Political Theology and Islam: From the Birth of Empire to the Modern State

Paul L. Heck's Political Theology and Islam offers a sophisticated and comprehensive analysis of sovereignty in Islamic society, beginning with the origins of Islam and extending to the present. This wide-ranging study sets out to answer an unassumingly tricky question: What is politics in Islam?Paul L. Heck's answer takes the form of a close analysis of sovereignty across Islamic history, approaching this concept from the perspective of political theology.As he illustrates, the history of politics in Islam is best understood as an ongoing struggle for a moral order between those who occupy positions of rulership and religious voices that communicate the ethics of Islam and educate the public in their religious and moral devotions.In this sense, sovereignty in Islam is split between ruling powers and pious communities, whose interactions range from close cooperation to outright competition.Heck shows that it is precisely through these interactions that Islamic conceptions of sovereignt