Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History

408 Pages·2016·13.55 MB·English

by  Mona Hassan

Longing for the
Lost Caliphate
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frontispiece. The last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad al-Mustaʾṣim (bottom left) brought on his
knees as a captive before the Mongol commander Hülegü (top right) sitting on a throne.
© The British Library Board. Or. 2780, folio 89b.
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LONGI NG
•
for lhe
LOS T
CA L I PHAT E
A
Tr ansr egional
History
MONA HASSAN
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Princeton and Oxford
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Copyright © 2016 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
press.princeton.edu
Jacket image: “The last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad al- Mustaʾṣim brought on his knees
before the Mongol commander Hülegü.” Copyright © The British Library Board, All Rights
Reserved, Or. 2780, folio 89v.
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data
Names: Hassan, Mona, author.
Title: Longing for the lost caliphate : a transregional history / Mona Hassan.
Description: Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016016011 | ISBN 9780691166780 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Caliphate—H istory. | Islam and state.
Classification: LCC BP166.9 .H37 2017 | DDC 297.6/1— dc23
British Library Cataloging-i n- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Adobe Text Pro and Poetica
Printed on acid-f ree paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For my mother with infinite gratitude
and my children with deepest love
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Contents
List of Illustrations and Maps ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Transliteration and Dates xv
Introduction 1
Early History of the Caliphate 5
The Abbasid Caliphate 6
The Ottoman Caliphate 9
Diachronic Reflections on Symbolic Loss, Destruction, and Renegotiation 13
•
Chapter 1 Visions of a Lost Caliphal Capital: Baghdad, 1258 CE 20
Mapping an Islamic Cultural Discourse 22
al- Subkī’s Living History: An Enduring Sense of Loss 27
Channeling Muslim Memory through History 30
Loss of the Abbasids 33
Bodily Desecration 37
Literary Dimensions of Religious Rites 44
An Altered Landscape 46
Eschatological Endings 57
The Consolation of Prophetic Transmissions 64
•
Chapter 2 Recapturing Lost Glory and Legitimacy 66
Remembering and Recreating a Glorious Past 67
Going Beyond Baghdad 69
Commemorating the Caliphate 71
Contesting Caliphs 75
Embracing Communal Continuity 83
Enduring Salience 88
•
Chapter 3 Conceptualizing the Caliphate, 632– 1517 CE 98
Classical Articulation of the Islamic Caliphate as a Legal Necessity
and Communal Obligation 99
al- Juwaynī’s Seminal Fifth/Eleventh- Century Resolution 103
Post-6 56/1258 Theorists of the Caliphate 108
vii
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Contents
Ghalabah, the Sultanate, and the Caliphate in Ibn Jamāʾah’s Taḥrīr al- Aḥkām
(1241–1333) 108
Ibn Taymiyyah’s Views on the Caliphate (1262–1328) 111
Shams al- Dīn al-D hahabī’s Polemical Treatise on the Grand Imamate
(1274–1348) 115
Tāj al- Dīn al- Subkī and the Restoration of Blessings (1327–70) 118
The Inter- School Polemics of Najm al- Dīn al- Ṭarsūsī (1310–57) 120
Ibn Khaldūn’s Political Entanglements and Ideals (1332–1406) 123
The Mamluk Chancery Contributions of al- Qalqashandī (1355–1418) 126
al- Shīrāzī’s Metaphysical Exaltation of the Abbasid Caliph in Cairo
(1386–1457) 131
Jalāl al- Dīn al- Suyūṭī’s Devotional Love of the Prophet’s Family
(1445–1505) 136
•
Chapter 4 Manifold Meanings of Loss: Ottoman Defeat, Early 1920s 142
Notions from Afar 145
The Turkish Republic 155
The Levant 171
•
Chapter 5 In International Pursuit of a Caliphate 184
An Internationalist Era 186
Promoting an International Conference 188
Imagining the Global Community and Its Leadership 192
A Spiritual Body 194
A Caliphal Council 199
A Traditional Caliph 202
A Global Electorate 204
Dampening Hopes 205
Unexpected Continuities 212
•
Chapter 6 Debating a Modern Caliphate 218
İsmail Şükrü (1876– 1950) 218
Mehmed Seyyid Çelebizade (1873–1 925) 220
ʾAlī ʾAbd al- Rāziq (1888– 1966) 225
Muḥammad al- Khiḍr Ḥusayn (1876– 1958) 233
Mustafa Sabri (1869– 1954) 236
Said Nursi (1876– 1960) 244
•
Epilogue The Swirl of Religious Hopes and Aspirations 253
Notes 261
Bibliography 341
Index 373
viii
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Illustrations and Maps
Illustrations
The last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad al-Mustaʾṣim brought on his
knees as a captive before the Mongol commander Hülegü
sitting on a throne ii
1. An autograph manuscript of Ibn Shākir al- Kutubī’s historical
chronicle “ʾUyūn al- Tawārīkh” preserving the memory of 656/1258
in poetry and prose 32
2. The last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad al-M ustaʾṣim brought before
the Mongol commander Hülegü 34
3. Siege of Baghdad by the Mongol army 40
4. Siege of Baghdad by the Mongol army 48
5. Various musical definitions of Maqām Mukhālif 51
6. The calligrapher Yāqūt al- Mustaʾṣimī writing while hiding in a minaret
during the Mongol siege 53
7. Aerial photograph of the historic lava flows in Ḥarrat Rāḥat 59
8. The city of Baghdad in flood 62
9. Silver and gold coins from the Mamluk Sultanate 78
10. Mausoleum of the Abbasid caliphs in Cairo next to the mosque
of Sayyidah Nafīsah 82
11. Silver and gold coins from the Delhi Sultanate 96
12. A copy of al- Shīrāzī’s ninth/fifteenth- century manuscript “Tuḥfat
al- Mulūk” portraying the Mamluk sultan’s obedience to the Abbasid
caliph as the key to every success 132
13. Mustafa Kemal greeting Shaykh Aḥmad al- Sanūsī during the War of
Independence in Anatolia 156
14. Newspaper announcement of the Ottoman Caliphate’s abolition in
Tevhid- i Efkar (Istanbul), March 1924 162
15. Newsreel stills of Sharīf Ḥusayn’s proclamation as caliph in
Transjordan, March 1924 172
16. Endorsement of Sharīf Ḥusayn’s caliphate in Jamīl al- Baḥrī’s literary
magazine al- Zahrah (Haifa), March 1924 176
17. The last Ottoman caliph Abdülmecid II, 1922– 24 185
18. Indian and Chinese appeals to the Cairene Caliphate Congress 198
19. Members of Sarekat Islam in Java 201
ix
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List of Illustrations and Maps
20. The caliphate congress in Cairo, 1926 210
21. Some twentieth- century portraits 213
22. Said Nursi’s handwritten letter to Mustafa Kemal, November 23, 1922 247
Maps
1. Distribution of premodern authors and poets 24
2. Mamluk Sultanate and ceremonial processional route 71
3. Afro- Eurasia, 1920s 146
4. Public protests and tensions over the caliphate’s abolition in the
Turkish Republic (1924) and the Shaykh Said Rebellion (1925) 168
x
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