SOAS Research Online

A Free Database of the Latest Research by SOAS Academics and PhD Students

[skip to content]

Hirschler, Konrad (2007) '"He is a child and this land is a borderland of Islam": Under-Age Rule and the Quest for Political Stability in the Ayyubid Period.' al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, 19 (1). pp. 29-46.

This is the latest version of this item.

[img]
Preview
Text - Published Version
Download (15MB) | Preview

Abstract

Under-age rule started to play a salient role in the central Islamic lands during the late and post-Abbasid periods. The rule of children implied a potential instability which had to be compensated for. Considering the Ayyubid dynasty as an example it can be argued that in this period (1) under-age rule is mainly a non-legal concept, which has to be supplemented by the concepts of ‘independent rule’ and ‘prolonged under-age rule’, (2) under-age rule was taken seriously as a prelude to the following independent rule without regents striving to instrumentalise the under-age ruler for their own quest for power, (3) the uneven distribution of under-age rule among the Ayyubid principalities can be explained by the period’s flexible system of succession.

Item Type: Journal Article
Keywords: Ayyūbid dynasty, Egypt – politics, Syria – politics, rulership – underage rulers
SOAS Departments & Centres: Legacy Departments > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Department of History
ISSN: 09503110
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1080/09503110601068513
Date Deposited: 09 Jan 2009 14:55
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/6097

Altmetric Data

Available Versions of this Item

Statistics

Download activity - last 12 monthsShow export options
Downloads since deposit
6 month trend
591Downloads
6 month trend
474Hits
Accesses by country - last 12 monthsShow export options
Accesses by referrer - last 12 monthsShow export options

Repository staff only

Edit Item Edit Item