Mirror for the Muslim Prince: Islam and the Theory of Statecraft.

AuthorMarch, Andrew F.
PositionBook review

Mirror for the Muslim Prince: Islam and the Theory of Statecraft. Edited by MEHRZAD BOROUJERDI. Modern Intellectual and Political Theory of the Middle East. Syracuse: SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 465. $49.95.

This timely edited volume aims at broadening our understanding of the debates, disagreements, and questions pertaining to the problem of Islam and governance. The volume varies in the originality of its thirteen individual chapters, and is overall stronger on topics related to Persian and South Asian thought. Most of the chapters do not present new research so much as build on (even republish) previous studies, which makes the volume primarily useful for undergraduate teaching purposes.

Asma Afsaruddin's chapter, "Maslahah as a Political Concept" (pp. 16-44), is mostly a historical survey from the earliest period of Islam of the use and function in governance of maslaha (common good, welfare, benefit), covering Sunni historical and exegetical works on the period of the Prophet and Rashidun; Shiite sources that show a combined concern for the right of 'Ali and his heirs to rule and the good governance that would have resulted; later political treatises like those of al-Jahiz, al-Mawardl, and Ibn Taymiyya; and modern discussions by Rashid Rida, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and Tariq Ramadan. It covers a similarly broad range of topics seen to intersect the concept of maslaha, including the selection of the successor to the Prophet; the Quranic conception of "priority" or "precedence" (sabiqa) among the early followers of Muhammad; the institution of early political institutions like the register (diwan) the grounds for distributing stipends and booty and suppressing civil war; the rational reasons for the caliphate; the place of pragmatism and moral compromise in statecraft; and, finally, the grounds for democracy in modem Islam. The breadth of coverage in this efficient chapter makes it a good introduction to a range of concepts and problems falling under the purview of maslaha.

Chapters three to six narrow the focus to premodern Persianate thought. Alireza Shomali and Mehrzad Boroujerdi's "On Sa'di's Treatise on Advice to the Kings" (pp. 45-81) includes a thematic introduction and a particularly valuable translation of the eponymous treatise by the scholar and poet Muslih al-Din Sa'di (d. 1291 or 1292), most likely the first of its kind into English. The authors point out the strikingly secular nature of Sa'di's image of governance, seeing it as offering a social contract model of the legitimate relationship between rulers and ruled. Crucial to this vision is the non-legalism of statecraft and governance; the ruler's task is not to follow prescribed Sharia mies but to employ his own practical wisdom in the pursuit of justice and the welfare of his flock. This is portrayed as a secular kind of knowledge and activity; in fact, one of Sa'di's aphorisms sounds strikingly similar to the moral constructivism of recent neo-Kantians like Rawls: "Hold sway over others such that if you were one of them you could tolerate such reign." Only if the king fulfills this obligation is he entitled to support and obedience.

The chapter by Said Amir Arjomand, "Perso-Islamicate Political Ethic in Relation to the Sources of Islamic Law" (pp. 82-106)...

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