CHAPTER 3
Political Modernity
Sami Zubaida
Introduction
The politics of pre-modern Muslim societies, like that of most pre-modern
empires, was that of patrimonialism. Political actors, alliances and struggles
were shaped by material interests and the power and infl uence that sustained
them. These, in turn, were structured in accordance with kinship solidarities
and associated networks of community and patronage. Was there, then, a spe-
cifi c input of Islam, as ideology or organisation, that marked these pre-modern
societies as Islamic?
Gibb and Bowen (1950, 1957), who entitled their seminal book on the
Ottoman Empire Islamic Society and the West, at one point appear to be search-
ing for this ‘Islamic society’ and fi nding it mainly in the religious institu-
tions. The fi rst chapter in the section on religion opens with the following
passage:
The term ‘Islamic Society’, applied to the social organization which we are ana-
lysing, implies that its distinguishing features are related in some way or another
to the religion of Islam. Yet in those groups and activities which have been con-
sidered up to this point [aspects of government, social and economic life] there is
little which can be regarded as specifi cally Islamic; on the contrary, the organi-
sation of village and industrial life belongs rather to a stage of social evolution
which fi nds close parallels in many non-Islamic regions of Europe and Asia; and
that of the Court and the army, though of a more peculiar type, is based upon
principles to which such Islamic elements as they display appear to be purely
incidental. (Gibb and Bowen 1957: 70)They go on to show that institutions and social relations characterised the
religious elements of that society. We may follow suit and underline the mate-
riality of religion, its social and economic institutions and their inscription in
relations of power and authority, and in the shaping of political actors, alli-
ances and confl icts. The churches and their institutions played similar roles
in historical European societies. There are also the ideological or discursive
elements of religion, in turn related to identity formation. Religion, in Europe
and the Middle East, provided the major vocabularies of legitimation and
contest.