RESOURCESOriens 16 (1963): 40-60, is no more than that and is along the same
lines as Rosenthal. W. Montgomery Watt's Islamic Political Thought:
The Basic Concepts (Edinburgh, 1968; repr. 1980) is a textbook survey
which includes several traditions of political theory among Muslims
but still tends to deemphasize the pragmatic tradition. 'A. 'Uthman's
an-Ni~am as-siyas"ifi-l-Islam (Beirut, 1388/1968) is organized around
an abstract structure, while M. 'Aziz A~mad's The Nature of Islamic
Political Theory (Karachi, 1975) derives general principles from early
Islamic precedents, but with an obvious modern interest. The many
articles of A.K.S. Lambton on Perso-Islamic political ideas are collected
in her Theory and Practice in Medieval Persian Government (London,
1980). One should also consult her State and Government in Medieval
Islam. An Introduction to the Study of Islamic Political Theory: The
Jurists (Leiden, 1981).
A major subtheme in this literature has been an argument over the
meaning of khal"ifa when used for the early Islamic head of state.
Considerable intellectual acrobatics have gone into arguing that the
phrase khal"ifat-Allah when appplied to the head of state meant some-
thing other than its literal meaning would suggest. This tendency seems
to go back to antiabsolutist circles in early Islamic society whose
interpretation appears to have triumphed in the area of theory. Modern
discussions have taken place in the shadow of I. Goldziher's "Du sens
propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu, Khalife de Dieu pour designer
les chefs dans l'Islam," RHR 35 (1897). For a different view, see
A. Abel, "Le Khalife, presence sacree," SI7 (1957): 29-45. R. Paret
argues for the meaning of "successor" in his "Signification coranique
de l;alifa et d'autres derives de la racine l;alafa," SI31 (1970): 211-
- The first real use of the poetry from the Marwani period to suggest
what the rulers may have wanted to hear is published in W. Thomson's
"The Character of Early Islamic Sects" in the Ignace Goldziher Me-
morial Volume (Budapest, 1948), 1:89-116, followed by W. Mont-
gomery Watt's "God's Caliph. Qur'anic interpretation and Umayyad
Claims," in Iran and Islam, Minorsky Memorial Volume, ed. C. E.
Bosworth (Edinburgh, 1971), pp. 565-74. The thrust of the argument
on either side tends to overshadow the importance of other terms used
by early Muslim rulers for themselves, while the use of khat"ifa for a
subordinate official in provincial administration appears to have gone
unnoticed.
Considerations of early Islamic provincial administration should
start with the definitions in A. A. Duri's short articles on "'Amil,"