III

THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ISLAM

In the first period of Islam, the functions of what we call Church and what we call State were exercised by the same authority.  Its political development is therefore of great importance for the understanding of its religious growth.

The Prophet, when he spoke in the name of God, was the lawgiver of his community, and it was rightly understood by the later Faithful that his indispensable explanations of God’s word had also legislative power.  From the time of the Hijrah the nature of the case made him the ruler, the judge, and the military commander of his theocratic state.  Moreover, Allah expressly demanded of the Moslims that they should obey “the Messenger of God, and those amongst them who have authority."[1] We see by this expression that Mohammed shared his temporal authority with others.  His co-rulers were not appointed, their number was nowhere defined, they were not a closed circle; they were the notables of the tribes or other groups who had arrayed themselves under Mohammed’s authority, and a few who had gained influence by their personality.  In their councils Mohammed’s word had no decisive power, except when he spoke in the name of Allah; and we know how careful he was to give oracles only in cases of extreme need.

[Footnote 1:  Qoran, iv., 62.]

In the last years of Mohammed’s life his authority became extended over a large part of Arabia; but he did very little in the way of centralization of government.  He sent ’amils, i.e., agents, to the conquered tribes or villages, who had to see that, in the first place, the most important regulations of the Qoran were followed, and, secondly, that the tax into which the duty of almsgiving had been converted was promptly paid, and that the portion of it intended for the central fund at Medina was duly delivered.  After the great conquests, the governors of provinces of the Moslim Empire, who often exercised a despotic power, were called by the same title of ’amils.  The agents of Mohammed, however, did not possess such unlimited authority.  It was only gradually that the Arabs learned the value of good discipline and submission to a strong guidance, and adopted the forms of orderly government as they found them in the conquered lands.

Through the death of Mohammed everything became uncertain.  The combination under one leadership of such a heterogeneous mass as that of his Arabs would have been unthinkable a few years before.  It became quite natural, though, as soon as the Prophet’s mouth was recognized as the organ of Allah’s voice.  Must this monarchy be continued after Allah’s mouthpiece had ceased to exist?  It was not at all certain.  The force of circumstances and the energy of some of Mohammed’s counsellors soon led to the necessary decisions.  A number of the notables of the community succeeded in forcing upon the hesitating or unwilling members the acceptance of the monarchy as a permanent institution.  There must be a khalif, a deputy of the Prophet in all his functions (except that of messenger of God), who would be ruler and judge and leader of public worship, but above all amir al-mu’minin, “Commander of the Faithful,” in the struggle both against the apostate Arabs and against the hostile tribes on the northern border.