Authors: Henry Kissinger
That a small group of Arab confederates
: See Hugh Kennedy,
The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2007), 34–40.
“
If you embrace Islam
”: Kennedy,
Great Arab Conquests,
113.
Islam’s rapid advance
: See generally Marshall G. S. Hodgson,
The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization,
vol. 1,
The Classical Age of Islam
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974).
“
The dar al-Islam
”: Majid Khadduri,
The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani’s Siyar
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966), 13.
“
by his heart; his tongue
”: Majid Khadduri,
War and Peace in the Law of Islam
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955), 56. See also Kennedy,
Great Arab Conquests,
48–51; Bernard Lewis,
The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years
(New York: Touchstone, 1997), 233–38.
Other religions—especially Christianity
: To the extent that democracy and human rights now serve to inspire actions in the service of global transformation, their content and applicability have proven far more flexible than the previous dictates of scripture proselytized in the wake of advancing armies. After all, the democratic will of different peoples can call forth vastly different outcomes.
“
Islamic legal rulings stipulate
”: Labeeb Ahmed Bsoul,
International
Treaties
(Mu‘āhadāt)
in Islam: Theory and Practice in the Light of Islamic International Law
(Siyar)
According to Orthodox Schools
(Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2008), 117.
“
The communities of the dar al-harb
”: Khadduri,
Islamic Law of Nations,
12. See also Bsoul,
International Treaties,
108–9.
In the idealized version of this worldview
: See James Piscatori, “Islam in the International Order,” in
The Expansion of International Society,
ed. Hedley Bull and Adam Watson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 318–19; Lewis,
Middle East,
305; Olivier Roy,
Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 112 (on contemporary Islamist views); Efraim Karsh,
Islamic Imperialism: A History
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006), 230–31. But see Khadduri,
War and Peace in the Law of Islam,
156–57 (on the traditional conditions under which territory captured by non-Muslims might revert to being part of
dar al-harb
).
These factions eventually formed
: An analysis of this schism and its modern implications may be found in Vali Nasr,
The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2006).
“
the order of the world
”: Brendan Simms,
Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy from 1453 to the Present
(New York: Basic Books, 2013), 9–10; Black,
History of Islamic Political Thought,
206–7.
In this context, formal Ottoman documents
: These were called, misleadingly in English, “capitulations”—not because the Ottoman Empire had “capitulated” on any point, but because they were divided into chapters or articles (
capitula
in Latin).
“
I who am the Sultan of Sultans
”: Answer from Suleiman I to Francis I of France, February 1526, as quoted in Roger Bigelow Merriman,
Suleiman the Magnificent, 1520–1566
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1944), 130. See also Halil Inalcik, “The Turkish Impact on the Development of Modern Europe,” in
The Ottoman State and Its Place in World History,
ed. Kemal H. Karpat (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974), 51–53; Garrett Mattingly,
Renaissance Diplomacy
(New York: Penguin Books, 1955), 152. Roughly five hundred years later, during a period of strained bilateral relations, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented a ceremonial copy of the letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy but complained, “I think he did not read it.” “Turkey’s Erdoǧan: French Vote Reveals Gravity of Hostility Towards Muslims,”
Today’s Zaman,
December 23, 2011.
“
the Sick Man of Europe
”: In 1853, Czar Nicholas I of Russia was reputed to have told the British ambassador, “We have a sick man on our hands, a man gravely ill, it will be a great misfortune if one of these days he slips through our hands, especially before the necessary arrangements are made.” Harold Temperley,
England and the Near East
(London: Longmans, Green, 1936), 272.
“
attacks dealt against the Caliphate
”: Sultan Mehmed-Rashad, “Proclamation,” and Sheik-ul-Islam, “Fetva,” in
Source Records of the Great War,
ed. Charles F. Horne and Walter F. Austin (Indianapolis: American Legion, 1930), 2:398–401. See also Hew Strachan,
The First World War
(New York: Viking, 2003), 100–101.
“
the establishment in Palestine
”: Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, November 2, 1917, in Malcolm Yapp,
The Making of the Modern Near East, 1792–1923
(Harlow: Longmans, Green), 290.
Two opposing trends appeared
: See Erez Manela,
The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International
Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism, 1917–1920
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
From its early days as an informal gathering
: See Roxanne L. Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, eds.,
Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2009), 49–53.
“
which was brilliant
”: Hassan al-Banna, “Toward the Light,” in ibid., 58–59.
“
Then the fatherland of the Muslim expands
”: Ibid., 61–62.
Where possible, this fight would be gradualist
: Ibid., 68–70.
“
low associations based on race
”: Sayyid Qutb,
Milestones,
2nd rev. English ed. (Damascus, Syria: Dar al-Ilm, n.d.), 49–51.
“
the achievement of the freedom of man
”: Ibid., 59–60, 72, 84, 137.
core of committed followers
: For a discussion of the evolution from Qutb to bin Laden, see Lawrence Wright,
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
(New York: Random House, 2006).
“
freedom
”: Barack Obama, Remarks by the President in Joint Press Conference with Prime Minister Harper of Canada, February 4, 2011; interview with Fox News, February 6, 2011; Statement by President Barack Obama on Egypt; February 10, 2011; “Remarks by the President on Egypt” February 11, 2011.
“
The future of Syria
”: Statement by the President on the Situation in Syria, August 18, 2011,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/08/18/statement-president-obama-situation-syria
.
The main parties thought themselves
: Mariam Karouny, “Apocalyptic Prophecies Drive Both Sides to Syrian Battle for End of Time,” Reuters, April 1, 2014.
deploying military personnel to Saudi Arabia
: On Riyadh’s request, to deter any attempt by Saddam Hussein to seize Saudi oil fields.
Osama bin Laden had preceded the attack
: See “Message from Usama Bin-Muhammad Bin Ladin to His Muslim Brothers in the Whole World and Especially in the Arabian Peninsula: Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques; Expel the Heretics from the Arabian Peninsula,” in FBIS Report, “Compilation of Usama bin Ladin Statements, 1994–January 2004,” 13; Piscatori, “Order, Justice, and Global Islam,” 279–80.
When states are not governed
: For an exposition of this phenomenon, see David Danelo, “Anarchy Is the New Normal: Unconventional Governance and 21st Century Statecraft” (Foreign Policy Research Institute, October 2013).
“
Today what lies in front of our eyes
”: Ali Khamenei, “Leader’s Speech at Inauguration of Islamic Awakening and Ulama Conference” (April 29, 2013),
Islamic Awakening
1, no. 7 (Spring 2013).
“
This final goal cannot be anything
”: Ibid.
“
The developments in the U.S.
”: Islamic Invitation Turkey, “The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei: Islamic Awakening Inspires Intl. Events,” November 27, 2011.
The Persian ideal of monarchy
: Among the most famous instances of this tradition was the sixth-century
B.C.
liberation of captive peoples, including the Jews, from Babylon by the Persian Emperor Cyrus, founder of the Achaemenid Empire. After entering Babylon and displacing its ruler, the self-proclaimed “king of the four quarters of the world” decreed that all Babylonian captives would be free to return home and that all religions
would be tolerated. With his pioneering embrace of religious pluralism, Cyrus is believed to have been an inspiration over two millennia later for Thomas Jefferson, who read an account in Xenophon’s
Cyropedia
and commented favorably. See “The Cyrus Cylinder: Diplomatic Whirl,”
Economist,
March 23, 2013.
“
Most of all they hold in honor
”: Herodotus,
The History,
trans. David Grene (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 1.131–135, pp. 95–97.
“
The President of the United States
”: Kenneth M. Pollack,
The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America
(New York: Random House, 2004), 18–19. See also John Garver,
China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-imperial World
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006).
“
great interior spaces
”: See Roy Mottahedeh,
The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran
(Oxford: Oneworld, 2002), 144; Reza Aslan, “The Epic of Iran,”
New York Times,
April 30, 2006. Abolqasem Ferdowsi’s epic
Book of Kings,
composed two centuries after the arrival of Islam in Persia, recounted the legendary glories of Persia’s pre-Muslim past. Ferdowsi, a Shia Muslim, captured the complex Persian attitude by penning a lament spoken by one of his characters at the end of an era: “Damn this world, damn this time, damn this fate, / That uncivilized Arabs have come to make me Muslim.”
“
prudential dissimulation
”: See Sandra Mackey,
The Iranians: Persia, Islam, and the Soul of a Nation
(New York: Plume, 1998), 109n1.
“
imperialists
”: Ruhollah Khomeini, “Islamic Government,” in
Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini (1941–1980),
trans. Hamid Algar (North Haledon, N.J.: Mizan Press, 1981), 48–49.
“
the relations between nations
”: As quoted in David Armstrong,
Revolution and World Order: The Revolutionary State in International Society
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 192.
“
an Islamic government
”: Khomeini, “Islamic Government,” “The First Day of God’s Government,” and “The Religious Scholars Led the Revolt,” in
Islam and Revolution,
147, 265, 330–31.
“
What was wanted
”: R. W. Apple Jr., “Will Khomeini Turn Iran’s Clock Back 1,300 Years?,”
New York Times,
February 4, 1979.
Amidst these upheavals a new paradox
: See Charles Hill,
Trial of a Thousand Years: World Order and Islamism
(Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 2011), 89–91.
Tehran’s imperative
: Accounts of this phenomenon, carried out largely covertly, are necessarily incomplete. Some have suggested limited cooperation, or at least tacit accommodations, between Tehran and the Taliban and al-Qaeda. See, for example, Thomas Kean, Lee Hamilton, et al.,
The 9/11 Commission Report
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), 61, 128, 240–41, 468, 529; Seth G. Jones, “Al Qaeda in Iran,”
Foreign Affairs,
January 29, 2012,
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137061/seth-g-jones/al-qaeda-in-iran
.
“
This lofty and great author
”: Akbar Ganji, “Who Is Ali Khamenei: The Worldview of Iran’s Supreme Leader,”
Foreign Affairs,
September/October 2013. See also Thomas Joscelyn, “Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Revolution,”
Longwarjournal.org
, January 28, 2011.
“
In accordance with the sacred verse
”: Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (October 24, 1979), as amended, Section I, Article 11.
“
We must strive to export our Revolution
”: Khomeini, “New Year’s Message” (March 21, 1980), in
Islam and Revolution,
286.