cation for the authority invested in the office of the
imam or caliph, and as such, the ummaserved as
the ultimate source of political authority. The sec-
ond caliph, ≠Umar, relinquished the distribution of
conquered land to Muslim conquerors, and consid-
ered it public property, the property of the whole
umma. In addition to its social and political ramifi-
cations, ≠Umar’s action effectively treated the
ummaas a corporate legal entity. To be sure, in sub-
sequent periods of Islamic history, the ideals of the
formative period were often violated; yet the ten-
sion between these ideals – the unity of the umma
and its role as the ultimate source of political
authority – and the political and social realities
of Muslim societies continued to inform Islamic
legal and political theory and practice throughout
history.
Under Umayyad rule, the need for a unified polit-
ical authority was overemphasized, and was used
to justify an exclusive Arab dynastic rule at the
expense of the ideal of the unity of the umma.
Under the ≠Abbàsids, the inclusive Qur±ànic notion
of the ummawas revived, and the political domi-
nance of the ≠Abbàsid family did not preclude the
participation of other ethnic groups. This partici-
pation, however, led to the gradual loosening of
political centralization. As the ≠Abbàsid caliphs
wielded less control over an increasingly decentral-
ized state, they continued to function as symbols
for the unity of its umma. This unity was also cor-
roborated by an Islamic cultural tradition which
was well developed by the end of the second cen-
tury of Islam.
Traditionalists and ™adìth scholars argued that
Islam can only be preserved by safeguarding the
unity of the umma. The standard legal formula-
tions of the classical period defined the ummaas a
spiritual, non-territorial community that is distin-
guished on the basis of the shared beliefs of its
members. The literature of the classical period also
viewed the ummaas a socioreligious reality with
legal and political import. There were no formal
conditions or ritual requirements for joining the
ummaaside from being born to Muslim parents or
freely choosing to become a Muslim. Membership
in this ummacan thus be viewed as a sort of citi-
zenship which guarantees the equal-ity of all Mus-
lims. Yet although this equality extended in the
Qur±ànic formulations to both genders, in the lived
experiences of Muslim societies women were often
excluded from the exercise of political authority.
For example, while most legal scholars recognized
the intellectual authority of women scholars and
their right to issue legal rulings (fatwas), they also
argued that women cannot occupy executive office,
overview 777thus restricting the effective participation of women
within the collective order of the umma.
Tensions between various ethnic groups in Mus-
lim societies also compromised the ideal of a unified
umma. Beginning with the third century after the
hijra, Islamic literature conferred a distinguished sta-
tus to the Arabs within the larger ummaof Muslims.
This literature emphasized the centrality of the
Arabs and their language to Islam in response to the
shu≠ùbiyyamovement, which denigrated the Arabs
in favor of other ethnic identities. Al-Shàfi≠ì(d. 820),
for example, lists in his Risàlathe Qur±ànic refer-
ences to Arabic and its prominence, while A™mad
ibn £anbal (d. 855) collects numerous ™adìths
which enumerate the virtues of Arabs and reprimand
their foes. In different genres of writing, including
jurisprudence, philosophy, history, poetry, and
prose, the Arabs are said to be privileged with the
language of the Qur±àn and of Paradise, and by being
the core community to whom Mu™ammad was sent.
As the political hegemony of the Arabs receded, so
did the cultural tensions between them and other
ethnic groups. The initial reactive defenses of Arabs
and Arabic gave way to independent self-conscious
reflections on Arabness as a cultural identity, and on
its unique and organic link to the religious, political,
and social identity of the Islamic umma.
The social reality of the unified umma, and the
related concept of the abode of Islam (dàr al-Islàm),
were not undermined by political decentralization
in the Islamic world. However, under the pressure
of European colonial encroachment on Muslim
domains, this social identity was seriously chal-
lenged. Attempts to defend and redeem Muslim
unity by reviving the idea of the ummaincluded
popular Islamic resistance movements as well as
the officially-sponsored pan-Islamic policies of
the Ottoman Sul†àn ≠Abd al-£amìd the Second
(1878–1909). Equally significant was the call by
Jamàl al-Dìn al-Afghànì(1839–97) for Islamic sol-
idarity to reinvigorate the ummain the face of
European aggression. The European colonial chal-
lenge, however, had an intellectual dimension:
European ideas of the secular nation-state and of
reforming social and gender relations had some
appeal among Muslim elites. Nonetheless, the ear-
liest forms of nationalism in the Islamic world con-
ceived of Islam as a central component of the
nationalist project, and appropriatedthe Islamic
concept of umma. While nationalist movements in
the guise of Islamic reform often disrupted the
actual political unity of the umma, they did not
challenge the theoretical authority of its idea. The
secularization of nationalism came at a later stage,
and with it the sharpening of the conflict between