Classical Islamic Political Thought: A Perspective on Al-Âdāb As-Sulṭāniyya

Abstract

From the raw egalitarian Quranic narratives on the idea of justice to the varied aspects of the prophetic idea of the polis, the genre of political thought has emerged as an extension of the larger epistemic worldview of Islam. The relationship between the ruler and the ruled has remained, for long, a part of a larger political project of Muslim imagination a nd a theoretical framework forpolitical thinking. Yet, sub-genres like al-Âdāb As -Sul ṭāniyya(literature of Sultanic ethics) and other concepts such as Hisba have not been generally well served by scholarship except within rather narrow constraints of the political history insofar as only a small number of individual thinkers have been the focus of particular interest. Basic research and monographic studies in the field of al-Âdāb As -Sul ṭāniyyahave generally been rather sparse. Consequently, systematic and synthetic studies – as opposed to summary statements – have been few and far between. This review article is part of the researcher’s larger project to excavate a few works in the genre of al-Âdāb As -Sulṭāniyyaand investigate the development of this field in the classical period.