Date of Award

8-22-2025

Date Published

September 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Religion

Advisor(s)

Jeanette Jouili

Second Advisor

Zachary Braiterman

Keywords

authority;community (ummah);discursive tradition;distributed sovereignty;governance;lawgiving

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Islamic Studies | Religion

Abstract

ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the concept of sovereignty in classical Islamic political thought through a comparative analysis of three major thinkers—al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058), al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085), and al-Fārābī (d. 339/950)—each representing a distinct epistemic tradition: jurisprudence (fiqh), speculative theology (kalām), and philosophy (falsafa). Employing a conceptual and textual methodology, the study reconstructs a theory of distributed sovereignty in Islamic thought, in which political authority is not centralized in a singular sovereign but dispersed across three interrelated domains: legitimate authority, lawgiving, and governance. Drawing on primary texts—including al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭāniyya, Tashīl al-Naẓar, Ghiyāth al-Umam, al-Madīna al-Fāḍila, al-Siyāsa al-Madanīyya, Kitāb al-Milla, and Iḥṣāʾ al-ʿUlūm—the dissertation analyzes how each thinker conceptualizes the relationship between divine law (Sharīʿa), the scholarly class (ʿulamāʾ), the political community (ummah), and rulership in the construction of normative political order. Al-Māwardī develops a constitutionalist model in which the imamate functions as a legally accountable trust (amāna) grounded in communal contract (ʿaqd) and constrained by moral and procedural norms derived from Sharīʿa. Al-Juwaynī advances a flexible and crisis-responsive political theology that emphasizes the epistemic authority of jurists and legitimizes non-ideal rulers under conditions of necessity, while maintaining the primacy of law. His theory introduces a graduated conception of sovereignty capable of functioning across states of exception. Al-Fārābī, by contrast, grounds political legitimacy in metaphysical and epistemological hierarchies, centering on the philosopher-prophet who receives and translates divine truths into symbolic and legal forms. Although ultimate authority begins with this ideal figure, it is sustained through a rational elite who interpret and preserve the law within a virtuous polity. Despite their methodological divergences, all three thinkers converge on a shared vision of sovereignty as constrained by divine law, mediated by epistemic authority, and legitimated through communal recognition. By recovering classical Islamic theories that emphasize distributed authority, community-based normativity, and legal accountability, the dissertation offers a framework for rethinking sovereignty within the Islamic tradition—one that resists both authoritarian centralization and liberal proceduralism. This study contributes to the fields of Islamic political thought, comparative political theory, and the conceptual history of sovereignty.

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