Mastyn $20 Muslim society ERNEST GELLNER CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge London New York New Rochelle Melbourne SydneyHN 4 oe ota by the Pres Syodiate ofthe Unies of Camis ihe Pit holding Tumplgton Stee canbyage CoE TRE HR LE 32 eau StinSest New Yorks NY 16028, USA 296 Bexconstels Parade, Mile Pak, Melbourne 3206, Austin © Cambridge Univers Press 1981 iret pabished 1981 Fist paperback edition 1983 Reprints 1388 Print in Great Britain at the Univesity Pes, Cambrdas Brisk Library Catologing in Publication Date Gainer, tenet Misti society, - (Cambridge studies in social anthropology val. 32 ISSN 0068-6794), Tidamie counties Social conditions [Tue Series S0'09'7671 HN768.A8 8041103, Isa 0821 221609 bard covers, SUN 0 $21 27407 9 papecback 237903Contents Preface page ‘Acknowledgements ‘Flux and reflux in the fith of men 2 Cohesion and identity: the Maghreb from Ibn Khaldun to Emile Durkheim 3° Postraditional form votes and peanuts in Islam: the tuef and trade, and 4 Doctor and saint ‘Sanetity, purtanism, cecularisation and nationalism in [North Altea: a case study © The unknown Apollo of Biskea: the social base of Algerian puritans 7 Trousers in Tunisia 8 The sociology of Robert Montagne (1893-1954) CQ) Pattems of rural rebellion in Morocco duting the ealy years of independence 10 Saints and their descendants 11 ‘The marabouts in the market-place 12 Rulers and tribesmen Notes Bibliography of Emest Geliner's North Aftican wei Index: 86 99 14 131 149 118 179 194 207 214 221 231 247 252Preface ‘The themes expounded in this book have been gestating for over a quarter of century, ever since I first visited central Morocco, and my frst debt was to those of its inhabitants who tolerated my intrusion. The central ideas are plainly stolen from four great thinkers ~ Ibn Khaldun, David ume, Robert Montagne, and Edward Lvans-Pritchatd, The stream that started in the central High Alas with Tieldwork experience was ted, over the years, by many others ~ notably by sys tematic attention to the work of other ethnographers working in the Muslim world. Much of that work was only being produced during that period, and my next debt is (0 all those anthropologists who shared their ideas and data with me, very often prior to publication, (My attention to historical work wa less ‘systematic, a no doubt will be evident to readers.) During much of this period, 1 took parti runninga seuina on the sociology of Islam. Obviously [am indebted toall those who contributed to it with papers or in discussion — often, I imagine, without being fully aware of my debt. They are too numezous for exhaustive listing. OF those who helped in running the seminar, I should single out Michael Gilsenan and Jean-Claude Vati for spectal gratitude. North Africans (or persons of North African background) from whose ideas, information or impressions I have benefited are too nuerous to list, but they include Germaine Ayache, Alya Baffoun, Genevieve Bedoucha-Albergoni, Lakhdar Brahimi, Fanny Colonna, Jeanne Favret, Ahmed Guessous, Ahmed Guezmir, Abdallah Hammoud, Youssef Hazmaoui, Marie-Aimée Hlelie-Lucas, Elbaki Hermussi, Abdelkader “Khatib, Mouhsine Mbarek, Ali Mersd, Fatima Meraisi, Taoufik Monastiri, Paul Pascon, Moncer Rouissi, Mohamed Saadani, Paul Sebag, Slimane and Souad Shikh, Nouredine Sraieb, Frej Stamibouli,Larbi Taha, Lucette Valensi, and Abdelkades ‘Zaghal. Over the years, many secretaries have patiently and generously helped me with the MSS: Mes E: Llewellyn, Miss K. Phillips, Mrs H. Erankiss, Mise Helen Wheeler, Mrs Thelma O'Brien, Miss Margaret Kosowice and Mrs Gay Woolve. The final preparation of the main introductory essay of the volume was only possible thanks to the support of the Centee de Recherches et d'Etudes sur les Socistés Méditerranéennes in Aiven-Provence, and my thanks are due (0 its Director, Maurice Flory, and to all its staff. Mrs Elizabeth Wetton and lan Jarvie viPreface pulded the MSS toacceptable form with admirable patience, and lan also supplied the admirable indexes, 1 am much indebted to Jack Goody for encouragement, as Editor of this series. My wife Susan helped me over the years in mote ways tan I ean say. My son David has read the synoptic fist chapter in its penult ‘mate draft and pointed out weaknesses in the argument which I have done my best to camouflage. Katie Platt has been most helpful in checking references, All the people listed or indicated must bear some ofthe blame for this book appear ing at al, but not for any of its specific assertions Froxfleld, Ecnest Gellner December 1979Acknowledgements ‘The author thanks the editors of the following periodicals, in which some of the material collected in this volume has previously appeared: Chapter 1: not pre viously published; an earlier and very much shorter version appeared in Annales Marocaines de Sociologiz, 1968, pp. 514, and in Philosophical Forum, vol. 2, 1970, pp. 234 44. Chapter 2 was originally presented in Tunis in 1974 ata con: ference marking the fortieth anniversary ofthe Neo-Destour Party, and was pub- lished in the Cahiers dle CE:R.E.S., Tunis, and in Government and Opposition, vol. 10, 1975, pp. 203-18, Chapter 3: Daedalus, vol. 102, 1973, pp. 191-206. Chapter 4: in Nikki R. Keddie, ed, Scholars, Saints and Sufis, Berkeley and Los ‘Angeles, University of California Press, 1972, pp. 307~26. Chapter 5: Archives de Sociologie des Religions, no. 15, 1963, pp. 71-86, Chapter 6: Goverament ‘and Opposition, vol.9, 1974, pp. 277-310. Chapter 7: Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 14, 1978, pp: 127-30. Chapter 8: Daedalus, vol. 105, 1976, pp. 137-50. Chapter 9: European Journal of Sociology, vol. 3, 1962, pp. 297311. Chapter 10: Times Literary Supplement, no. 3857, 13 February 1976, p. 164. Chapter 11: Times Literary Supplement, no. 3936, 19 August 1977, p, 1011. Chapter 12: Middle Eastern Studies, vo. 15, 1979, pp. 106~13. Unless otherwise stated, all quotations have been translated by Esnest Gellner References in previously published material o contemporary events have been allowed to stand. The epigraph quotations fom tbn Khaldun ae drawn from theLeadership exists only through superiority, and superiority ‘only through group feeling Only tribes held together by group feeling can live in the desert «Inhabitants of cities ean have a ‘house’ [i.e kin group) ‘only in a metaphorical sense. The assumption that they possess fone isa specious claim - while the Bedouin need the cities for the necesities of life, the urban population need the Bedouln {only} for conveniences and luxuries, Thus, as long as they live inthe desert and have not acquired royal authority and control of the cities, the Bedouin need the townsmen Mutual aggression in the cities is averted... by government the masses are thus prevented ... from mutual injustice, save such as comes from the ruler himeelf dynasty and government serve as the world’ greatest ‘marketplace... if the rulet holds on to property and revenue ‘busines slumps and commercial profits decline ... the dynasty .. suffers... because under these cizcumstances the property ofthe ruler decreases Ton Khalun «the principles of religion havea kind of flux and reflux and... men have a natural tendency to tse from idolatry to theism, and to sink again from theism to idolatry. -. superstition is favourable to priestly power, and enthusiasm .... more contrary toi, than sound reason and philosophy David tone1 Flux and reflux in the faith of men Islam is the blueprint of a social onder. It holds that a set of rules exists, eternal, Livinely ordained, and independent of the will of men, which defines the proper ordering of sociely. This model is avallable in weiting; it Is equally and sym- metrically available to all iterate men, and to all those willing to heed literate ‘men, These rules are to be implemented throughout social life ‘Thus there isin principle no call or justification for an internal separation of society into two pars, of which one would be closer to the deity than the other. Such a segregation would contradict both the symmetry or equality of access, ‘and the requirement-of pervasive implementation of the rules. The rues of the faith are there for all, and not just or specially for 2 subelass of religious specilissvituosos. In principle the Muslim, if endowed with pious leaning, is slfsufficient or at any rate not dependent on other men, or consecrated special iss. (If not learned, he is in a loose way dependent on those who are, whlch is very important.) Thus o(Ticaly, Islam has no clergy and no church organisation, though it needs scholars, and church and community are co-extensive. AS ‘Tocqueville put it, Islam is the religion which has most completely confounded and intermixed the two por 40 that ll the act of civ and political if are regulated more or less by religious law, Tocqueville also comments on the significant identity of training for religious and other learning, and the absence of priesthood. In traditional Islam, no dis- tinction is made between tawyer and canon lawyer, and the roles of theologian and lawyer are conflated. Expertise on proper socal arrangements, and on ‘matters pertaining to God, are one and the same thing, Judaism and Christianity ure also blueprints of a social order, but rather Less so than Islam. Christianity, from its inception, contained an open recommen dation to give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. A faith which begins, and for some time remains, without political power, cannot but accommodate itself toa political order which is not, or is not yet, under its control. Within Islam, the Shi'ite sectarian doctrine also contains devices for such aecommodation, on a 1‘Muslim Society temporary bass — not so mud for giving Casa that whlch is his as for telling him what he wishes to hear, whist keeping one’s own counsel, This, and a rmartyrdom foundation-myth, beings Shi'ism, dhe secondlaryest sect within islam, closer wo Christianity. uc rapid sucess deprived maistcean Sn Il cof martyedom, and leit it ambivalent vise esotercism, Esoteriism can be Pushed to an extreme amongst sectarians, ae by the Deze, where the inne: dow rine isso esoteric hat no one, including its arent, appeas ty know exactly what itis? ‘Chaistinity, which initially loudshed among the politcal dsinherited, did not then presume to be Caeser. A kind of potenti or political modesty has stayed with it ever since those humble beginnings, Thevcratie aspirations only appear intermittently; canon law siglficanly means religious ordinances st distinct from secular ones, unlike the Musi Aauun. The most prolonged etfort in the diretion of theocracy was pethaps Byzantine CaesaroPapisn, whic, significantly, was one ofthe modes aailable o tla, ‘But the inital success of Ilam was s0 rapid that it had no need to gve any. thing unto Caesar. The theocratic potential of Sudan ls sso remined mited, in comparison with Islam: though initially a chartec uf the conquest uf the Promised Land, the achievement ofthe promise was nether rap nor stable nor permanent. The conditions of the diaspora obviously did not favour aspirations to replace Caesar. (In modern Isael, the legal institutions of the Ottoman sutonomous community, the ‘mile’ system. ae kept alive by palimentary stalemate. Coalitions, in need of paiamentay suppor, pay the price und rant the religious interest a perpetuation ofthe sais quo, Ts, nicl, thanks ts proportional representation, Israel continues tobe, jointly withthe Lebanon, a surviving Feagment ofthe Ottoman society) ‘Two conditions favour this greater socal pervasiveness of Islam: its rapid and tatly politcal success, and the idea that the divine message is complete an i ‘The fis inhibits the handing over of some sphere of lie to non-religious auth coritys the seeond makes it that much harder to ofle rival versions ofthe blue Print. The scheme is to be implemented, and no new sciemes are tobe counten anced. Dr Michas} Cook hes als shown* how the elatively mundane an ect Jewish prevceupation with the regulation ot social lite, based on human legal wisdom rather than on divine authority, when fused withthe God-centred, uni ficatory theology mindedness of Chistianity, produced the charactersclly Muslim divinely sanctioned and God centred legalism, This social pervasiveness makes Islam specially interesting tothe sociologist, of religion. There are other good reasons. A European background las tended to influence the choice of questions about the social role ul religion, These ists appear in anew light when looked at from a Muslim viewpoint. ‘Two dominant sociological questions were inspired by Christianity, more so than by other faiths. Each eoncers its roe, ether in te eisesor nthe al of &