This work explores the role of religious and political authority among the Ismailis of Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan. Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) is a mountainous region located in the eastern part of Tajikistan. It shares a long border with Afghanistan, China and Kirgizstan, and, in places, is only twenty miles from Pakistan. Badakhshan is inhabited by approximately 215000 people, most of whom identify themselves as being Nizari Ismaili Shia Muslims; they speak their various local Pamiri languages, whilst Tajik is the official language of education and state bureaucracy. This thesis documents the ways in which expressions of political and religious authority have evolved through time, and accommodated to different political contexts, which are summarised as representing four identifiable historical periods between 1895-2008. These periods are: the Afghan invasion, which ended in 1895; Russian imperial rule (1895-1917); Soviet power (1917-1991); and the aftermath of the Soviet period (1991-2008). This thesis suggests that, as is the case with many Muslim societies, political leadership and religious authority in Badakhshan were fused, and this was the pattern of secular and religious life in this area until the 1920s. In contrast, under Soviet rule, traditional norms ofleadership and authority in Badakhshan were supplanted by a secular nationalist yet indigenous leadership that was closely tied to central Soviet power. These changes followed a series of radical social and political upheavals. This thesis identifies traditional forms of religious authority with the network of religious functionaries at a range of levels. Equally, it discusses the functionaries of Ismaili political leaders that have evolved through the aforementioned periods. It does not juxtapose traditional authority with secular political power, but merely records the interaction, various degrees of conflict and accommodation, and competition between secular and religious worldviews. It intends to develop a structural explanation for the survival of religious and political authorities of Badakhshani Ismailis through the use of written sources and fieldwork data.

Munshidät perform inshnd, which includes the recitation of poems and stories, as well as the performance of religious and popular songs, to mixed gender audiences at public Sufi celebrations and other religious, social and life cycle events, in Cairo and the Delta region of Lower Egypt. The public performance of music and song by women is highly contentious, generating heated debate amongst all strata of Egyptian society, yet munshidit have remained hitherto undocumented. My research on this subject has two main areas of focus. In the first instance it contextualises munshidit by framing it against the background of Islamic and social dictates on the public performance of women and briefly exploring the recent history of female performance in Egypt. It highlights the controversy generated by professional musicianship in Islam and relates this, coupled with contemporary shifts in the political, religious and social climate, to munshidit. Further to this, it identifies a stratum of Egypt's Islamic society in which women have the opportunity to perform in religious ritual and express musical creativity in the public domain. Secondly, by putting them in the context of Egypt's dominant religious and political discourses, this research presents an analysis of the performance practice and repertoire of munshidit. By referencing video footage taken by me in the field, it investigates the genres, styles and strategies used by munshidät to elicit audience responses and induce heightened emotions at particular points. Further to this, it illustrates the various strategies used in story telling, not only to raise emotional levels but also to raise the status of the performer, build a sense of community amongst audiences, and negotiate and comment on social dictates, politics and change. Finally, it explores commercial aspects of their performance and addresses issues concerning image production and self promotion.

This study examines the intra-Salafī disputes in the 1990s over the legitimacy of present-day rulers in the Muslim world and their status as Muslims. While these issues are theological in their essence, they are intertwined with the political milieu of the Middle East. Fundamentally, these intra-Salafī disputes pivot around the central question of the impact of implementing manmade law systems (instead of sharīʿah) on the legitimacy of the ruler. This study tackles this question and related issues that form the themes addressed in this study. It begins by providing a minimal definition of Salafism which identifies its main characteristics that distinguishes its adherents from other Muslim denominations. Chapter two and three discuss the disputes over whether present-day rulers meet the required qualification to qualify as legitimate rulers in Islam and hence what position Muslims should take towards them. Chapter four digs deeper into the theological aspect of these debates in order to ascertain the different views on what acts can and cannot strip a Muslim from his/her status as a Muslim. It begins by highlighting the importance laid on creed in Salafism and providing the general principles on belief and unbelief upon which all Salafī proponents agree. After that, it examines the disagreements amongst contemporary Salafīs over which criteria should be considered to determine that an act of omission or commission is sinful enough to cause unbelief. Chapter five investigates the accusations levelled against the prominent Salafī scholar al-Albānī in regards to deviancy from the teachings of Salafism on belief and unbelief as an example of the importance of this debate. This study demonstrates how intra-Salafī disputes evolved from a mere disagreement over the legitimacy of political opposition to the state to become an intense complex quarrel on the nature of the Islamic faith. It argues that political affiliations alone fail to explain intra-Salafī disagreements over politics and violence and only through accurate analyses of the underpinning doctrinal differences one can understand their divergent reactions to contemporary political issues. This research aims to contribute to the study of the Islamic governance genre as well as to the studies on Salafism which despite its rapid spread worldwide, remains a scarcely studied subject.

This dissertation examines the development of salafi-jihadism as an idea within the broader salafist movement, using historical method. It argues that salafijihadism is principally defined by five essential ideas: taūhid, jihad, hakimiyyah, takfir, and walā’ wa-l-barā’. These are neither contentious nor particularly special ideas within normative Islam. What this dissertation does, however, is to examine each idea thematically while explaining what is unique, different, special, or new, about the manner in which the salafi-jihadi movement has interpreted it (as compared with other salafis). It does this by providing an overview of each idea, showing its development and ideational trajectory over time. It also demonstrates how intra-salafi debates have allowed the jihadi movement to create a distinct branch of thought within the salafi tradition. Moreover, this dissertation argues that even within the salafi-jihadi movement some ideas produce greater differences of opinion than others, depending on how relevant they are for jihadi practitioners when compared with jihadi theorists. For example, even very conservative salafi-jihadi theorists such as Abu Hamza al-Masri or Abu Baseer al-Tartousi argue for strict limits on takfir whereas al-Qaeda has had to ‘operationalise’ these ideas in the battlefield and therefore applies the idea more liberally. This is true for takfir, jihad, and walā’ wa-l-barā’. Finally, this dissertation argues that the doctrine of salafi-jihadism is one that is principally borne of conflict. It is during moments of war and political crisis over the last three decades that this ideology has undergone its most significant periods of transformation, with the most concentrated period of development coming in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

This research is a study of modern developments of the institutions of the Nizārī Ismaili imamate during the time of the present Ismaili Imam, Shāh Karīm al-Ḥusaynī, Aga Khan IV, as the 49th hereditary living Imam of Shiʿi Nizārī Ismaili Muslims, particularly addressing the formation of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and the functions of the Community institutions. Using the case study of the Aga Khan Development Network and the Nizārī Ismaili imamate, this research demonstrates that the three ideal types of authority as proposed by Weber, namely the traditional, charismatic and legal-bureaucratic types, are not sufficient to explain the dynamics of authority among Muslims. This is partly due to Weber’s belief in the uniqueness of Western civilisation, which is a product of his thesis on Protestant Ethics and partly because his ideal typical system does not work in the case of the Muslim societies. The Ismaili imamate with its multifarious institutions in contemporary times is the most suitable counter-example by which to powerfully demonstrate that Weberian models of authority fail to explain this phenomenon and it would indeed appear as a paradoxical institution if viewed with Weberian theses. The Ismaili imamate in contemporary times represents a paradigm shift and a transmutation not only as regards the Weberian models but also when viewed from inside the tradition of Shiʿi Muslim history. This evolutionary leap forward, which has been crystallised over the course of the past half a century, in the Ismaili imamate suggests the development of a new form of authority which is unprecedented. There are clearly various elements in this form of authority which could be discerned as rooted in tradition and history; however the distinctive elements of this new form of authority give it a defining and exciting dimension. There are several qualities which are peculiar to the contemporary condition of the Ismaili imamate and its style of leadership which are distinctive. Most importantly, while some central features, like succession by way of designation (naṣṣ) has not changed, there is one overarching quality which can best capture all these elements and that is the transmutation of the Ismaili imamate from the person of the Imam into the office of imamate and thus we are now facing the institutionalisation of the imamate and the office being the embodiment of the authority of the Imam. I have described this new development as a metamorphosis of the authority because it gives an entirely new form and content to the previously familiar concept of authority in the Shiʿi Ismaili Muslim tradition.

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Al-Ibadiyah, or al-Abadiyah, is one of the earliest Islamic sects, the foundation of which goes back to the first half of the first century H. The school took its name from 'Abdullah b. Ibad, one of its early theologians. The name Iba-d-lyah applies to a Mslim group which was considered by most writers as a moderate branch of the Kharijite movement. The adherents of this school still form a number of independent communities holding fast to its teachings. The largest of these lives today in "Uman and Masqat in South East Arabia. There are other minorities in Zanzibar off the east coast of Africa, in Jabal Nufusah and Zuwarah in Libya, in Jerba Island in Tunisia, and in Wad Mzab in Algeria. Very little is known about the Ibadlyah, their doctrines, origins and development. Modern European scholars have made useful contributions in the field of Ibadi studies but their studies were directed mainly to the history of the Ibadl communities or some aspects of their present social and religious life.

The thesis attempts to set out the doctrines of Ḥamza b. 'Alī al-Zūzanī, the earliest and most essential teachings of the Druze religion, and to indicate some of the ways in which they are related to Ismā'ilism, the source from which the Druze religion springs. The major part of the thesis is thus an edition of Ḥamza's writings, together with the writings of his lieutenant, Ismā'il b. Muḥammad al-Tamīmī and a few other pieces by the Imām al-Ḥākim and others, forming in all the first two of the six volumes of the Druze scriptures. Together with this edition is a preface; two introductory sections, one historical, one textual; a summary in English of the edited epistles and, finally, a glossary and index and bibliography. The preface considers the present state of Druze studies and gives a brief outline of the contents of the thesis. [Continued in text ...]