A completely different approach to politics was evolving among the Muslim Community. We will look first at the proto-Sunnis, then at the branches of the Shi‘a.1
The majority of Muslims belonged to what would become the Sunni community, sometimes known as ‘the people of the Book and the Tradition (ahl al-kitab wa ¿l-sunna)’. The foundations of their political thought were established during the late Umayyad and early ‘Abbasid periods. It was based upon the development of Religious Jurisprudence (fiqh: lit. understanding). The first stage up to c.900 was the collection, sifting and writing down of Reports (sing. hadith) to form, together with the Qur‘an, the source of authoritative data for Islamic praxis. These were the purported sayings or actions of the Prophet and his Companions. Few can be reliably dated to before 730. Some were based on the administrative and popular practices of late Umayyad times.
These Report collections gave authoritative solutions to contemporary questions, showing ‘that everything a Muslim was required to believe or do was founded on traditions purporting to prove that Muhammad, by example or precept, had so ruled’ (Guillaume 1956: 92; on the hadith or Reports, see Hallaq 2005: 69–74). Such Reports played a crucial role in the development of Shari‘a and Sunna (Tradition: Sunna – lit. ‘beaten path’ – meaning ‘precedent’, ‘way of life’ and, finally, ‘the ideal or normative usage of the community’ (Schacht 1953: 58; see Hallaq 1997: 10–12; 2005: 46–52)).
This was the work of scholar-teachers (‘ulama) who, secure in a sense of intellectual superiority, moved with ease from city to city. A new type of religious leadership was emerging, based upon expertise in memorising and expounding Reports, at first circulated by word of mouth (and so potentially widely accessible), then written down, collected and interpreted by the ‘ulama (experts). This diffused mode of knowing, democratic in a way, gave rise to a new kind of meritocracy, those possessing the Knowledge (‘ilm) required to understand and apply the revelation so defined.
The ‘ulama, as they developed from the eighth to the tenth century, were ‘a vaguely defined body of men’; there was no hierarchy. They held their position through their training and acknowledgement by followers and peers.
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