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Imams and Emirs: State, Religion and Sects in Islam
In this classic, comprehensive study of Islamic sects in the contemporary Arab world, Khuri focuses on the Sunni, Shi‘a, Alawis, Druze, Ibadis, Zaidis, Yazidis and the Maronites (who, although Christian, are included because they share certain distinguishing features). His placements of these groups on a single comparative scale was unprecedented.
Khuri argues that conflicts among Muslims arise from the struggle between two opposing forces: religious, doctrinaire authorities (imams) and leaders who derive their authority from power and coercion (emirs). He discusses the role of dogma but also, uniquely, the critical factors that differentiate sects from religious communities and religions from sects.
Following a thorough review of the structural characteristics of individual sects, Khuri addresses issues of religious change, dealing with the interplay between religions, states and nationalism. Here he explores the contradictions between modern state structures and the Islamic umma, showing how some religious concepts had begun to take on nationalistic meanings.
Fuad I. Khuri, who died in 2003, was a distinguished Lebanese writer and academic. He wrote widely on the contemporary Arab world, covering topics such as social and cultural change, tribal and peasant societies and religious organisation in Islam. His books include The Body in Islamic Culture and Tents and Pyramids: Games and Ideology in Arab Culture from Backgammon to Autocratic Rule (both Saqi Books).
Khuri argues that conflicts among Muslims arise from the struggle between two opposing forces: religious, doctrinaire authorities (imams) and leaders who derive their authority from power and coercion (emirs). He discusses the role of dogma but also, uniquely, the critical factors that differentiate sects from religious communities and religions from sects.
Following a thorough review of the structural characteristics of individual sects, Khuri addresses issues of religious change, dealing with the interplay between religions, states and nationalism. Here he explores the contradictions between modern state structures and the Islamic umma, showing how some religious concepts had begun to take on nationalistic meanings.
Fuad I. Khuri, who died in 2003, was a distinguished Lebanese writer and academic. He wrote widely on the contemporary Arab world, covering topics such as social and cultural change, tribal and peasant societies and religious organisation in Islam. His books include The Body in Islamic Culture and Tents and Pyramids: Games and Ideology in Arab Culture from Backgammon to Autocratic Rule (both Saqi Books).
- GenresIslamReligionNonfiction
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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June 9, 2022
Book: Imams and Emirs: State, Religion and Sects in Islam
Author: Fuad I. Khuri
Publisher: Saqi Books; 2nd edition (14 March 2006)
Language: English
Paperback: 270 pages
Item Weight: 331 g
Dimensions: 13.46 x 1.52 x 20.83 cm
Price: 1882/-
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
There is no distinction of estimation amongst Muslim sects that the ‘religion’ of Allah is Islam; that the only way to know Islam is through the Book of Allah and the sunnah of the Holy Prophet; and that the Book of Allah is what is known as the Qur’an, is without any addition or subtraction.
And what difference is there is in the interpretation of some of the verses of the Qur’an; and in believing or not believing some of the sunnah as genuine; or in its interpretation.
This difference of approach has led towards the dissimilarity in some essential principles and some laws of shari’ah.
As the indispensable principles of Islam are well-known, we do not think it necessary to enumerate all the beliefs.
It will be sufficient if some of the important differences are described here to give the readers a fairly comprehensive idea of the main characteristics which distinguish the Shi’ahs from the Sunnis.
All the Muslims agree that Allah is one, Muhammad is His last Prophet and that one day Allah will resurrect all the human beings and all will be answerable to their beliefs and actions.
All of them agree that anyone not believing in any of the above three basic principles is not a Muslim. Also, they agree that anybody denying the famous tenets of Islam, like salah (prayers), sawm (fasting), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), zakat (religious tax), etc., or believing that the famous sins, like drinking wine, adultery, stealing, gambling, lie, murder, etc., are not sins, is not a Muslim, though he might have been believing in Allah and His Prophet Muhammad, because to deny such things is tantamount to deny the Prophethood of Muhammad and his shari’ah (Divine Law).
When we go further, we come across those subjects which are not agreed amongst the Muslims, and there the differences between the different sects of Islam begin.
This book is a proportional study of Islamic sects with a stress on the ideology and organization of religion.
Into seventeen chapters does the author divide the book:
Chapter 1) Introduction
Chapter 2) Religion and Sect in Islam
Chapter 3) The Incorporative Character of Religion and the Segregative Character of Sects
Chapter 4) The Centrality of Religion
Chapter 5) The Peripherality of Sects
Chapter 6) Sects and Religious Minorities
Chapter 7) The Formation of the Religious Community
Chapter 8) The Imam: Martyr or Hero?
Chapter 9) The Society of Divine Manifestation: the Druzes and the Alawis
Chapter 10) The Survival Society: the Yazidis
Chapter 11) Lebanon, the Unique Identity: the Maronites
Chapter 12) The Organization of Religion: the Sunni Ulama
Chapter 13) The Imam and the Pharaoh: the Shi‘a Ulama
Chapter 14) Purity versus Power: the Ibadis, the Zaidis and the Yazidis
Chapter 15) God and Caesar: the Alawis and the Druzes
Chapter 16) God and Caesar: the Maronites and the Orthodox
Chapter 17) Epilogue: Brethren or Citizens?
‘Ideology’ refers to the premises that are held true sui generis about the origin and formation of the religious community, and ‘organization’ to the recruitment, training and performance of the ulama specialists in society.
Two basic themes govern the text:
1) Relating to the disagreement between sects and states, and
2) The other between imams (the religious elite) and emirs (the power elite).
The opposition between imams and emirs takes different forms in different religious communities notwithstanding whether they are adapted to state structures or to group sovereignties.
The assortment of sects that emerged at different times in Islam were basically instruments of moral control, operating in peripheral territories lying outside the domain of state authority.
In this sense, sect and state stand opposed to each other; and so do imams and emirs.
In the first five chapters, a division is made between religion and sect by reason of the centrality of religion as ‘din’ and its adaptation to state structures, as opposed to the peripherality of sects and their attachment to the doctrine of the sovereignty of the community.
Chapter 6 distinguishes between sects and religious minorities. Unlike sects, religious minorities live within the city walls subject to centralized (Sunni) authority, and here they seem to have worked out an accommodative modus operandi accepting the ideology of Sunni rule.
Whereas sects practise an inclusive system of production in the territories they control, religious minorities follow an extremely specialized mode of activity.
On the basis of this dissimilarity between sects and religious minorities, the Christian Maronites of Lebanon are included in the first, not the second category.
Other Christian Churches, plus the Jews, the Sabaeans, the Muslim Isma‘ilis and the Baha’is are classified as minority groups. However, it must be borne in mind that this is a dynamic classification subject to economic, demographic and political transformations.
Given the appropriate conditions, sects could turn into minorities and minorities into sects. There are a number of signs, for instance, that the Yazidis of Iraq and the Ibadis of Algeria are gradually being transformed from sectarian to minority status.
This issue is discussed at more length in Chapter 6.
From Chapter 7 onwards, the book argues about the religious structure of each individual sect as compared with the Sunni or Shi‘a models, the two mother models from which different formulations have emerged in Islam.
The phrase ‘religious structure’ is used to refer to two related matters: first, the sectarian ideology or world view which includes the origin and formation of the religious community; and, second, the organization of religion which includes the arrangement, employment and schooling of the ulama, and the way they are linked to the society.
Both Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 contend with the inequality between religious and sectarian ideologies, focusing on the Sunni model and the Shi‘a model correspondingly. The theme is that whereas the Sunni focus on the sovereignty of divine law and the centrality of the state, sects focus on the sovereignty of the religious community.
Chapter 9 discusses the code of sovereignty with regard to the Druzes and the Alawis.
Chapters 10 and 11 discuss in detail, the Yazidis and the Maronites. The Ibadi and Zaidi concepts are discussed in Chapter 8.
From Chapter 12 onwards, proportional religious organization in Islam is discussed consistent with basically the same style of presentation as in the preceding chapters on ideology. In other words, the Sunni are discussed first (Chapter 12), then the Shi‘a (Chapter 13), and these two models are then compared with the other sects.
Whereas the Sunni ulama assume a supplementary position to the power elite, the Shi‘a ulama present themselves as if they were the political elite par excellence, performing the tasks usually carried out by the power elite.
Unlike the Sunni, sects have developed a dual religious organization adapted in a different way to diverse sectarian orientations.
Religious activity and specialization among sects are generalized, diffuse processes. The fact that in Islam Caesar belongs to God does not mean that there is no contradiction between the kingdom of Caesar (emirs) and the kingdom of God (imams).
The contradiction in Islam occurs between ‘purity’ and ‘power’—in other words, between the rule of the imam and that of the emir, sultan or pharaoh. How purity and power, as distinct socio-political forces, relate to or oppose each other in various sectarian communities is analysed in Chapters 14, 15 and 16.
The final chapter, entitled ‘Brethren or Citizens?’, deals with the interplay between religion, nationalism and state organization. This chapter argues that nationalism, as a model of convergence, feeds upon religious symbols, but for these to become nationalistically relevant they have to be transformed from their particular to a wider and more universal meaning—the nation
Let’s end the discussion with a simple thought ---
The Sunnis say that Allah has a body, not like the bodies that we know of. There is a vast material which can be quoted here describing that belief.
But as all the Sunnis nowadays are Ash’arite (followers of Abu’l-Hasan al-Ash’ari), I would like to note down his belief on this subject.
He says "We confess that God is firmly seated on His Throne . . . We confess that God has two hands, without asking how ... We confess that God has two eyes, without asking how. . . We confess that God has a face ... We confess that God has knowledge ... We affirm hearing and sight, and do not deny that, as do the Mu’tazila, the Jahmiyya, and the Khawarij. ... We affirm that God has power. . ."
We, the Shi`ah Ithna ‘asharis (the followers of the Twelve-Imams in Shi’ism) believe that Allah doesn’t have a body.
"Verily, Allah is One, Unique, nothing is like Him, He is Eternal; Hearing, Seeing, Omniscient, Living, Omnipotent, above every need. He cannot be described in terms of substance, or body, or form, or accident, or line, or surface, or heaviness, or lightness, or colour, or movement, or rest, or time, or space. He is above all the descriptions which can be applied to His creatures."
"He is away from both extremes: Neither He is just a non-entity (as atheists and in a lesser degree that the Mu'tazilites have implied), nor He is just like other things. He is Existent, not like other existing things.”
Of course, there are some verses in the Qur'an which ascribe the words used for limbs to the person of God. But according to the interpretation of our Imams, they are used in a metaphorical, not literal sense …
You infidels, not only you, we too have a million discrepancy within our ranks. From the Sunni and Shi‘a to the Alawis and Druze and Ibadis and Zaidis and Yazidis and the Maronites – we are not far from you kafers.
Read this book to know more, you infidels …………….
Author: Fuad I. Khuri
Publisher: Saqi Books; 2nd edition (14 March 2006)
Language: English
Paperback: 270 pages
Item Weight: 331 g
Dimensions: 13.46 x 1.52 x 20.83 cm
Price: 1882/-
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
There is no distinction of estimation amongst Muslim sects that the ‘religion’ of Allah is Islam; that the only way to know Islam is through the Book of Allah and the sunnah of the Holy Prophet; and that the Book of Allah is what is known as the Qur’an, is without any addition or subtraction.
And what difference is there is in the interpretation of some of the verses of the Qur’an; and in believing or not believing some of the sunnah as genuine; or in its interpretation.
This difference of approach has led towards the dissimilarity in some essential principles and some laws of shari’ah.
As the indispensable principles of Islam are well-known, we do not think it necessary to enumerate all the beliefs.
It will be sufficient if some of the important differences are described here to give the readers a fairly comprehensive idea of the main characteristics which distinguish the Shi’ahs from the Sunnis.
All the Muslims agree that Allah is one, Muhammad is His last Prophet and that one day Allah will resurrect all the human beings and all will be answerable to their beliefs and actions.
All of them agree that anyone not believing in any of the above three basic principles is not a Muslim. Also, they agree that anybody denying the famous tenets of Islam, like salah (prayers), sawm (fasting), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), zakat (religious tax), etc., or believing that the famous sins, like drinking wine, adultery, stealing, gambling, lie, murder, etc., are not sins, is not a Muslim, though he might have been believing in Allah and His Prophet Muhammad, because to deny such things is tantamount to deny the Prophethood of Muhammad and his shari’ah (Divine Law).
When we go further, we come across those subjects which are not agreed amongst the Muslims, and there the differences between the different sects of Islam begin.
This book is a proportional study of Islamic sects with a stress on the ideology and organization of religion.
Into seventeen chapters does the author divide the book:
Chapter 1) Introduction
Chapter 2) Religion and Sect in Islam
Chapter 3) The Incorporative Character of Religion and the Segregative Character of Sects
Chapter 4) The Centrality of Religion
Chapter 5) The Peripherality of Sects
Chapter 6) Sects and Religious Minorities
Chapter 7) The Formation of the Religious Community
Chapter 8) The Imam: Martyr or Hero?
Chapter 9) The Society of Divine Manifestation: the Druzes and the Alawis
Chapter 10) The Survival Society: the Yazidis
Chapter 11) Lebanon, the Unique Identity: the Maronites
Chapter 12) The Organization of Religion: the Sunni Ulama
Chapter 13) The Imam and the Pharaoh: the Shi‘a Ulama
Chapter 14) Purity versus Power: the Ibadis, the Zaidis and the Yazidis
Chapter 15) God and Caesar: the Alawis and the Druzes
Chapter 16) God and Caesar: the Maronites and the Orthodox
Chapter 17) Epilogue: Brethren or Citizens?
‘Ideology’ refers to the premises that are held true sui generis about the origin and formation of the religious community, and ‘organization’ to the recruitment, training and performance of the ulama specialists in society.
Two basic themes govern the text:
1) Relating to the disagreement between sects and states, and
2) The other between imams (the religious elite) and emirs (the power elite).
The opposition between imams and emirs takes different forms in different religious communities notwithstanding whether they are adapted to state structures or to group sovereignties.
The assortment of sects that emerged at different times in Islam were basically instruments of moral control, operating in peripheral territories lying outside the domain of state authority.
In this sense, sect and state stand opposed to each other; and so do imams and emirs.
In the first five chapters, a division is made between religion and sect by reason of the centrality of religion as ‘din’ and its adaptation to state structures, as opposed to the peripherality of sects and their attachment to the doctrine of the sovereignty of the community.
Chapter 6 distinguishes between sects and religious minorities. Unlike sects, religious minorities live within the city walls subject to centralized (Sunni) authority, and here they seem to have worked out an accommodative modus operandi accepting the ideology of Sunni rule.
Whereas sects practise an inclusive system of production in the territories they control, religious minorities follow an extremely specialized mode of activity.
On the basis of this dissimilarity between sects and religious minorities, the Christian Maronites of Lebanon are included in the first, not the second category.
Other Christian Churches, plus the Jews, the Sabaeans, the Muslim Isma‘ilis and the Baha’is are classified as minority groups. However, it must be borne in mind that this is a dynamic classification subject to economic, demographic and political transformations.
Given the appropriate conditions, sects could turn into minorities and minorities into sects. There are a number of signs, for instance, that the Yazidis of Iraq and the Ibadis of Algeria are gradually being transformed from sectarian to minority status.
This issue is discussed at more length in Chapter 6.
From Chapter 7 onwards, the book argues about the religious structure of each individual sect as compared with the Sunni or Shi‘a models, the two mother models from which different formulations have emerged in Islam.
The phrase ‘religious structure’ is used to refer to two related matters: first, the sectarian ideology or world view which includes the origin and formation of the religious community; and, second, the organization of religion which includes the arrangement, employment and schooling of the ulama, and the way they are linked to the society.
Both Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 contend with the inequality between religious and sectarian ideologies, focusing on the Sunni model and the Shi‘a model correspondingly. The theme is that whereas the Sunni focus on the sovereignty of divine law and the centrality of the state, sects focus on the sovereignty of the religious community.
Chapter 9 discusses the code of sovereignty with regard to the Druzes and the Alawis.
Chapters 10 and 11 discuss in detail, the Yazidis and the Maronites. The Ibadi and Zaidi concepts are discussed in Chapter 8.
From Chapter 12 onwards, proportional religious organization in Islam is discussed consistent with basically the same style of presentation as in the preceding chapters on ideology. In other words, the Sunni are discussed first (Chapter 12), then the Shi‘a (Chapter 13), and these two models are then compared with the other sects.
Whereas the Sunni ulama assume a supplementary position to the power elite, the Shi‘a ulama present themselves as if they were the political elite par excellence, performing the tasks usually carried out by the power elite.
Unlike the Sunni, sects have developed a dual religious organization adapted in a different way to diverse sectarian orientations.
Religious activity and specialization among sects are generalized, diffuse processes. The fact that in Islam Caesar belongs to God does not mean that there is no contradiction between the kingdom of Caesar (emirs) and the kingdom of God (imams).
The contradiction in Islam occurs between ‘purity’ and ‘power’—in other words, between the rule of the imam and that of the emir, sultan or pharaoh. How purity and power, as distinct socio-political forces, relate to or oppose each other in various sectarian communities is analysed in Chapters 14, 15 and 16.
The final chapter, entitled ‘Brethren or Citizens?’, deals with the interplay between religion, nationalism and state organization. This chapter argues that nationalism, as a model of convergence, feeds upon religious symbols, but for these to become nationalistically relevant they have to be transformed from their particular to a wider and more universal meaning—the nation
Let’s end the discussion with a simple thought ---
The Sunnis say that Allah has a body, not like the bodies that we know of. There is a vast material which can be quoted here describing that belief.
But as all the Sunnis nowadays are Ash’arite (followers of Abu’l-Hasan al-Ash’ari), I would like to note down his belief on this subject.
He says "We confess that God is firmly seated on His Throne . . . We confess that God has two hands, without asking how ... We confess that God has two eyes, without asking how. . . We confess that God has a face ... We confess that God has knowledge ... We affirm hearing and sight, and do not deny that, as do the Mu’tazila, the Jahmiyya, and the Khawarij. ... We affirm that God has power. . ."
We, the Shi`ah Ithna ‘asharis (the followers of the Twelve-Imams in Shi’ism) believe that Allah doesn’t have a body.
"Verily, Allah is One, Unique, nothing is like Him, He is Eternal; Hearing, Seeing, Omniscient, Living, Omnipotent, above every need. He cannot be described in terms of substance, or body, or form, or accident, or line, or surface, or heaviness, or lightness, or colour, or movement, or rest, or time, or space. He is above all the descriptions which can be applied to His creatures."
"He is away from both extremes: Neither He is just a non-entity (as atheists and in a lesser degree that the Mu'tazilites have implied), nor He is just like other things. He is Existent, not like other existing things.”
Of course, there are some verses in the Qur'an which ascribe the words used for limbs to the person of God. But according to the interpretation of our Imams, they are used in a metaphorical, not literal sense …
You infidels, not only you, we too have a million discrepancy within our ranks. From the Sunni and Shi‘a to the Alawis and Druze and Ibadis and Zaidis and Yazidis and the Maronites – we are not far from you kafers.
Read this book to know more, you infidels …………….
October 18, 2025
يتناول الكتاب بالشرح والمقارنة مجموعة من المذاهب والطوائف الإسلامية.
October 19, 2019
Mostly links the syncretist and the mysery religions such as Yzedism with Islam. As far as it goes quite authoritative. Its a narrow angle though and gives a very specific slant of Islamic history upon what it sees as an Islamic, not very orthodox, sect. In truth Yzedism, which is my special interest, has a broader history. That this book does not cover that history in full is not the fault of the book. Its narrow but very well grounded. Great analysis, and good research. Nothing more is required.
December 21, 2009
Excellent for people with an idea about the islam, but not more than that.
September 9, 2014
A good read on political structure of Islamic leadership and how sects differ in their religious organization and governance from majority Sunni population of Arab countries.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews