Al-dawla al-fatimiyya: Politics, history and the re-interpretation of Islam

This study focuses on the ways and forms through which Mu’ammar al- _ Kadhdha¯fı¯ reproposes the opportunity of a proclamation (i’la¯n) of the second dawla fa¯timiyya in North Africa, in the framework of history, politics and re-interpretation of Islam. This topic has been scarcely studied by Western scholars and analysts interested in the thinking and political action of the leader of Tripoli. My intention, here, is to highlight, though briefly, the peculiar modalities and forms through which al- _ Kadhdha¯fı¯ re-reads history in general, and the history of the dawla fa¯timiyya in particular, by taking into account the political and ideological choices of the Libyan leadership. In conducting this re-reading with relation to the role of the dawla fa¯timiyya in North Africa, two are the interconnected aspects which I think are worth mentioning: 1) the meaning of history and historiography, as in the case of the affirmation of the dawla fa¯timiyya in North Africa at the beginning of the 10th Century, with a special attention to the debate on the caliph-imam and the role of the elites; 2) Islam as an unifying system and the discourse on the ‘supposed’ differences between sunna and shı¯’a. For the first, as well as for the second aspect, what seems fundamental is the vision of al- _ Kadhdha¯fı¯ with regard to the necessary unitarian recompositions in Arabic and Islamic context, and more precisely in connection with Europe, together with the relationship among Arab nationalism, Arabism and Islam.