Table of Contents

Part One: The Beginnings 1. The Origins of Government 2. The First Civil War and Sect Formation 3. The Umayyads Part Two: The Waning of the Tribal Tradition, c.700-900 4. General 5. The Kharijites 6. The Mu'tazilites 7. The Shi'ites of the Umayyad Period 8. The 'Abbasids and Shi'ism 9. The Zaydis 10. The Imamis 11. The Hadith Party Part Three Coping with a Fragmented World 12. General 13. The Persian Tradition and Advice Literature 14. The Greek Tradition and 'Political Science' 15. The Ismailis 16. The Sunnis Part Four: Government and Society 17. The Nature of Government 18. The Functions of Government 19. Visions of Freedom 20. The Social Order 21. Muslims and Non-Muslims (a) Infidels (b) Muslims as Infidels 22. Epilogue: Religion, Government and Society Revisited Bibliography, Abbreviations and Conventions Index and Glossary

Promotional Information

God's Rule is a fundamental reconstruction and analysis of Islamic political thought focusing on its intellectual development during the six centuries from the rise of Islam to the Mongol invasions.

About the Author

Patricia Crone is Mellon Professor of Islamic History at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She is author of several books including Pre-industrial Societies: Anatomy of the Pre-modern World; Roman, Provincial, and Islamic Law; Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam; and Slaves on Horses: the Evolution of Islamic Polity.

Reviews

"This rich and wide-ranging book... is stimulating and provocative... [Crone's] lucid style aims to make a complex, ostensibly alien, tradition intelligible to the general reader as well as to the Islamic specialist." -- Times Literary Supplement "The book is a masterpiece on the history of the tension existing between religion and politics." -- Peter von Sivers, Middle East Journal "The author, a distinguished Islamic scholar, cuts through a welter of misconceptions." -- Robert Lebling, Saudi Aramco World "Patricia Crone gracefully covers the first six centuries of Islamic political thought." -- Zouhair Ghazzal, Historian "Students today... will benefit greatly from this welcome study of early Islamic political thought." -- Ronald J. Stansbury, Christian Scolar's Review