Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

5
The Criteria of
Sovereignty in Islam
There are two indisputable criteria of sovereignty in Islam: the
name of the head of state is proclaimed in the khutba at the Friday
service in the mosque and it is inscribed on the coins. Nevertheless,
if one had to choose which one of these seems to be permanently
and clearly indispensable since year 1 of the Hejira (622) when the
Prophet built the first mosque in Medina with his own hands, it
would be the khutba, the sermon at the Friday prayers. We have
seen that the titles of heads of state in Islam vary according to the
nature of the power they exercise. There is the caliphate with its
intimately linked spiritual and earthly powers, and there is mulk in
Ibn Kaldun's sense, that is, earthly power with no other claim. It
is true that their authority varies according to how much military
power they wield, but one thing remains certain: only the person
whose name is proclaimed in the Friday khutba is recognized as the
official sovereign.
The Friday khutba is both the mirror and the reflection of what
is going on in the political scene. In the case of war, one learns
what is happening at the front by listening: the name of the sovereign
that is mentioned is the one who currently controls the territory by
military means. And the name changes with events in periods of
political trouble. The khutba is the accurate barometer of subtle
negotiations between the spiritual (the caliph) and the secular (the
military chieftains who declare themselves head of state). In
428/1038 when the militarily weakened Abbasid caliph agreed that
the khutba should be delivered in the name of the Buyid sovereign,
who had given himself the Persian title of Shahanshah (emperor of