Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds. God's Caliph: Religious authority in the first centuries of Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986; reprinted 1990.
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Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds. God's Caliph: Religious authority in the first centuries of Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986; reprinted 1990.
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Crone and Hinds argue
that the early caliphate was not, as traditionally believed, a purely political
institution, but a source of religious and political authority; that the caliph
defined Islamic law, and that a Muslim could not achieve salvation outside of
obedience to the caliph. This
conception of the caliphate is similar to the Shi'ite tradtion.
They discuss the meaning and use of the title khalifat Allah (deputy of God), the definition and elaboration of
Islamic law under the Umayyad caliphate, the influence of the Umayyad and
Abbasid caliphates on the development of Prophetic sunna (reports of the sayings and practice of the Prohet), and the
passing of religious authority from the caliphs to the ulama (scholars) in 234AH/848CE.