Primary Sources
Al-Mukhtār Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Abī Bakr Al-Kuntī Al-Kabīr, Sayyid Author. Letter to the Warring Tribes. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1499, 1300]
In this work, the author, a scholar and religious leader, urges warring factions to make peace and live in peace. He supports his argument with quotations from the Koran and allusions to the practice of Muhammad and his companions, which require the faithful to avoid discord, to reconcile, and to live in peace and tolerance. (LINK)
Al-Maghili, Muhammad Ibnu Abdul Kareem, About Creator. Askiyah’s Questions and al-Maghili’s Answers al-Maghili’s Tract on Politics. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1504, 1450]
This treatise is about the Songhai Empire, which flourished in West Africa during the 14th and 15th centuries. It consists of the answers to seven questions asked of the author by the emperor of Songhai. The author tells the emperor that he is obliged to apply Islamic law strictly in administering the political and economic affairs of the empire. In order to do so properly, he is told that he needs to seek the advice of pious scholars. (LINK)
Abu-Lughod, Janet. “The Islamic city: Historic myth, Islamic essence, and contemporary relevance.”
Avcıoğlu, Nebahat. “Turquerie and the Politics of Representation, 1728–1876.”
Bahrani, Zainab, Çelik, Zeynep, and Eldem, Edhem. “Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753–1914.”
Blair, Sheila S. and Bloom, Jonathan M. “The mirage of Islamic art: Reflections on the study of an unwieldy field.”
Duri, Abd Al-Aziz. “Early Islamic Institutions: Administration and Taxation from the Caliphate to the Umayyads and Abbasids.”
El Cheikh, Nadia Maria. “Women, Islam, and Abbasid Identity.”
El-Cheikh, Nadia Maria. “Revisiting the Abbasid Harems.”
El-Cheikh, Nadia Maria. “The Qahramâna in the Abbasid Court: Position and Functions.”
Kennedy, Hugh. “‘Abbasid Caliphate: A Historical Introduction’ in The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature.”
Roberts, Alexandre M. “AL-MANṢŪR AND THE CRITICAL AMBASSADOR / ﺍﻟﻤﻨﺼﻮﺭ ﻭﺍﻧﺘﻘﺎﺩﺍﺕ ﺍﻟﻮﺍﻓﺪ ﺍﻟﺒﻴﺰﻧﻄﻲ.”
Schottenhammer, Angela. “Yang Liangyao’s Mission of 785 to the Caliph of Baghdād: Evidence of an Early Sino-Arabic Power Alliance?
SECONDARY SOURCES
CRONE, PATRICIA. Medieval Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
This book presents general readers and specialists alike with a broad survey of Islamic political thought in the six centuries from the rise of Islam to the Mongol invasions. Based on a wide variety of sources, it seeks to bring out the enormous scope and high level of historical (and, in some cases, contemporary) interest of medieval Muslim thinking on this subject. (LINK)
Safran, Janina M. “The Structuring of Umayyad Rule.” In Defining Boundaries in Al-Andalus: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Islamic Iberia, 35–80. Cornell University Press, 2013.
Al-Andalus, the medieval Islamic state in Iberia, lasted over 750 years since the Arab and Berber conquest of Hispania in 711. While commonly perceived as a land of religious tolerance, our understanding of Muslim governance over Christians and Jews, as well as social relations among them, remains limited. In “Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus,” Janina M. Safran examines Muslim political and legal-religious authority, providing insight into intercommunal life in Iberia during the first three centuries of Islamic rule. (LINK)
Donner, Fred M. “The Formation of the Islamic State.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 106, no. 2 (1986): 283–96. https://doi.org/10.2307/601592.
Darling, Linda T. “‘The Vicegerent of God, from Him We Expect Rain’: The Incorporation of the Pre-Islamic State in Early Islamic Political Culture.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 134, no. 3 (2014): 407–29. https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.134.3.407.
MICHAILIDIS, MELANIE. “DYNASTIC POLITICS AND THE SAMANID MAUSOLEUM.” Ars Orientalis 44 (2014): 20–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43489796.http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv1v7zbv8.6.
Geaves, Ronald. “Sectarianism in Sunnī Islam.” In Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements, edited by Muhammad Afzal Upal and Carole M. Cusack, 25–48. Brill, 2021.
Nielson, Lisa. “GENDER AND THE POLITICS OF MUSIC IN THE EARLY ISLAMIC COURTS.” Early Music History 31 (2012): 235–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23254010.
Yazigi, Maya. “Some Accounts of Women Delegates to Caliph Muʿāwiya: Political Significance.” Arabica 52, no. 3 (2005): 437–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4057743.
YÜCESOY, HAYRETTİN. “Language of Empire: Politics of Arabic and Persian in the Abbasid World.” PMLA 130, no. 2 (2015): 384–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44015720.
Reinfandt, Lucian. “Local Judicial Authorities in Umayyad Egypt (41-132/661-750).” Bulletin d’études Orientales 63 (2014): 127–46. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44299828.