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Loyalty and Leadership in An Early Islamic Society

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This work is an excellent roadmap of social relations between various social actors in the Buyid dynasty, which ruled during the 10th and 11th centuries in much of modern day Iraq and Iran. The period is interesting in itself because it marked the end of the classical period of Islamic history and was both the site of both political decline and a cultural bloom. Mottahedeh's approach is straightforward, dividing the book into basically two parts. The first addresses acquired loyalties of a formal nature and the the second addresses categorical loyalties of a more informal character. His insights are too numerous to elucidate here because of the various levels of society he examines, but his examination of the ulema I found to be worth the price of admission alone. The overall picture, however, is a fascinating one of how during a period of immense upheaval a new Muslim society emerged with self-renewing and self-preserving values and institutions starkly different form the Abbassids period preceding it which also continued centuries after its disappearance.