A caliphate is essentially a group of emirates, states or provinces which are bound together by the bay’ah ruling contract with its ruler – the caliph. The Caliphate from its initial establishment after the death of the Prophet ﷺ under its first caliph Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, had always been an ‘empire’ encompassing vast areas of land, and in later periods spanning multiple continents.
In Islamic history the caliphate was broadly divided up into four levels of governance:
| Level | Name | Head |
| 1st Level | Province (ولاية Wiliyah) Emirate (إِمَارَةِ) Sultanate (سَلْطَنَة) | Wali Amir Sultan |
| 2nd Level | District (عمالة I’mala) | ‘Amil Hakim Amir |
| 3rd Level | City (بَلَد Balad) Fortified town (قصبة Qasabah) | Amir Hakim Ra’is |
| 4th Level | Neighbourhood (حَيّ Hayy)[1] Tribe/Clan (قَبِيلَة Qabilah)[2] | Muqaddam Sheikh Naqib |
Administering such a huge state relied heavily on the local governors of the various provinces being loyal, competent and just in their positions. The logistical challenges of ancient communications meant it could take weeks or even months for the governors of Egypt, North Africa, and Khorasan to receive a letter from the caliph. The governor would therefore need to have a great deal of autonomy and authority to manage their province.
Organising these provinces or emirates in to one unified state was no easy task. Initially the Islamic state was a fairly centralised unitary model during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr and Umar, but then began to unravel in the time of Uthman and Ali leading eventually to the Umayyad dynasty taking over the caliphate, and marking the start of the monarchical (mulk) nature of Islamic rule for the rest of the state’s 1300-year reign.
Ibn Khaldun (d.1406CE) discusses that the Rightly Guided Caliphs “lived in a time when royal authority (mulk) as such did not yet exist, and the restraining influence was religious. Thus, everybody had his restraining influence in himself. Consequently, they appointed the person who was acceptable to Islam, and preferred him over all others. They trusted every aspirant to have his own restraining influence.
After them, from Mu‘âwiyah on, the group feeling (asabiyah) (of the Arabs) approached its final goal, royal authority (mulk). The restraining influence of religion had weakened. The restraining influence of government and group was needed. If, under those circumstances, someone not acceptable to the group had been appointed as successor, such an appointment would have been rejected by it. The (chances of the appointee) would have been quickly demolished, and the community would have been split and torn by dissension.”[3]
How unified a caliphate actually needs to be in practice is a balancing act which requires statesmen who are highly skilled in siyasa sharia such as the Rightly Guided Caliphs. Even then, Uthman and Ali both faced rebellion through no fault of their own, because they governed over human beings who by their nature will sin and oppress others. If they were ‘angels’ then there would be no need for an authority in the first place. The Prophet ﷺ said,
كُلُّ ابْنِ آدَمَ خَطَّاءٌ وَخَيْرُ الْخَطَّائِينَ التَّوَّابُونَ
“All of the children of Adam are sinners, and the best sinners are those who repent.”[4]
Uthman bin Affan said,
إن الله يزع بالسلطان ما لا يزع بالقرآن
“Allah prevents by the authority (sultan) what He does not prevent by the Qur’an.”[5]
What we find in practice is that it is the bond of Islam and the implementation of justice which creates unity, and not a highly centralised authoritarian state. This is especially true when those in power are themselves not implementing justice and abusing their positions, even if they carry Islamic titles like Caliph, Imam, Sultan, Wali or Emir.
Ibn Taymiyyah (d.1328CE) said,
إنَّ اللَّهَ يُقِيمُ الدَّوْلَةَ الْعَادِلَةَ وَإِنْ كَانَتْ كَافِرَةً وَلَا يُقِيمُ الظَّالِمَةَ وَإِنْ كَانَتْ مُسْلِمَةً ويقال الدُّنْيَا تَدُومُ مَعَ الْعَدْلِ وَالْكُفْرِ وَلَا تَدُومُ مَعَ الظُّلْمِ وَالْإِسْلَامِ
“It is said that Allah allows the just state to remain even if it is led by unbelievers, but Allah will not allow the oppressive state to remain even if it is led by Muslims. And it is said that the world will endure with justice and unbelief, but it will not endure with oppression and Islam.”[6]
Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (r.694–714CE) was appointed by the Umayyad Caliph Abdul-Malik ibn Al-Marwan (r. 692-705CE) as the governor of Iraq combining both Kufa and Basra. While he was governor, Abdul-Malik’s son, Al-Walid ibn Abdul-Malik (r.705-715CE) appointed Umar ibn Abdul-Aziz as the governor of Medina (r.706-711CE). The Umayyad caliphate at this stage had full territorial integrity and sovereignty over all of its domains, with the central government in Damascus retaining tight control over all the provinces. Such a situation however did not bring unity to the state due to the injustices being committed by some of the governors most notably Al-Hajjaj.
Al-Hajjaj was notorious for his harsh and oppressive rule against the people of Iraq. Ibn Kathir mentions that a man, supposedly by the name of ‘As from the Banu Yashkur tribe, approached Hajjaj and said: “I have been afflicted with a hernia and because of that Bishr bin Marwan (previous governor) excused me and commissioned that I should be granted my maintenance from the Bait ul-Mal.” Upon hearing the man’s claim, al-Hajjaj refused to accommodate it and instead sentenced him to death, and so he was killed. Due to this incident, the people of al-Basrah grew so scared of him that they left the city.[7] The people of Iraq started fleeing to the provinces of Makkah and Madinah under Umar bin Abdul-Aziz’s authority because they knew he was a righteous and just ruler. This angered Hajjaj who wrote to Al-Walid asking for Umar to be expelled from his post as governor. Hajjaj wrote, “It has become apparent that the people of Iraq and Thaqaf are fleeing from Iraq and seeking refuge in al-Madinah and Makkah.”[8] Al-Walid accepted Hajjaj’s advice and dismissed Umar from his post as governor of Medina.
If we fast forward to Al-Andalus, which from 929CE became the Cordoba Caliphate, what we find is unity between the Muslim populations in Spain and those in the lands ruled by the Abbasids, even though ‘legally’ according to the majority on paper they would have been seen as a rebellious entity. It was the Cordoba Caliphate that produced some of the greatest Islamic scholars in history such as, Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih (d.940CE), Ibn Hazm (d.1064CE), Al-Qurtubi (d.1273CE) and Ibn Al-Arabi (d.1240CE).
In the Eastern lands the famous Vizier of the Seljuk Sultanate – Nizam al-Mulk (d.1092CE) established a group of higher education institutions called the Nizamiyyah. These again produced many great scholars and among the professors of these institutions were Imam al-Juwayni (d.1085CE) and Al-Ghazali (d.1111CE). The Seljuk’s never claimed the caliphate for themselves and gave a nominal bay’ah to the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad. They were politically disunited from the caliphate as a semi-independent province which in Al-Mawardi’s model falls under the Amir Al-Istila’ (Amir of Conquest) and Wazir Al-Tafweedh (Delegated Assistant).
Notes
[1] The smallest division of the state was the neighbourhood or city quarter (حَيّ Hayy). In the Ottoman Empire or devlet, a neighbourhood consisted of forty houses based on a hadith which some have deemed weak (da’if):
حق الجار أربعون داراً هكذا وهكذا وهكذا يميناً وشمالاً وقدام وخلف
“The rights of neighbours extend to forty homes. He then indicated to the right, left, back and front.” [Majma’ Al-Zawaaid, vol 8, pg 168, Qudsi / Musnad Abi Ya’la Al-Mawsili, vol 5, pg 368, Muassasah Uluum Al-Quran]
[2] “O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples (شُعُوباً) and tribes (قَبائِل) so that you may ˹get to˺ know one another.” [Surah Al-Hujurat, 13]
[3] Ibn Khaldun, ‘The Muqaddimah – An Introduction to History,’ Translated by Franz Rosenthal, Princeton Classics, p.270
[4] Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2499. Qawi (strong) according to Ibn Hajar
[6] Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Amr bil Ma’rūf wan-nahi ‘an al-munkar 1/29
[7] Ibn Kathir, ‘The Caliphate of Banu Umayyah,’ Darussalam, p.345
[8] Dr. Ali Muhammad As-Sallabi, ‘Umar bin Abd al-Aziz,’ Darussalam, p.85
Islamic Civilization 