Structure of Early Islamic Governments?

What would be some detailed resources for the Political Structure of Early Islamic Governments. As early as the First Caliphate to the end of Granada in Iberia. Books are appreciated, but so would web links. Thank you all for your help.
 
English please.

The Early Abbasid Caliphate:A political history, by Hugh Kennedy, is good and in English.

Most of the books on this would be primary sources or found in actual sale only in Arabic. However, I would suggest you check out alkitab or other Arabic bookstores that cater to English speaking audiences in the U.S. I know that on these sites you can purchase ahadith in bilingual Arabic and English, in it you can find examples of how Muhammad ruled and I am sure they have more and more books relating to the Rashidun and Ridda wars in English. However, much of these books are again only found in Arabic.


Then of course there are the various orientalist books, however most of these I believe are in German or French. The orientalist writings, despite old and very skewed, are often better than some modern works from the West. However I wouldn't necessarily advocate for these books outside of references, and I know there is not an orientalist book solely pertaining to governmental systems. These are still inferior to the primary sources in Arabic as these orientalist's books were mainly commentaries.
 
The Early Abbasid Caliphate:A political history, by Hugh Kennedy, is good and in English.

Most of the books on this would be primary sources or found in actual sale only in Arabic. However, I would suggest you check out alkitab or other Arabic bookstores that cater to English speaking audiences in the U.S. I know that on these sites you can purchase ahadith in bilingual Arabic and English, in it you can find examples of how Muhammad ruled and I am sure they have more and more books relating to the Rashidun and Ridda wars in English. However, much of these books are again only found in Arabic.


Then of course there are the various orientalist books, however most of these I believe are in German or French. The orientalist writings, despite old and very skewed, are often better than some modern works from the West. However I wouldn't necessarily advocate for these books outside of references, and I know there is not an orientalist book solely pertaining to governmental systems. These are still inferior to the primary sources in Arabic as these orientalist's books were mainly commentaries.
Awesome thank you very much.
 
Depends what you're looking at.

Especially in the western regions of the Muslim world, governments were fairly flimsy. The one I can speak to most is al-Andalus, which during the Cordoban period was basically a small population of Arabo-Andalusians holding dominion over a hierarchy of other ethnicites. Sicily is a similar situation - you end up with the Emir, or in late-Cordoba's case the Caliph, often having very little control over the various emirs in other parts of the "country," and tribal ties often run deeper than any sort of national consciousness. For ex, with the Cordoban Caliphate you end up with a few strong Caliphs like Abd ar-Rahman III who can effectively muscle guys like the Banu Tujibi into line, but you also get weak Caliphs whose authority doesn't go far beyond Cordoba, resulting in local tribes with a lot of autonomy and a lot of leeway to pursue their own interests. Ultimately the successful Caliph has to play the various interest groups in his court against each other to survive - ie. it's a constant power struggle between the old Arabo-Andalusians, the Berber warlords they import from Morocco to support them militarily, the saqaliba (some of whom function as basically mamluks) and others. The situation is similar over in the Kalbid Emirate of Sicily, where again you have enormous tension and political infighting based on the combination of tribal interests with an Arab minority ruling class perched atop a population of Greek Christians and Muslim converts mixed in with Berbers. And then you've got other areas that are even less statelike - the Maghreb, for example, ends up being a confusing morass of tribal groups with central authority not really having much of a role beyond short periods.
 
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