64 Islam and Modernity
In The Revolution of the Saints, Walzer proceeds to argue that the Calvinists of
the English Civil War were the fi rst to develop this form of politics. He goes
on, however, to specify general conditions that make this form of politics pos-
sible: the separation of politics from the household, the appearance of master-
less free men, the rational and pragmatic consideration of political methods
(as in Machiavelli), and, crucially, the rise of large-scale and inclusive political
units, as in the modern state, starting with the absolutist destruction of feudal
segmentarity in Europe (Walzer 1966: 16).
In these terms, the forms of politics described so far are decidedly pre-
modern. Inter-elite politics is clearly one of ‘confl ict and competition for power,
of faction, intrigue, and open war’. Solidarities are based on personal loyal-
ties and patronage (as in Mamluk households), kinship and, in the case of the
popular classes, neighbourhood, guilds and turuq (Sufi orders). Crucial to all
these is a strong ‘materialism’, an orientation to economic interests. The ulti-
mate stakes in practically all political struggles were revenues, and, for the city
population, food prices, fi scal oppression and other arbitrary exactions. Popular
movements were often spontaneous and short-lived, revolving around immedi-
ate grievances. As such, they were far from ‘sustained political activity’. The
issues had nothing to do with reform or revolution of a ‘system’; such a concept
would have been quite alien. Popular aspirations were always for the advent
of a just prince who would bring stability and security. It can be argued, then,
that pre-modern politics was predominantly ‘materialist’ and that the ideologi-
cal elements of religion, kinship and patronage were strongly coloured by these
materialist considerations.
To say, however, that this kind of politics is ‘pre-modern’ may be misleading,
for it is universal and has certainly survived into and adapted to modernity. The
politics of faction, patronage and kinship has a strong presence in many modern
societies, not just Muslim or ‘Third World’, but also in many parts of Europe
and America. It is just that modern politics, as characterised by Walzer, is spe-
cifi c to modernity, but coexists, in various combinations, with preceding forms.
Episodes in the transition to modernity
Over the course of the ‘long’ nineteenth century (from the French Revolution
to the First World War) and then the twentieth, Walzer’s conditions of political
modernity developed at a different pace in different parts of most of the region.
They naturally took various forms in different areas following peculiarities of
history and society. Let us briefl y review some of these conditions.
The transformations resulted mainly from the incorporation of the region into
the expanding capitalist markets dominated by the European powers. This was
not merely European domination, but transformations of economy and society,
creating new spheres of activity, classes of the population and relations of power.