Political Thought in Medieval Islam : An Introductory Outline

Rosenthal, Erwin I. J.

Cambridge University Press（2009/03発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 340 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780521103350
• DDC分類 297.272

Full Description

Muhammad founded a World-State as well as a faith; as Islam spread from its first centres, Muslim political thinkers had to apply the divinely revealed law of the Prophet to new circumstances. They had to relate new realities of power and authority to the ideal constitution which he had laid down and which his immediate successors had elaborated. Against this background Dr Rosenthal discusses the later Muslim philosophers who were influenced by the political thought of Plato and Aristotle. He shows how Greek thought modified the Islamic and yet was always subordinated to Muslim categories of thought and political needs. Dr Rosenthal thus surveys the chief traditions of Islamic political thought from the eighth to the end of the fifteenth centuries. He emphasises the basic unity given by the shared faith of the writers, without diminishing the individuality of each. Orientalists will welcome the book; so will historians of the medieval West, for it shows them the religious, political and intellectual positions underlying the expansion of Islam.

Contents

Part I. Constitutional Law and Muslim History: 1. The quest for happiness; 2. The Caliphate: theory and function; 3. Government; 4. The theory of the power-state; Part II. The Platonic Legacy: 5. Political philosophy in Islam; 6. Al Farabi: the foundation; 7. Ibn Sina: the synthesis; 8. Ibn Bajja: individualist deviation; 9. Ibn Rushd: the consummation; 10. Al-Dawwani: application and integration; Appendix; Notes; Glossary; Index.