Muslim Kingship and the Problem of Un-Conversion
The transcendence of divinity in Islam along with submission to God as the ultimate sovereign created a host of challenges for Muslim kings in their formal, legalistic interactions with non-monotheists, especially those communities who perceived the divine as immanent in nature and did not make a di...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
2022
|
| In: |
Political theology
Year: 2022, Volume: 23, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 90-105 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Asia
/ Islam
/ King
/ Infraction
/ Political theology
|
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BJ Islam KBL Near East and North Africa KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | B
religious encounters
B Islam B Muslim Kingship B religous boundary-crossing B Conversion B rituals of sovereignty |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The transcendence of divinity in Islam along with submission to God as the ultimate sovereign created a host of challenges for Muslim kings in their formal, legalistic interactions with non-monotheists, especially those communities who perceived the divine as immanent in nature and did not make a distinction between the veneration of kings and the worship of gods. While the preferred biblical mode for smoothing such engagements between the believer and non-believer was “conversion” of the latter, this approach was often neither possible nor desirable from the perspective of Muslim rulers in Asia. Thus, in many cases, Muslim kings practiced a transgressive form of boundary crossing and translation across religious divisions erected by biblical monotheism, what I call “un-conversion,” by deliberately bypassing or overriding the scriptural requirements of Islam. This essay examines the theoretical implications of such un-conversions for our understanding of sovereignty and political theology in Islam. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1743-1719 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Political theology
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2021.2014626 |