Political Modernity 61rival princes or the populace always laid their claim to justice in religious, that
is, shari terms. Religion and legality provided a vocabulary of demands and con-
tests rather than a determinate notion of alternative political or legal orders.
Burke and others have described these forms of contestation and opposition as
‘moral economy’. The argument here is that it is best to regard this economy as
a language of contestation rather than as a precise description of an existing or
desired system.
Within this ideological sphere of contest, the existing system of rule is taken
as given: the object is to make the prince just or to exchange him for a more just
ruler. The only form of radical transformation envisaged is that of the end of time.
While messianic notions thrived, in both Sunni and Shii Islam, they tended to
animate rural and tribal rather than urban politics. A notable example was the
Sudanese Mahdiyya in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This movement
was, in large part, a response to the Anglo-Egyptian intrusion into Sudan and
the imposition of a colonial order on a country characterised largely by tribal
and religious local rulers and autonomies. To that extent it had elements of
modernity in its constitution, and addressed a universalist message to a Muslim
world. But its messianic ideology and mode of political mobilisation of tribal and
Sufi religious forces shared much with pre-modern formations.^6 Retrospective
accounts from nationalist perspectives (Sudanese, Arab and Muslim) have tried
to play down, if not deny, the messianic and tribal nature of the movement in
order to include it in a uniform history of modern nationalism.
The other discursive element of religion in politics was its defi nition of com-
munal identity. Communities in pre-modern societies, and in some cases until
recent times, tended to be geographically insulated, largely self-suffi cient and
self-managing. As such the primary markers of identity were those of locality
and kinship. Religious identity tended to be taken for granted (of course, I am
Muslim/Christian, what else, God forbid?). So this identity came into political
play only when religious differences became the site of confl ict. Religion then
became a communal marker, much like Catholic and Protestant in Northern
Ireland and elsewhere. Muslim/Copt relations in parts of Egypt came into
political play under certain conditions, such as the Napoleonic invasion and its
aftermath at the end of the eighteenth century, which precipitated communal
riots against Christians. The communal confl icts and even massacres between
Muslims, Christians and Druze in Lebanon/Syria between 1840 and the 1860s
are examples of the politicisation of religious difference under the impact of the
transformations of the European colonisation and Ottoman reforms.^7
The pre-modern Middle Eastern city and its politics
We have already glimpsed the institutional and material religious elements in the
political landscape of the historical city. These came into play in relation to the