ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the major historiographical debates surrounding the period in which Islam emerged. It shows how the early period can be better understood retrospectively through the lens of case studies, such as that involving the Almohads. The case of the Almohads provides an example that illustrates that in order to explain Islamic legal systems and political thought in the Middle Ages, we need to understand the peripheries. The Almohads began by ensuring the cooperation of the local populations, to whom ‘Abd al-Mu’min promised the abolition of non-Quranic taxes. The Almohad approach makes clear that the question of reconciliation between reason and revelation had not been definitively resolved in ninth-century Baghdad but remained a lasting topic of negotiation among scholars and between scholars and leaders. Contrary to those who support the idea of a ‘break’ symbolized by the Revelation and the importance of the prophetic model, El Azmeh roots the first century of Islamic monarchy in Late Antiquity.