From Kavad to al-Ghazali

Patricia Crone (1945 - 2015) was Professor Emerita in the School of Historical Studies at The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA.

Contents: Preface. The Non-Islamic Near East: Kavad's heresy and Mazdak's revolt; Zoroastrian communism; Islam, Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine Iconoclasm. Law: Jahili and Jewish law: the qasama; Two legal problems bearing on the early history of the Qur'an; Weber, Islamic law, and the rise of capitalism. Political Thought: Shura as an elective institution; 'Even an Ethiopian slave': the transformation of a Sunni tradition; A statement by the Najdiyya Kharijites on the dispensability of the imamate; Ninth-century Muslim anarchists; The Kharijites and the caliphal title; Did al-Ghazali write a mirror for princes?. Index.