ISISIslamic State lacks key ingredient to make ‘caliphate’ work: eunuchs
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) as a Muslim caliphate on 29 June 2014, with himself as caliph. Each of the earlier caliphates, however, had two features that ISIS lacks. First, ISIS has yet to establish a proper capital: A true state needs a central place to which taxes are paid and from which laws, regulations, and other administrative functions descend. Second, all previous caliphates relied on a special class of bureaucrats to provide stability and statesmanship. Those were eunuchs, who were unable to impregnate the women sequestered in the palace. As long as ISIS persists in beheading rather than castrating the males it captures, it has little hope of resurrecting a historic caliphate. Granted, ISIS is already acquiring women, but it has no-one to guard them for the caliph and no infertile functionaries to enact the authority of the state. While it has been less than a century since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, it is clear that a key concept for continuity with the great caliphates of the past has been lost. Simply stated, if ISIS doesn’t build a deeply fortified city and start producing eunuch bureaucrats, it will never have the stability and endurance of historic caliphates. The best it can hope for is to be recognized as a twenty-first-century predatory horde. If ISIS continues along its current path, it is likely to be remembered like the Vandals — that is, as murderous marauders who get brief mention in high school history classes.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) as a Muslim caliphate on 29 June 2014, with himself as caliph, a term reserved for a successor to the prophet Muhammad (PBUH). His would be the newest caliphate in a line extending from the Rashidun Caliphate (632-661), through the Umayyads (661-750), Abbasids (750-1517), and Ottomans (1453-1924). Each of these earlier caliphates, however, had a feature that ISIS lacks and which may not even be possible for the newly proclaimed “state.”
Currently, ISIS is more of a marauding horde than functioning state. ISIS operates more like the Vandals or the Ostrogoths of European history rather than any historic caliphate. Its “citizens” are self-described warriors (jihadists) killing men, capturing women, and grabbing booty as they go. Many of its fighters are foreigners from Europe, North America, or other Middle Eastern countries, rather than locals who are the core citizenry for anything that can legitimately be called a state.
Beyond effective use of social media for recruitment, there appears to be little of the governance that makes this state a true state. ISIS’s goal is clear: “purifying” Islam through eliminating competing religious ideologies, whether they are held by other Muslims, such as the Shi’a, or practitioners of other religions, such as the Yazidi and Christians.
What is a state without a capital?
While al-Baghdadi has appeared in the Syrian provincial capital of Ar-Raqqah, ISIS has yet to establish a proper capital. A true state needs a central place to which taxes are paid and from which laws, regulations, and other administrative functions descend. Thus far, funding for ISIS seems to come largely from smuggling oil, extortion, and bank robbery, and not from taxpaying citizens.
Creating a stable capital will be difficult. With the weaponry ISIS has acquired, it can fight a ground war. But previous caliphate capitals had walls to protect their seat of government from attack. Such defenses would be ineffective now. As the recent air assault by the U.S. and its allies shows, a Topkapi today would be fragile in the face of modern ballistics.
No above-ground capital would be safe for ISIS. To protect its control center from bombardment, the caliphate would need to bury itself in tunnels, like termites (or al-Qaeda). But even a buried bastille would need to be some sixty meters down to be safe from bunker-busting munitions like the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator.
