The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

abdication

Abdication is a ruler’s unilateral decision to give up his position of power. Classical Islamic political theory, including theological and juridical discussions of the imamate, allows the caliph or imam, the supreme ruler of the Muslim community, to abdicate of his own volition. He may do so because he is physically disqualified, such as if his health has deteriorated and he is unable to carry out his duties; because he is morally disqualified, such as if his sinful acts have affected his moral probity; or simply because he no longer wishes to assume the tremendous obligations and grave moral responsibilities that accompany the office. Under the caliphal dynasties of the Umayyads (661–750) and the Abbasids (750–1258), it became standard practice to designate an heir apparent—often two under the Umayyads—who would assume the office in cases of abdication or death.

Abdications occurred quite frequently in the history of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, but they were usually coerced pseudoabdications. For example, the Umayyad caliph Ibrahim b. al-Walid (r. 744) was forced to abdicate when his cousin Marwan II (r. 744–50) had surrounded Damascus and was about to overrun the capital. In 1031, the last Umayyad caliph in Córdoba abdicated under similar circumstances, and his realm was divided into petty principalities. Under the Abbasids, Turkish military commanders and palace factions often dictated caliphal abdications, removing one member of the ruling family and installing another in order to undermine rival factions. In 866, for example, the caliph Musta‘in (r. 862–66) succumbed to pressures from the captains of the Turkish guard to abdicate in favor of his cousin Mu‘tazz (r. 866–69); although he was promised that he would be able to retire to Medina with a sufficient income, Mu‘tazz did not keep his word, confined Musta‘in to Baghdad, then had him assassinated. When other caliphs refused to abdicate, the Turkish commanders deposed them by blinding them in order to disqualify them for the office in the future, imprisoning them indefinitely, or killing them.

The most famous abdication in Islamic history is that of Hasan b. ‘Ali, the Prophet’s eldest grandson, who in 661 relinquished his claim to the caliphate and recognized Mu‘awiya (r. 661–80), governor of Damascus and founder of the Umayyad dynasty, as ruler of the Muslim community. This took place after the assassination of his father, ‘Ali b. Abi Talib, by the Khariji rebel Ibn Muljam in Kufa. After ‘Ali was assassinated, his followers, the Shi‘is, took the oath of allegiance to his son Hasan as caliph. Hasan initially led them from Iraq toward Syria to face Mu‘awiya’s advancing forces, but ended up accepting a settlement with his opponent. While subsequent Sunni histories claim that Hasan stepped down in recognition of the legitimacy of his opponent’s rule, demonstrated by Mu‘awiya’s ability to garner widespread support and unite the Islamic state and sealed by Hasan’s acceptance of a large payment in return, Shi‘is maintained that this was a tactical move that did not entail surrender of the ‘Alids’ claim to the caliphate. Rather, Hasan supposedly intended to avoid further bloodshed after the devastating First Islamic Civil War (656–61), which had erupted following the assassination of ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan (r. 644–56), the third caliph, and pitted ‘Ali against the Prophet’s wife ‘A’isha and the Umayyad clan and their supporters, and to ensure the safety of his loyal followers, who were faced with overwhelming opposing forces as well as traitors in their midst. In fact, Shi‘i sources report that he was wounded in the thigh by a Khariji who had infiltrated his own camp. In later Shi‘i thought, Hasan’s abdication provided a model for quietist resistance and accommodation with illegitimate political regimes, in contrast to the active resistance embodied by his brother Husayn, who died at the Battle of Karbala in 680 as he sought to lead a revolt against Mu‘awiya’s son Yazid I (r. 680–83), the first hereditary ruler in Islamic history. Ayatollah Khomeini and other ideologues of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 vocally contrasted the two stances, claiming the superiority of the latter in order to mobilize the populace of Iran against Muhammad Reza Shah (r. 1941–79), the secularizing king of Iran.

The tables would be turned after a fashion when Yazid’s son Mu‘awiya II (r. 683–84) abdicated for pious reasons in 684. Faced with the need to crush the counter-caliphate of Ibn al-Zubayr (r. 683–92) in the Hijaz, Mu‘awiya II chose to abdicate rather than assume the responsibility for conducting what would likely be a bloody military campaign in Mecca, on Islam’s holiest ground. Shi‘is even claim that he had secretly converted to Shi‘ism and did not want to be associated with the massacre of the descendants of the Prophet.

Subsequent Islamic history provides many examples of coerced pseudoabdications. A number of the Ottoman sultans, Safavid shahs, and other rulers were forced to abdicate by military factions aiming to exert greater control over the central government. Such abdications have continued until the present. In 1941, the Western powers forced Reza Shah (r. 1925–41) to abdicate in favor of his son Muhammad Reza Shah (r. 1941–79). Egypt’s King Farouk I was forced to abdicate in 1952 after the coup d’etat led by the Free Officers and went into exile in Monaco and Italy. His infant son was proclaimed King Fu’ad II, but the monarchy was officially abolished the next year. The second Hashimi monarch of Jordan, Talal b. ‘Abdallah (r. 1951–52), abdicated in favor of his son Hussein in 1952 after he was declared unfit to rule by parliament due to mental illness. Most recently, Egyptian president Husni Mubarak (r. 1981–2011) abdicated under pressure from the Egyptian army after a massive wave of popular protests in the early months of 2011. A striking abdication in recent history is that of ‘Abd al-Rahman Siwar al-Dahab, the Sudanese general who overthrew Ja‘far al-Numayri’s government in 1985. After controlling an interim government as head of the transitional military council, he abdicated in May 1986, handing over power to a democratically elected civilian government headed by Sadiq al-Mahdi, surprising skeptics who doubted that the military would voluntarily relinquish power.