Islam and Statehood

Explores the formation of Islamic institutions and statehood beyond eurocentric models of sovereigntyIslam and Statehood: Instituting the Ecumene offers a groundbreaking reinterpretation of how socioreligious and political institutions took shape across the Islamic ecumene. Leaving behind eurocentric categories of sociopolitical theory in favor of an Italian brand of “Southern” thought, Armando Salvatore advances an alternative framework for understanding state formation in the Islamic ecumene—not as a belated imitation of European models, but as an original instituting process grounded in relational and adaptive modes of authority. Tracing a trajectory from Prophetic narration and Sufi habitus to early modern configurations of saintly power and reflexive governance, this second volume of the Sociology of Islam trilogy provides a conceptual map that connects embodied traditions of civility to self-renewing patterns of political legitimacy culminating in the institution of the Caliphate.Written with conceptual precision and historical depth, this volume reveals how the Islamic ecumene cultivated forms of “circular” sovereignty that evolved dynamically across time and geography. Islam and Statehood engages critically with eurocentric paradigms of Western political theology and sociology while illuminating the distinctive rationalities that shaped institutional innovation in the ecumene. Situating statehood as part of a wider institutional experiment in balancing divine mediation, habitus formation, and pragmatic governance, the book: Develops an original approach to statehood within the Islamic ecumeneIntroduces the concept of “instituting” as a dynamic and adaptive process distinct from European models of corporation and sovereigntyBuilds on and complements The Sociology of Islam in developing a broader theory of formation of the Islamic ecumene by reinterpreting Ibn Khaldun’s theory through the lens of “Southern” thought.Islam and Statehood: Instituting the Ecumene is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Islamic Studies, Religious Studies, Middle East Studies, and Comparative Politics. It is particularly well-suited for courses exploring state formation, political theology, and non-Western sociological theory. Islam and Statehood is a field-defining tour de force. It is deeply reflexive about its own premises and commanding in its long-durée approach to history. The result is a work of extraordinary maturity that is self-aware, theoretically exciting, and punctuated by a reflexivity that is itself a methodological contribution. This is what scholarship should be: courageous enough to reinvent itself, and wise enough to know why. —Kamaludeen Nasir, Nanyang Technological University, SingaporeIn this volume, Salvatore continues to enrich the field of sociology of Islam through moving the current debate on the "Islamic state" to a more complex terrain of analyzing statehood in Islam. Long awaited and simply brilliant, this book marks the zenith of over three decades of research in the sociology of Islam and its ecumene, civility, and translocal connections. A must-read across the social sciences and humanities.—Heba Raouf Ezzat, Ibn Haldun University, IstanbulSalvatore's Islam and Statehood is a work of impressive ambition and erudition that makes a vital contribution to debates at the intersection of Islamic intellectual history and political theory. Salvatore demonstrates that Islamic statehood was not a failed approximation of Western political modernity but an original modernity in its own right—one whose characteristic emphasis on connectedness, civic solidarity, and the distribution rather than monopolization of authority stands in sharp contrast to the Leviathan-like logic of Westphalian sovereignty. In doing so, the book offers a searching challenge to Eurocentric frameworks in the study of political thought and state formation, illuminating dimensions of the Islamic tradition that have too often been obscured by those frameworks. —Usaama Al-Azami, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, DohaArmando Salvatore consistently elevates discussions of Islam to a level of sophistication often missing in current debates. Islam and Statehood is analytically rigorous, rethinking key concepts in Islam and situating them within the broader debates of the Islamic ecumene. This book is an outstanding continuation of his earlier works and is essential reading for anyone working on Islam. —Raihan Ismail, University of Oxford