Abu’l Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi (975-1058 A.D/364- 450 A.H) was the first political thinker in the history of Islam. He was a professor of law and jurisprudence at Basra and Baghdad. He was juriiil (if the fiqah of Imam Shaafi. He lived at a time when the Abbasid Caliph til* was at the nadir of its fortunes. The Abbasid Caliphs, once the proud ruler* j of a vast Caliphate, had been deprived of all political authority by llm Buwayhid Emirs.
It was only the support of Sultan Mahmud of GhM.nl which enabled them to retain some semblance of spiritual authority. Al Mawardi wrote his famous book; AI-Ahkam as-Sultaniyah or Principles of1 Government, to defend the Khilafat against its detractors and to restore tit# authority of the Abbasid Caliphate to its original position. The theory of tint caliphate, as expounded in this book, became a model for all other Muslim political thinkers and jurist except ibn Khaldun, who questioned it on sonif grounds, as we shall describe later on. Bagley says that al-Mawardi’s bonk is “the greatest theoretical exposition of Islamic constitutional law”. In hw commentary on Al-ahkam Darlene R. May says that the book embracM I both theoretical and practical aspects of Muslim political thought uiiil behaviour.
According to al-Mawardi, the institution of the caliphate in imamate is based on the following principles:
2. Sovereignty belongs to Allah, who has laid down laws mi j that justice, truth and goodness may be widely known;
3. Authority is vested in the Khalifa as the successor of III* Holy Prophetd&T;
4. The duty of the Khalifa or Imam is to enforce the Shamil, to defend the faith against heresy and the Muslims again M their enemies, and to enable them to live according to the injunctions of the Shariat and thus to attain happiness In this world and the Hereafter. In view of this duty, al* Mawardi defines Caliphate as the institution “replacing prophecy in the defence of the faith and the administration of the world. It is demanded by the Shariah, not by reason”. Ibn Khaldun differed from al Mawardi on this point, as we shall see later on.