Al-Azhar Sheikh at the Focus of Caliphate Discussions: Ali Abdurrazik

Abstract

One of the debates in the political arena in the 1920s was around the institution of the caliphate. Egypt, which has a historical past as a center of knowledge, was one of the centers where these debates took place. An anti-caliphate voice rising from Egypt had a great echo in the Islamic world.The architect of the debate, which was based on the thesis that the institution of the caliphate lacked the religious basis, was the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ali Abd al-Razzaq. With his work “al-Islam wa Usulu’l-Hukm”, he deepened the debate on the caliphate and spread it to Islamic geographies. It is thought that there are two main reasons for the wide impact of the debate. One of them is the title of the auther and the other is the political and social context