著者

Nakata Hassan Ko

出版者

同志社大学

雑誌

Journal of the interdisciplinary study of monotheistic religions : JISMOR (ISSN:18801080)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.6, pp.67-86, 2010

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The concept of the Sunni caliphate is self-defined as the notion that a caliph is selected by the people (ikhtiyar) and is based on the denial of the concept of the Shiite Imamate that an imam is appointed by God (nass). In today's academic society in the field of Islamic politics, Sunni political scholars, by taking this notion of the caliphate as a starting point, attempt to position the caliphate system as a variant of the Western democracy that selects leaders through election. On the other hand, the Western scholars criticize the caliphate system as a form of dictatorship on several grounds, including the lifetime tenure of the caliph. This paper aims to deconstruct the concept of the Sunni caliphate in the context of globalism and to redefine it as "a mechanism to bring about the Rule of Law on Earth," taking hints from the thought of Ibn Taymiyah(d.1328), who reconstructed the concept of Islamic politics as "politics based on Shari'ah" by shifting the focus of the concept of Islamic politics from a caliphate to Shari'ah (≒Islamic law). If the caliphate system is to be understood as "a mechanism to bring about the Rule of Law on Earth," we should be aware that the concepts (such as democracy and dictatorship) of modern Western political science originate in the Western tradition dating from the age of ancient Greece, which regards politics as a means to rule people by people. With this recognition in mind, this paper attempts to shed light on the unique features of Islamic political thought by carrying out a "triangular survey" on the political thoughts of the Islamic and Western worlds, as well as the Chinese world.