Relations between Rulers and Ruled in the Medieval Maghrib: The “Social Contract” in the Almoravid and Almohad Centuries, 1050–1250
Issue: Vol 10 No. 2 (2014)
Journal: Comparative Islamic Studies
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Islamic Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.31619
Abstract:
This article approaches the notion of an Islamic social contract from the perspective of the Berber inhabitants of the Maghrib and their concern that the state should be just, with a particular focus on the period between 1050 and 1250 when the region was ruled by two successsive indigenous imperial regimes, the Almoravids and the Almohads. It explores the gradual implantation of ideas of Islamic statehood in the region, their intersection with earlier indigenous beliefs and social practices, and the “naturalization” of Islamic philosophical ideas developed in the ʿAbbasid East and al Andalus in the very different environment of the Maghrib. Two ideas of particular salience to the discussion are the Almoravid idea of a Mālikī “Commander of Truth or Law,” the amīr al-ḥaqq, and Almohad references to a utopian perfect city or polis, al-madīna al-fāḍila, in the context of their recognition of their spiritual father, Ibn Tūmart, as the mahdī.
Author: Amira K Bennison
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