The Clerics of Islam: Religious Authority and Political Power in Saudi Arabia

340 Pages·2014·2.69 MB·English

by  Nabil Mouline

The Clerics of Islam
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T C
HE LERICS
I
OF SLAM
Religious Authority and Political Power in Saudi Arabia
Nabil Mouline
Translated by Ethan S. Rundell
New Haven & London
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Cet ouvrage publié dans le cadre du programme d’aide à la publication bénéfi cie
du soutien de La Mission culturelle et universitaire française aux Etats-Unis.
This work received support from the French Mission for Culture and
Higher Education through its publishing assistance program.
English translation copyright © 2014 by Yale University.
Originally published as Les Clercs de l’islam.
Copyright © Presses Universitaires de France, 2011.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the
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Maps and fi gures 4 and 6 by Mapping Specialists, Ltd.
Set in Postscript Electra and Trajan types by Newgen North America.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mouline, Nabil.
[Clercs de l’islam. English]
The clerics of Islam : religious authority and political power
in Saudi Arabia / Nabil Mouline ; translated by Ethan S. Rundell.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Translated from French.
ISBN 978-0-300-17890-6 (hardback)
1. Ulama—Saudi Arabia—History. 2. Wahhabiyah—Saudi Arabia—
History. 3. Islam and state—Saudi Arabia—History. 4. Islam and politics—
Saudi Arabia—History. I. Rundell, Ethan S. II. Title.
BP63.S33M6813 2014
297.6'109538—dc23
2014007139
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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CONTENTS
Introduction: The Ulama, Clerics of Islam 1
1 The Birth of the Hanbali Tradition 17
2 Shedding New Light on the Life of Muhammad Ibn Abd
Al-Wahhab 46
3 Hanbali-Wahhabism in the Nineteenth Century:
Grandeur and Decadence 70
4 The Birth of a Kingdom and the Renaissance of a Tradition 94
5 Routinization and Institutionalization of
Hanbali-Wahhabism 119
6 The Committee of Grand Ulama: An Organization in the
Service of the Prince . . . and the Population 146
7 Raising the Veil on the Conditions of Access to the
Religious Establishment 171
8 Religious Authority in Practice: The Promotion of Virtue
and the Prevention of Vice 203
9 At the Crossroads: The Religious Establishment Put
to the Test of the Saudi Politico-Religious Space 235
Conclusion 257
Appendix: House of Saud and Map of Saudi Arabia, 265
Notes, 269
Bibliography, 311
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Introduction
The Ulama, Clerics of Islam
“The ulama are the heirs of the prophets.”1 Attributed to the prophet Mu-
hammad (d. 632), this tradition refl ects the importance assigned to clerics in
Arab-Muslim culture. Although in theory Islam gives all believers equal access
to the sacred, in practice Muslims have found it necessary to create a group of
“specialists” authorized to interpret the holy texts and oversee worship. In other
words, the representation of the divine, the systematization of belief, and the
regulation of social behavior to achieve salvation all require “an independent
and professionally trained priesthood, permanently occupied with the cult and
with the practical problems involved in the cure of souls.”2 For, as Émile Durk-
heim claimed, without the support of regular religious and cultural activity, the
gods vanish.3
The term “ulama,” which comes from the Arabic ‘ulama’, the plural of ‘alim,
is derived from the ‘-l-m root. In the Qur’an, the various schemata issuing from
this root generally designate knowledge and understanding.4 It is thus not sur-
prising that the action noun ‘ilm should have been chosen starting in the late
seventh century to designate all transcendent knowledge of divine origin (spe-
cifi cally, knowledge based on the Qur’an and what gradually came to be known
as the prophetic tradition).5 According to the text of the Qur’an, however, such
knowledge is available only to men who possess certain intellectual and spiritual
qualities.6 Under the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), an identifi able group thus
emerged that was more or less differentiated by its training and socialization. By
the fi rst century of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258), this group had established
itself as the al-‘ulama’.7 Its rise went hand in hand with the consecration of the
Law (al-shari‘a) as the true mystical body of classical Islamic civilization.8
As the self-proclaimed guardians of this mystical body, the ulama—literally,
“those who know” or “those who possess religious knowledge”—were quick
to organize themselves into corporations (whatever their politico-religious
1
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2 Introduction
allegiances). In doing so, they sought not only to protect themselves, but also
to infl uence and even direct the worldly and otherworldly affairs of the Islamic
city. By “corporation,” I am referring to the principles of organization of this
profession-vocation, principles requiring that most of its members participate in
its regulation and perpetuation. The identity of a corporation depends not on
its mode of organization, which can vary across space and time, but rather on
an institutional order built upon feelings of collective belonging (shared knowl-
edge, representations, references, rites of initiation, and so on). This means
that, while they may have particular interests, members of a corporation must
share common beliefs. As in all institutions responsible for managing meaning,
confl icts of interpretation and interest cut across the corporation of the ulama.
Beginning in the second half of the ninth century, the term ‘ulama’ came
to refer to an identifi able socioreligious role—that of managing, promoting,
and passing on the religious tradition. Because of the centrality of the Law in
all areas of Islamic society and the ulama’s near monopoly on reading, writ-
ing, and the transmission of knowledge, this group became a “collective actor,”
with specifi c attributes in several domains, a fact that was refl ected in an ever
larger array of duties.9 While recognizing the diversity of historical trajectories
and politico-religious beliefs at play, one can nonetheless sketch these duties in
ideal-typical fashion.
Above all, the ulama were, to borrow an expression from Max Weber, “tech-
nicians of the routine cults” responsible for dispensing salvation goods. To
that end, they performed cultural, missionary, legal, and theological duties. In
the latter two domains, the ulama’s work consisted of interpreting scriptural
sources with a twofold objective: to determine beliefs, the geography of heaven,
and the image of God (orthodoxy), and to defi ne appropriate socioreligious
behaviors and practices (orthopraxy). Once this work of systematization and
rationalization had been carried out, the ulama used their almost daily contact
with the population to propagate the faith through prayer, predication, instruc-
tion, sermons, ritual processions, legal and theological consultations, writings,
and so on.
The ulama’s efforts at centralization and cognitive codifi cation gradually
gave rise to cultural imperialism (due to the centrality of the Law)—that is, a
desire for domination in all domains of knowledge. This only gradually came
to an end with the second half of the nineteenth century. By virtue of their mo-
nopoly on ‘ilm—seen as the only exact science because directly inherited from
the Prophet via an uninterrupted chain of transmission (sanad and/or silsila)—
the ulama controlled the various channels by means of which knowledge was
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Introduction 3
transmitted. In this way, they were able to impose their vision of the world on
much of the population, particularly on the elites. This also gave them control
over “high culture,” then as now the path par excellence to social promotion
and identity formation by way of literary, historic, and scientifi c production.10 It
thus may be argued that the ulama were the genuine guardians of what the an-
cient Greeks referred to as klerôs—that is, the patrimony and heritage, spiritual
and profane, of classical Islam. They therefore can be described as clerics.
But in order to impose their vision of the world and disseminate it, the ulama
needed order. For this, they mainly depended on the political authorities in
the framework of what I will refer to as a symbiotic relationship, that is, one
that, with the support of the population, secures the interests of two parties
ensconced at the summit of the social pyramid.11 In exchange for the ulama’s
ideological support—which took the form, variously, of a codifi ed principle of
obedience, the establishment of tax law, apologetic discourses and writings, and
the (de)mobilization of the population—the political authorities gave them a
monopoly on worship and instruction as well as control over part of the public
sphere (the legal system). They sometimes even enjoyed the fi nancing neces-
sary to enforce orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and the political order. The clerics’ social
capital also gave them access to the higher reaches of the state, where they
served as chancellors, ambassadors, viziers, advisors to princes, and so on. How-
ever, we should not allow these observations to mislead us. The ulama pursued
religious interests above all else, in particular that of maximizing the chances
for salvation. Their participation in or support for political power was generally
confi ned to the maintenance of order, the condition sine qua non for imposing
orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Throughout the present study, I endeavor to keep
this essential factor in sight.
The Power of the Word:
The Authority of the Religious Elite
The sociological characteristics of this group make it “the solid framework of
a permanent government behind changing dynasties.”12 Indeed, ulama are con-
sidered members of the Muslim world’s oldest and most stable elite. As I use it
in the present study, the term “elite” refers to a minority that, in a given society
at a given time, enjoys prestige, infl uence, and privilege.13 These prerogatives
derive from socially valued qualities that are either natural or acquired, or both.
The elite thus consists of groups that are strongly stratifi ed and differentiated
from the disorganized, noncohesive mass of the population.14
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