Kayhan Ali Hasanoğlu

Ali Abdel Razeks short treatise al-Islam wa-‘usul al-hukm, originally published in Egypt, in 1925, contributed to a debate that still remains at the heart of political discourse in the Islamic world. The subject, essentially, the doctrinal status of politics in Islam, was all the more pertinent given the abolishment of the caliphate by Kemal Atatürk the preceding year; and with it an institution that had remained in existence since death of the Prophet, thirteen centuries previous. Given a new and contentious attempt to resurrect the caliphate in the Middle East, the work is especially relevant again today.