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MAHOMMEDAN INSTITUTIONS
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See also:MAHOMMEDAN INSTITUTIONS . Of all the institutions of See also:Islam the See also:caliphate is the See also:oldest, the most fundamental, and in essence the most enduring. For its See also:history see CALIPHATE; the See also:present subject is its origin and nature. See also:Mahomet enjoyed See also:absolute See also:rule over his See also:people as a divinely inspired and guided See also:prophet. He led the public prayers; he acted as See also:judge; he ruled. If he consulted with others or paid See also:attention to public feeling or See also:local usage, it was as a See also:matter of policy; the ultimate decision See also:lay with himself. He was the See also:state. On his See also:death a See also:leader was put in his See also:place of similar authority, though withoutthe divine erophetic guidance. He was called the " successor " (See also:khalifa, See also:caliph) of the Prophet, later also the See also:amir-al-mu'minin, See also:commander of the faithful, and was elected by the The See also:Call-Moslems, just as the Arab tribes had always elected See also:phate. their chiefs. He was thus an absolute ruler, but was democratically elected; and such is the essence of the caliphate among Sunnite Moslems to this See also:day. For them it has been a matter of agreement (see MAHOMHEDAN See also:LAW) from the earliest times that the Moslem community must appoint such a leader (see See also:IMAM). The See also:Shiites, on the other See also:hand, hold that the See also:appointment lies with See also:God, and that God always has appointed, though his appointment may not always have been known and accepted. Their position may be called a legitimist one. Some few heretical sects have held that the See also:necessity of a leader was based on See also:reason, not on the agreement of the community. But, for all, the rule of the leader thus appointed is absolute, and all authority is delegated from him and, in theory, can be resumed by him at any See also:time. Just as God can require unreasoning obedience from his creatures (his " slaves " in Arabic), so can the caliph, his representative on See also:earth. But See also:Abu Bekr, the first caliph, nominated his successor, See also:Omar, and that nomination was accepted and confirmed by the people. So a second precedent was fixed, which was again carried a step farther, when Moawiya I., the first Omayyad caliph, nominated his son, Yazid I., as his successor, and caused an See also:oath of See also:allegiance to be taken to him. The hereditary principle was thus introduced, though some See also:relics of the See also:form of See also:election persisted and still persist. The true election possible in the See also:early days of the small community at See also:Medina became first a formal See also:acceptance by the populace of the See also:capital; then an assertion, by the See also:palace guard, of their See also:power; and now, in the See also:investiture of the sultans of the See also:Ottoman See also:Turks, who claim the caliphate, a formal ceremony by the `See also:ulema (q.v.) of See also:Constantinople. The Ottoman claim is based on an asserted nomination by the last Abbasid, who died in See also:exile in See also:Egypt in 1538, of the Ottoman See also:sultan, See also:Suleiman the See also:Great, as his successor. Such a nomination in itself was a perfectly legal See also:act, but in this See also:case had a fatal flaw. It is an absolute See also:condition, laid down in tradition, that the caliph must be of the tribe of Koreish (Quraish), that of the Prophet. The duties of this democratically elected autocrat are, in theory, generally stated as follows. He shall enforce legal decisions and maintain the divinely revealed restrictive ordinances; guard the frontiers and equip armies; receive the See also:alms; put down robberies, thieving, highwaymen; maintain the See also:Friday services and the festivals; decide disputes and receive See also:evidence bearing on legal claims; marry minors, male and See also:female, who have no guardians; See also:divide See also:booty. He must be a See also:free, male, adult Moslem; must have administrative ability; must be an effective See also:governor and do See also:justice to the wronged. So See also:long as he fulfils these conditions he is to be absolutely obeyed; private immorality or even tyranny are not grounds for deposing him. This is a position reached by Islam practically. But a caliph who openly denied the faith would be as impossible as an unbelieving See also:pope. The caliph, therefore, is the highest executive officer of a See also:system assumed to be definite and fixed. He, in a word, administers Islam; and the content of Islam is determined by the agreement of the Moslem people, expressed immediately through the `ulema, and ultimately, if indirectly and See also:half-consciously, by the people. To depose him a fatwa (see See also:MUFTI) would be required—in See also:Turkey from the See also:Sheikh-ul-Islam—that he had violated some essential of the Moslem faith, and no longer fulfilled the conditions of a caliph. But it was impossible for the caliph personally to administer the affairs of the See also:empire, and by degrees the supreme See also:office was gradually put into See also:commission, until the caliph himself The became a See also:mere figurehead, and vanished into the sacred piwana. seclusion of his palace. The history of the creation of See also:government bureaus (diwans; see See also:DIVAN) must therefore now be sketched. The first need which appeared was that of a means of regulating and administering the system of See also:taxation and the revenues of the state. Immense sums flowed into Medina from the Arab conquests; the surplus, after the requirements of the state were met, was distributed among the believers. All Moslems had a right to a certain See also:share of this! which was regarded as booty. Omar, the second caliph, regulated this See also:distribution and also the system of taxation, and the result was the first divan and the constitution of Omar, looked back to now by all Sunnite Moslems as an ideal. The See also:sources of See also:revenue were (i) the poor-See also:rate (zakal), a tithe paid by every Moslem; (ii) the fifth of all booty; (iii) the See also:poll-tax (jizya) on non-Moslems; and (iv) the See also:land-tax (kharaj) also on non-Moslems. Thus the constitution determined the position of all non-Moslems in a Moslem state. The ideal was that the Moslems should be kept apart as a See also:superior, fighting See also:caste, and that the non-Moslems should support them (cf. CALIPHATE, B. § 8, on the reign of Omar II.). The Moslems, therefore, were for-bidden to acquire land in conquered countries. The non-Moslems must retain their lands, cultivate them and pay the land-tax (the Arabic word is also used of revenue from the See also:work of a slave) and the poll-tax (the Arabic word means also " See also:ransom "), and give contributions in See also:kind to support the local Moslem garrisons which were massed in great See also:camp-cities at strategic points. If a non-Moslem embraced Islam he entered the ruling caste; his land was distributed among his non-Moslem See also:fellows, and he no longer paid the land-tax but rather received support from the public funds. The amount of these See also:pensions varied with the See also:standing of the pensioner from Io,000 dirhems (a dirhem equalled about a See also:franc) to the widows and relations of the Prophet down to 300. This See also:bureau had, therefore, not only to keep the books of the state, but also to maintain a See also:list of all Moslems, classified genealogically and socially. Its registers were kept by Greeks, See also:Copts and Persians; the See also:Arabs, it may be said in See also:general, adopted the method of ad-ministration which they found in the captured countries and See also:drew upon the trained services of their inhabitants.
Such a system led naturally to wholesale conversions to Islam; and the consequent decline in revenue, combined with large donations of lands by See also:Othman, the third caliph, to his own See also:family, gradually See also:broke it down. The first patriarchal See also:period of See also:conquest, unearned See also:wealth and the See also:simple See also:life -called by Moslems the period of the " four rightly guided caliphs," and very happily by Sachau, ein mOnchisches Imperium—passed rapidly into the genuinely Arab empire of the Omayyads, with whom came an immediate development of organization in the state. The constructive See also:genius in this was Moawiya, the first Omayyad caliph. Under him the old simplicity vanished. A splendid and ceremonious See also:court was maintained at See also:Damascus. A See also: He established a sealing-bureau by which state papers were secured against See also:change. He dealt arbitrarily with the revenues of the state and the pensions of the Moslems. See also:Governors of provinces were given a much freer hand, and were required to turn over to the central See also:treasury their surplus revenue only. As they were either conquerors or direct successors of conquerors they had an essentially military government, and were really semi-See also:independent rulers, unhampered except by direct See also:action of the caliph, acting on information sent by the post-See also:master, who was his local See also:spy. Being thus the heads of armies of occupation, they were not necessarily charged with the control of religious ritual and of justice. These, like every other See also:function, inhered in the office of the caliph and he generally appointed in each See also:province independent cadis over the courts and imams to be in See also:charge of religious services. Yet the governor was sometimes permitted to hold these two other offices (see CAOI; IMAM). Further administrative developments came with the Abbasids. They created a new See also:city, See also:Bagdad, between the See also:Tigris and the See also:Euphrates, where the three races, Syrian, Arab and See also:Persian, met and sought with Bagdad as a capital to consolidate the empire. The Arab empire, it is true, had passed away with the Omayyads; yet there might be a See also:chance to create a See also:world-empire of all the Moslem peoples. But not even the genius and administrative skill of the early Abbasids could hold together that unwieldy See also:mass. The semi-independent provinces soon became fully independent, or at most acknowledged the caliph as a spiritual head and paid a nominal See also:tribute. His name might stand on the coinage and prayers be offered for him in the Friday service, the two signs of See also:sovereignty to this day in Islam. With this crumbling of the empire went a more elaborate organization;bureaus took the place of principles and of the See also:energy of indi vidual rulers, As the system of Moslem law was built on that of the See also:Roman codes, so was the machinery of administration on that of See also:Persia. And with the Abbasids the chance of the Persians had come. Abu '1-Abbas, the first Abbasid caliph, was the first to appoint a See also:vizier (See also:wazir, " helper," so See also:Aaron is The wazir to See also:Moses in the See also:Koran), a confidential See also:minister vlzierate• to advise him and come between him and the people. Advisers the caliphs had had before; but not a definite adviser with this name. He must, we are told, have a See also:strain of the ruler in him and a strain of the people to be able to work with both. He must know how to be acceptable; fidelity and truthfulness are his capital; sagacity, firmness, generosity, clemency, dignity,' effectiveness of speech are essential. It is See also:plain that the vizier became as important as the caliph. But Abu '1-Abbas was fortunate in early securing as his vizier the grandfather of the See also:house of the See also:Barmecides (q.v.). On this Persian family the fortunes of the Abbasids hung, and it secured for them and for Islam a See also:short See also:golden See also:age, like that of the Antonines, until the jealous madness of See also:Harun al-Rashid See also:cast them down. Thereafter the vizierate had many vicissitudes. Technically a vizier could be either limited or unlimited. The limited vizier had no initiative; he carried out the commands of the caliph. The unlimited vizier, often afterwards called the See also:grand vizier, exercised full authority and was the alter ego of the caliph, to whom he was required only to See also:report. Naturally the formal distinction is a later theorizing of history; for a weak ruler his vizier became absolute, for a strong ruler his vizier remained subordinate. Here, as with regard to all Moslem institutions, a marked distinction must be made between the historic facts and the speculative edifices raised by constitutional theorizers. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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