Longing for the Lost Caliphate

Mona Hassan is an assistant professor in the departments of Religious Studies and History and the International Comparative Studies program at Duke University.

List of Illustrations and Maps ix Acknowledgments xi Note on Transliteration and Dates xv Introduction 1 Early History of the Caliphate 5 The Abbasid Caliphate 6 The Ottoman Caliphate 9 Diachronic Reflections on Symbolic Loss, Destruction, and Renegotiation 13 1 Visions of a Lost Caliphal Capital: Baghdad, 1258 CE 20 Mapping an Islamic Cultural Discourse 22 al-Subki's Living History: An Enduring Sense of Loss 27 Channeling Muslim Memory through History 30 Loss of the Abbasids 33 Bodily Desecration 37 Literary Dimensions of Religious Rites 44 An Altered Landscape 46 Eschatological Endings 57 The Consolation of Prophetic Transmissions 64 2 Recapturing Lost Glory and Legitimacy 66 Remembering and Recreating a Glorious Past 67 Going Beyond Baghdad 69 Commemorating the Caliphate 71 Contesting Caliphs 75 Embracing Communal Continuity 83 Enduring Salience 88 3 Conceptualizing the Caliphate, 632-1517 CE 98 Classical Articulation of the Islamic Caliphate as a Legal Necessity and Communal Obligation 99 al-Juwayni's Seminal Fifth/Eleventh-Century Resolution 103 Post-656/1258 Theorists of the Caliphate 108 Ghalabah, the Sultanate, and the Caliphate in Ibn Jama'ah's Tahrir al-Ahkam (1241-1333) 108 Ibn Taymiyyah's Views on the Caliphate (1262-1328) 111 Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi's Polemical Treatise on the Grand Imamate (1274-1348) 115 Taj al-Din al-Subki and the Restoration of Blessings (1327-70) 118 The Inter-School Polemics of Najm al-Din al-Tarsusi (1310-57) 120 Ibn Khaldun's Political Entanglements and Ideals (1332-1406) 123 The Mamluk Chancery Contributions of al-Qalqashandi (1355-1418) 126 al-Shirazi's Metaphysical Exaltation of the Abbasid Caliph in Cairo (1386-1457) 131 Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti's Devotional Love of the Prophet's Family (1445-1505) 136 4 Manifold Meanings of Loss: Ottoman Defeat, Early 1920s 142 Notions from Afar 145 The Turkish Republic 155 The Levant 171 5 In International Pursuit of a Caliphate 184 An Internationalist Era 186 Promoting an International Conference 188 Imagining the Global Community and Its Leadership 192 A Spiritual Body 194 A Caliphal Council 199 A Traditional Caliph 202 A Global Electorate 204 Dampening Hopes 205 Unexpected Continuities 212 6 Debating a Modern Caliphate 218 Ismail Sukru (1876-1950) 218 Mehmed Seyyid Celebizade (1873-1925) 220 'Ali 'Abd al-Raziq (1888-1966) 225 Muhammad al-Khidr husayn (1876-1958) 233 Mustafa Sabri (1869-1954) 236 Said Nursi (1876-1960) 244 Epilogue The Swirl of Religious Hopes and Aspirations 253 Notes 261 Bibliography 341 Index 373