Rituals of Islamic Monarchy. Accession and Succession in the First Islamic Empire. By Andrew Marsham. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2009. xii + 344 pp. ISBN 978 0 7486 25123 (original) (raw)
2013, Early Medieval Europe
Scholarship on early Near Eastern/Islamic political culture is now the richer with the appearance of two studies: Andrew Marsham's new volume and the more recent publication by Ella Landau-Tasseron. 1 The two authors adopt rather different approaches. Landau-Tasseron's monograph, shorter than Marsham's full-length study, is organized topically and covers a broader sweep of Near Eastern history. One understands that it is directed, at least in part, at policy makers. The aim, it appears, is to further understanding of ideological trends in the contemporary Islamic world, no doubt with an eye to identifying moderate, non-extremist elements "with whom the West can talk" (my phrase). Landau-Tasseron is a seasoned historian, with a subtle writer's way with evidence. One hopes that the nuances of her discussion will not be lost on the intended audience. It seems naïve to also hope that the same readers will turn to Marsham's fine new book. Marsham proceeds through the successive periods of Late Antique/pre-Islamic Arabia to the end of the Middle ʿAbbasid Caliphate (809-865 CE). He carefully considers the many facets of early Islamic political ritual and the stages of its history, with a sharp eye to the character and details of the evidence (material and written). He demonstrates admirable skills as a historian, bringing together considerable evidence to support his ideas, writing these up effectively, and thus guiding the reader with seeming ease through often unwieldy terrain. Marsham is in spots overly generous with his evidence; the discussion can grow crowded. It is also a rather conventional work; Marsham adheres closely to the rules, format and tone of the academic monograph. He keeps, however, to the highest standards of the genre. He is particularly good at situating his topic against the wider backdrop, in this case of early Arab/Islamic imperial history. This is, after all, the sine qua non of successful history writing. The politics of the early caliphate is, to be sure, well-travelled ground; the work of Hinds, Sourdel, Crone, Kennedy and ʿUmar (Omar) come readily to mind. But Marsham has found much to say that is new. It is in sum a deftly executed, intelligent and very useful work of scholarship. His topic is ritual, the system of ideas and ceremony underlying "accession and succession" to Arab/Islamic imperial office. The system turned, of course, on the bayʿa, a term that Marsham has as "the pledge of allegiance" (American readers may be put off by the phrase, one normally associated with mumbled declarations of loyalty to flag and nation). The pledge, sealed with a hand clasp, expressed from its very origins reciprocity of loyalty and service, "an exchange of obligations" (p. 75). Political and military service was, in turn, imbued with higher purpose: the achievement of divine/Qurʾanic prescription, with His representatives (the caliphs, in their capacity as "deputies of God") at the helm. Underlying these notions was a long-standing commercial ethos; the verbal form bā yaʿa, occurring six times in the Qurʾan, connotes 'bargain,' in this case of a religio-moral sort. Marsham opens briskly with the period of Late Antiquity and the Arab/Islamic conquests. The relative confidence with which he treats the period will not sit well with some readers; skepticism regarding any effort at reconstructing the pre-Marwanid period is well-founded. There seems little reason, however, to question Marsham's general point about these notionsthe idea of a "religio-political covenant contracted before God" (p. 54) and the idea of a reciprocal exchange colored deeply by longstanding commercial attitudesas springing from a heady mix of ancient Arabian custom and Late Antique monotheism (especially in its Christian forms).