Islam and Statehood

Explores the formation of Islamic institutions and statehood beyond eurocentric models of sovereignty

Islam and Statehood: Instituting the Ecumene offers a groundbreaking reinterpretation of how socioreligious and political institutions took shape across the Islamic ecumene. Leaving behind eurocentric categories of sociopolitical theory in favor of an Italian brand of “Southern” thought, Armando Salvatore advances an alternative framework for understanding state formation in the Islamic ecumene—not as a belated imitation of European models, but as an original instituting process grounded in relational and adaptive modes of authority. Tracing a trajectory from Prophetic narration and Sufi habitus to early modern configurations of saintly power and reflexive governance, this second volume of the Sociology of Islam trilogy provides a conceptual map that connects embodied traditions of civility to self-renewing patterns of political legitimacy culminating in the institution of the Caliphate.

Written with conceptual precision and historical depth, this volume reveals how the Islamic ecumene cultivated forms of “circular” sovereignty that evolved dynamically across time and geography. Islam and Statehood engages critically with eurocentric paradigms of Western political theology and sociology while illuminating the distinctive rationalities that shaped institutional innovation in the ecumene. Situating statehood as part of a wider civilizational experiment in balancing divine mediation, habitus formation, and pragmatic governance, the book:

• Develops an original approach to statehood within the Islamic ecumene
• Introduces the concept of “instituting” as a dynamic and adaptive process distinct from European models of sovereignty
• Builds on and complements The Sociology of Islam in developing a broader theory of formation of the Islamic ecumene by reinterpreting Ibn Khaldun’s theory through the lens of “Southern” thought

Islam and Statehood: Instituting the Ecumene is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Islamic Studies, Religious Studies, Middle East Studies, and Comparative Politics. It is particularly well-suited for courses exploring state formation, political theology, and non-Western sociological theory.

Armando Salvatore is Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies and the Barbara and Patrick Keenan Chair in Interfaith Studies at McGill University. A comparative historical sociologist of knowledge and institutions, he is the author of The Sociology of Islam: Knowledge, Power and Civility and Chief Editor of The Wiley Blackwell History of Islam.