ABSTRACT
The new Islamic zone created and retained a large measure of cultural unity. Yet a corresponding political unity, derivative from the one caliphate located in Damascus or Baghdad, did not properly survive the eighth century. The absence of a theory of universal statehood is often adduced to explain why. The theological split between Sunni and Shi’ite does this more directly. The disparate character of the zonal geography of the Mediterranean and Near East does so structurally.
