Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c6.s2.3

c6.s2.3

The administrative system of Islam had evolved gradually. In Arabia, in its earliest stages, the problem was to provide the new converts to Islam with subsistence. They were indigent and poor, and to help them, poor tax (*zakat*), voluntary contributions, and war booty (*ghanaim*) formed the revenue of the state at the start. Muhammad was followed (632 CE) by a succession of Caliphs at Madinah.66 According to Mawardi (who wrote in the fifth century of Islam), the Imamate, or Caliphate, was divinely ordained and the Caliph inherited all the powers and privileges of the Prophet.67 The institutions which developed under the Caliph became models of governance in the world of Islam. The Caliph Muawiyah (661-89 CE) transformed the republican Caliphate into a monarchy and created a governing class of leading Arab tribes.68 These two institutions - kingship and nobility - became an integral part of Islamic polity.