Political Authority, Marāsim Muʿāwiyah, and the Construction of Religious Knowledge in Early Islam

Abdullah Syahir; Alwi Hamid Bin Shahab

doi:10.15408/refleksi.v25.i2.53243

Authors

Abdullah Syahir Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Jakarta
Alwi Hamid Bin Shahab University of Seiyun, Yemen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15408/refleksi.v25.i2.53243

Keywords:

Muʿāwiyah, Marāsim, Political authority, Religious knowledge, Michel Foucault

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between political authority and the construction of religious knowledge in the early Umayyad period through a critical rereading (iʿādat al-naẓar) of the marāsim attributed to Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān. Previous studies have primarily examined Muʿāwiyah from political and historical perspectives, focusing on governance, political consolidation, and his conflict with ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Other studies have approached reports concerning Muʿāwiyah through hadith criticism and historical source analysis, emphasizing issues of authenticity, transmission, and political context. Although these approaches have made significant contributions to the study of Muʿāwiyah’s political legacy, less attention has been paid to the marāsim as an interconnected discursive mechanism linking political authority, religious knowledge, and the regulation of political opposition. This study employs a qualitative historical approach, integrating iʿādat al-naẓar as a critical rereading strategy with Michel Foucault’s concepts of power/knowledge, discourse, and disciplinary power. This theoretical framework is used to examine how religious knowledge was produced, regulated, and legitimized through political practices. The findings suggest that the marāsim should not be understood merely as isolated political directives, but rather as interconnected discursive practices through which political authority contributed to the construction of political legitimacy, the regulation of religious discourse, and the disciplining of opposition, particularly among the supporters of ʿAlī. By integrating iʿādat al-naẓar with a Foucauldian perspective, this study offers a critical rereading of the marāsim that brings their political and epistemic dimensions into a unified analytical framework. It demonstrates how political power could participate in the production, regulation, and legitimation of religious knowledge in the early Islamic context.

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