Reviving the Islamic Caliphate in Early Modern Morocco
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A01=Stephen Cory
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Anonymous Historian
Anonymous Scholar
Antonio De Saldanha
Author_Stephen Cory
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caliphal
Caliphal Authority
Caliphal Claims
Caliphal Designs
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBG
Category=HBJH
Category=HBLH
Category=HD
Category=HRH
Category=N
Category=NHB
Category=NHH
Category=NHHA
Category=QRP
claims
COP=United Kingdom
court
Court Panegyrists
De Felipe II
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early modern North Africa
El Moudden
empire
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eq_history
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eq_nobargain
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God's Caliph
God’s Caliph
heir
Heir Apparent
Henry III
Holy Man
Islamic political authority
Islamic statecraft
Joint Invasion
King Henry III
Language_English
Le Tourneau
Mahdist Claims
Mawlid Celebrations
moudden
Muslim World
Ottoman rivalry
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panegyric literature analysis
panegyrists
Philip II
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
roger
Roger Le Tourneau
softlaunch
songhay
Songhay conquest
Songhay Empire
tourneau
Universal Caliphate
Western Islamic caliphate ambitions
Western Sahara
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9781032923192
- Weight: 453g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 14 Oct 2024
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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Historians have long grappled with the question of how Islamic civilization - so clearly dominant during the medieval period - could fall completely under Western hegemony in the modern age? Many Western writers answer this question by referencing European ingenuity, initiative, and transformative energy in contrast with Islamic parochialism, passivity, and resistance to change. This book challenges such assumptions by studying the career of an aggressive sultan in early-modern Morocco, Mulay Ahmad al-Mansur (r. 1578-1603), who dared to take on the international super-powers of his day and sought to redraw the map of Islamic Africa. Al-Mansur is best known for launching a bold invasion across the Sahara desert to conquer the West African Songhay Empire. Most historians ascribe strictly economic motives for this assault, stating that the sultan wished to capture the prosperous gold trade that had traveled for centuries from West Africa to the Mediterranean. Dr Cory argues instead that Mulay Ahmad was pursuing more expansive goals than simply stuffing his coffers with West African gold, as evidenced by audacious claims made on his behalf in numerous panegyric texts produced by the sultan's court. Through a detailed analysis of official histories, documents and correspondence, writings by European observers, and architectural evidence, he contends that the sultan sought to establish a Western caliphate that would eclipse the Ottoman Empire. Mulay Ahmad advanced this agenda through panegyric literature, elaborate court ceremonies, grand constructions, stunning military conquests, and astute diplomacy with European powers, Ottoman officials, and sub-Saharan rulers. Such assertions of universal caliphal authority had not been seriously promoted in Islam for over three hundred years before al-Mansur's reign. Thus al-Mansur sought to move his country forward into the modern age by returning to an institution that had governed Muslim lands during the fabled golden age of the Abbasid and Andalusian Umayyad caliphates. Through an investigation of the sultan's ambitions and achievements Dr Cory provides new insight into the history of relations between Muslim states and the West.
Stephen Cory is an Associate Professor in History and Religious Studies and is Director of the Middle Eastern Studies program at Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH.
