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

The Criteria of Sovereignty in Islam 77
in Syria?' The Prophet asked their advice on the question, and they
agreed to the suggestion. 19
The Medina carpenter cut a tree and built a pulpit with a seat and
two steps up to it. Other versions say that the Prophet was urged
to take his place on the minbar at the time of prayer so that he
could be seen by everybody, because in a few months the number of
Muslims had grown considerably, and this seemed a more plausible
reason than physical fatigue. The Prophet was only 54 years old at
the time of the Hejira and was in the prime of life. As military
commander, he himself led all the most important expeditions right
up until the day of the triumphant conquest of Mecca, his native
city, eight years later. According to Mas'udi, the expeditions commanded
by the Prophet himself 'numbered 26'. 20
In any case, direct contact between the Prophet, as the imam
who led the prayers, and those who attended seems to have been
an important element of the Friday khutba:
When he mounted to the minbar, the Prophet was accustomed first
to pronounce the salam [Peace be upon you]. When he sat down,
the muezzin proclaimed the prayers .... On Friday he preached the
khutba leaning on a staff .... And the people were in front of him,
their faces raised toward him; they listened as they watched him. He
was accustomed to conduct Friday prayers at the moment when the
sun began to set. That day he was wearing a burd [Yemeni
cloak] ... a shawl woven in Oman .... He only wore them for the
Friday prayers and on feast days, and they were carefully folded
afterwards. 21
However, that mosque, a place of worship and a place for the
conduct of matters of common concern, the place for direct contact
between the Prophet, head of state and imam, and his community,
was not long to endure.
Thirty years after the death of the Prophet, Mu'awiya
(41/661-60/680), the first Umayyad caliph, who used force to come
to power, thus shattering the orthodoxy that required that the caliph
be selected, continued the Prophet's traditional way of using the
mosque, but introduced a significant innovation: the presence of
guards. Mas'udi tells us that Mu'awiya
used to come to the mosque, and after making his ablutions, would
sit down on his chair, and, leaning on the maqsura and surrounded
by his guards, he would let those who wished approach - the poor,