The political thought of Abu Al-Hasan Al-Mawardi
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Date
1981Author
Al-Baghdadi, Ahmad Mubarak
Metadata
Abstract
This thesis is concerned with the political
thought of Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi, a prominent scholar
of the 5th Hijri century in Baghdad, and his intellectual
contribution to Islamic political thought in general.
The thesis is divided into a long introduction,
three main chapters, and a conclusion.
The introduction is concerned with three
aspects. The first aspect concerns al-Mawardi's
Political Writings in the context of earlier works on the
subject, and attempts to show the character of al-Mawardli
as a political thinker in general. The second aspect is
concerned with the historical background to al-Mawardi's
thought. The discussion will concentrate on a general
presentation of the socio-economic climate, and the
religio-political situation under which al-Mawardi
lived during the Buyid rule in Baghdad, in order to see
the outside influences which may have affected him.
The third aspect deals with the life and times of al-
Mawardi. The purpose of the discussion is to shed light
on al-Mawardi's role in Baghdad as a political mediator
between the Abbasid caliph and other independent rulers.
The first chapter is concerned with the
early treatises of al-Mawardili in which he expressed his
early political views concerning kingship, governmental
administration, and other political concepts like
justice and the cyclical movement of the state. The
discussion will also show al-Mawardir's amalgamization of
Islamic traditions with Pre-Islamic and non-Muslim
cultures.
The second chapter deals with al-Miward'I's
views of man and society as it appeared in his work Adab
al-Danya Wall-Din with some reference to other works.
The last chapter deals with al-Maward'i's
theory of the Imamate and other Islamic institutions
connected with it, i.e. the vizierate and the emirate,
in Kitab al Ahkam al-Sultaniyya. The study will discuss
the issue of the Imamate and other institutions
and their relation to the circumstances of the time and
the manner which al-Maward-i used to deal with the
problems.
The conclusion will sum up the general
political thought of al-Mawardi and his contribution
to Islamic political thought.