Mona Hassan, Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History

Abstract

L onging for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History by Mona Hassan explores the idea of the caliphate—a means through which people could assume leadership after the death of the Prophet Muḥammad in 11/632— particularly its manifestations and valences under the Abbasids and the Ottomans through wide-ranging evidence, including poetry and juridical texts (5). Chronologically, the work spans two specified time periods, namely the first/seventh into the tenth/sixteenth centuries and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The study demonstrates strong grounding in theoretical approaches to collective memory and memory studies. It stands out overall as a work that contributes to and encourages important conversations among scholars of Islam and also between them and those working in other fields.