF

Author: Patricia Crone

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 9780231132916

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Patricia Crone's God's Rule is a fundamental reconstruction and analysis of Islamic political thought focusing on its intellectual development during the six centuries from the rise of Islam to the Mongol invasions. Based on a wide variety of primary sources--including some not previously considered from the point of view of political thought--this is the first book to examine the medieval Muslim answers to questions crucial to any Western understanding of Middle Eastern politics today, such as why states are necessary, what functions they are meant to fulfill, and whether or why they must be based on religious law. The character of Muslim political thought differs fundamentally from its counterpart in the West. The Christian West started with the conviction that truth (both cognitive and moral) and political power belonged to separate spheres. Ultimately, both power and truth originated with God, but they had distinct historical trajectories and regulated different aspects of life. The Muslims started with the opposite conviction: truth and power appeared at the same time in history and regulated the same aspects of life. In medieval Europe, the disagreement over the relationship between religious authority and political power took the form of a protracted controversy regarding the roles of church and state. In the medieval Middle East, religious authority and political power were embedded in a single, divinely sanctioned Islamic community--a congregation and state made one. The disagreement, therefore, took the form of a protracted controversy over the nature and function of the leadership of Islam itself. Crone makes Islamic political thought accessible by relating it to the contexts in which it was formulated, analyzing it in terms familiar to today's reader, and, where possible, comparing it with medieval European and modern political thought. By examining the ideological point of departure for medieval Islamic political thought, Crone provides an invaluable foundation for a better understanding of contemporary Middle Eastern politics and current world events.