Amir al-Mu'minin

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This article is about the Islamic title. For the leader of the Taliban, see Supreme Leader of Afghanistan. For the Indonesian footballer named from this title, see Amirul Mukminin.

ʾAmīr al-Muʾminīn (

Arabic: أَمِيْر ٱلْمُؤْمِنِيْن) or Commander of the Faithful is a Muslim title designating the supreme leader of an Islamic community
.

Name

Although

H.A.R. Gibb, however, counsels against the translation "Prince of the Believers" as "neither philologically nor historically correct".[1]

History

The title

Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705), who adopted it as a means to strengthen his position, which had become shaky following the Second Fitna.[4]

Among

Marinids of Morocco, following whom all successive Moroccan dynasties—the last two of them, the Sa'di dynasty and the current Alawi dynasty, also by virtue of their claimed descent from Muhammad[5]—have also claimed it.[1] The Constitution of Morocco still uses the term ʾAmīr al-Muʾminīn as the principal title of the King of Morocco, as a means to "[legitimise the monarchy's] hegemonic role and its position outside significant constitutional restraint".[6]

At the same time, the title has retained a connotation of command in the

Ottoman sultans—who notably rarely used the caliphal title after they took it from the Abbasids in 1517—as well as various West African Muslim warlords until the modern period.[1] The title was used by Aurangzeb, the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire.[8] Muhammad Umar Khan of the Kokand Khanate took on the title.[9]

Abdelkader El Djezairi assumed the title in 1834.[10] The Afghan ruler Dost Mohammad Khan likewise used it when he proclaimed a jihād against the Sikh Empire in 1836.[11][12] According to historian Richard Pennell, this pattern reflects the use of the term ʾAmīr al-Muʾminīn for regional rulers with the connotations of wide-ranging and absolute authority over a region, the power to conduct relations with foreign states, the upkeep of the Sharia, and the protection of Muslim territory from non-believers.[13] Timur (Tamerlane) also used the title.[citation needed
]

When

Arabic: هَذَا قَبْرُ أَمِيرِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ٱلْحُسَيْن بْنُ عَلِي, lit. 'Haḏa qabru ʾamīri ʾal-mūˈminīna ʾal-Ḥusayn bnu ʿAlī' which translates to "This is the tomb of the Commander of the Faithful, Hussein bin Ali."[14][15]

In 1996, the title was adopted by the

Abu Umar al-Baghdadi was conferred the title after his appointment in October 2006 by the Mujahideen Shura Council as the first Emir of the newly declared Islamic State of Iraq.[19][20] As Richard Pennell commented, by claiming the title they positioned themselves as potential "caliphs-in-waiting",[13] but for the moment, the title was simply the expression of their claim to an overarching "activist authority" over the areas they controlled.[21]

Shi'a views

The mosque of Ali in Najaf, Iraq

Twelver

Twelver Shias apply the title exclusively to Ali,[1] the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, regarded as the first imam by the Shia and the officially designated successor to Muhammad.

Ismailism

The

Isma'ili Fatimid caliphs used the title as part of their titulature,[1] and in the Nizari branch of Isma'ilism, the ʾAmīr al-Muʾminīn is always the current Imam of the Time. In Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's The Voyage (Sayr wa-Suluk), he explains that the hearts of the believers are attached to the Commander of the Believers, not just the Command (written word) itself. There is always a present living imam in the world, and following him, a believer could never go astray.[22]

Zaydism

Among the

Zaydis, the title retained strong connotations with the leadership of the jihād, and was thus the right of any rightful Imam who stepped forth to claim his right by force of arms.[1] The title was thus part of the titulature of the Zaydi Imams of Yemen until the end of the Yemeni monarchy.[1] The Kharijites did not use the term, except for the Rustamid dynasty.[1]

Non-Muslim usage

The Kitáb-i-Íqán, the primary theological work of the Baháʼí Faith, applies the title Commander of the Faithful to Ali, the son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[23]

A similar (but not the same) title[

Casimir the Great
, the Polish-Lithuanian monarch as the King of Poland was tasked with the protection of the rights of the Jews and other non-Christians.

In fiction

In James Joyce's 1939 novel Finnegans Wake (page 34.6), an informer who is spreading nasty rumours about the main character is described as "Ibid, commender of the frightful".

In the French comic series Iznogoud, Caliph Haroun El Poussah, one of the protagonists of the series, is frequently addressed by inferiors as commander of the faithful (commandeur des croyants).

In

Republic of Gilead, a militaristic theonomy
, are referred to as "Commanders of the Faithful."

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Gibb 1960, p. 445.
  2. ^ Donner 2012, pp. 135–136.
  3. ^ Donner 2012, pp. 98–99.
  4. ^ Donner 2012, pp. 210–211.
  5. ^ Pennell 2016, p. 6.
  6. ^ Pennell 2016, p. 7.
  7. ^ Pennell 2016.
  8. ISBN 9788173915376
  9. ^ Leonid Nikolaevich Sobolev (1876). Latest History of the Khanates of Bokhara and Kokand. Foreign Department Press. Archived from the original on 2024-01-02. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
  10. ^ Esposito 2003, p. 1.
  11. ^ a b Pennell 2016, p. 2.
  12. ^ Shahrani 1986, p. 35.
  13. ^ a b Pennell 2016, p. 16.
  14. ^ Muhammad Rafi (1964). La Mecque au XIVème siècle de l'Hégire / مكة في القرن الرابع عشر الهجري (in Arabic). La Mecque: /. p. 291.
  15. ^ IslamKotob. الشريف الحسين الرضي والخلافة لنضال داود المومني (in Arabic). IslamKotob. Archived from the original on 2024-01-02. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  16. ^ Thomas Joscelyn; Bill Roggio (2015-07-31). "The Taliban's new leadership is allied with al Qaeda". FDD's Long War Journal. Archived from the original on 2016-06-17. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  17. ^ "Statement by the Leadership Council of Islamic Emirate regarding the martyrdom of Amir ul Mumineen Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour and the election of the new leader". Voice of Jihad. 2016-05-25. Retrieved 2016-06-14.[permanent dead link]
  18. ^ Pennell 2016, pp. 2–3.
  19. ^ Evan Kohlmann (2006-10-15). "Controversy Grows Over Supposed Unity of Iraqi Mujahideen as Al-Qaida Announces Founding of Sunni Islamic State". Counterterrorism Blog. Archived from the original on 2009-10-13.
  20. ^ Cole Bunzel (March 2015). "From Paper State to Caliphate: The Ideology of the Islamic State" (PDF). The Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World (Analysis Paper No. 19). Washington, D.C.: Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-02-22. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  21. ^ Pennell 2016, pp. 17–18.
  22. ISBN 978-0-19-531173-0, archived
    from the original on 2024-01-02, retrieved 2020-11-17
  23. ^ [1] Archived 2021-05-10 at the Wayback Machine "The Kitáb-i-Íqán PART ONE". BAHA'I REFERENCE LIBRARY. Retrieved 2014-09-11.

Sources

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