Restoring the Caliphate

Sound Bite

Restoring the Caliphate is a profound exploration of the mechanics, spirituality and, ultimately, the folly of mankind’s futile search for perfection. The work is published in two versions: An Expanded Gold Edition for libraries and specialists and a Silver Edition for general readers.

Both editions tell the same story; "Gold" adds depth, not new territory. Its extra ~50,000 words go mainly to close readings of the movement's key texts, the Cold War diplomacy around them, and fuller portraits of the thinkers.

About the Book

Author Dan Spikes traces the historical and ideological evolution of "Political Islam" (Islamism) and the modern quest to establish an "Islamic state" — the intellectual, political, and social roots of Islamism from the early caliphate through European imperialism, Arab nationalism, the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran’s revolution, key events from Ottoman fall to 9/11, Afghanistan, al‑Qaeda and ISIS, critiquing both Western policies and jihadist ideologies.

Introduction

From the Prophet's Medina to the ISIS caliphate: the 150-year quest to build an Islamic state, and why it keeps failing.

For many Muslims, the community the Prophet led in seventh-century Medina was the first Islamic state, and the model for any that would follow. Searching for the Islamic State traces the modern effort to rebuild it, and the reformers, ideologues and revolutionaries who led it.

Dan Spikes shows how colonial rule, failed nationalism, state repression and Cold War rivalry shaped each stage. He takes the Islamist thinkers seriously on their own terms without excusing their violence, and writes with wit and a sharp eye for contradiction.

The "Silver" General Edition 

The General Edition tells the complete story in a streamlined text for the general reader, with full notes. Readers who want the close readings of the movement's key texts and a fuller account of the Cold War diplomacy behind it will find them in the Expanded Edition.

The "Gold" Expanded Edition

The Expanded Edition is the author's complete text, nearly half again as long as the General Edition. It adds:

• A chapter-by-chapter reading of Sayyid Qutb's Milestones
• Maududi's blueprint for an Islamic legislature and head of state, and Pakistan's Objectives Resolution
• Khomeini's Islamic Government and the workings of Iran's Guardian Council
• The Syrian Brotherhood's program for an Islamic state, and Hassan al-Turabi's theory of it
• Azzam's fatwa on jihad, Zawahiri's attack on the Brotherhood, and Zarqawi's letter to al-Qaeda
• Great Power diplomacy: Dulles, Mossadegh and Bandung; the Soviet decision to invade Afghanistan; Brzezinski and Casey

An epilogue asks what this history can teach the West about its own religious nationalism.