Islam and the Foundations of Political Power

Ali Abdelraziq came from a wealthy, landowning family that was politically active. He was educated in the traditional curriculum and graduated from Al-Azhar University in 1915 as an 'alim. He went on to travel to Britain and study at Oxford University for a short period and the then newly founded Egypt University. The outbreak of the World War interrupted his courses in politics and economics, compelling him to return to Egypt where he served as an Al-Azhar alim, a judge in the traditional Islamic Courts of Alexandria and as a teacher of Arabic. Abdou Filali-Ansary is Director of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations. He is author of several books including Is Islam Hostile to Secularism? and Reforming Islam? An Introduction to Contemporary Debates. Maryam Loutfi holds a Masters degree in Applied Humanities from Al Akhawayn University of Ifrane, and a Diploma in translation from the King Fahd Advanced School of Translation in Tangier, Morocco. She formally worked in the Ministry of Finance and Economy and is presently working in the area of Education.She has also worked as a freelance translator both in Morocco and in Europe, and has collaborated in the translation of various European studies, notably in the domain of the preservation of the common historical patrimony of Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula.

‘It is somewhat astonishing that Ali Abdel Raziq’s Al-Islam Wa Usul Al-Hukm, one of the most discussed and most significant books of early twentieth-century Egyptian, Arab, and Islamic intellectual history, should have gone so long without a translation into English. Its appearance, in Edinburgh’s ‘In Translation: Modern Muslim Thinkers’ series, is therefore especially welcome…Filali-Ansari’s introduction situates the work in its own context, particularly stressing its importance in sparking what might be seen as the first major ‘public-opinion’ controversy of modern Middle Eastern history.’

• About the Author; A Tribute to Ali Abdel Razeq Amr Hamed; Preface, Abdou Filali-Ansary; Introduction, Abdou Filali-Ansary; Foreword, Ali Abdel Razeq; Book One: The caliphate and Islam; 1: The nature of the caliphate; 2: The status of the caliphate; 3: The caliphate from the social point of view; Book Two: Islam and government; 4: The system of power at the time of the Prophet; 5: Prophecy and power; 6: Islam: a message from God rather than a system of government; a religion rather than state; Book Three: The caliphate and the government throughout history; 7: Religious unity and the Arab people; 8: The Arab State; 9: The nature of the caliphate; Bibliography; Appendix