Book excerpt: Al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah [The Laws of Islamic Governance] is both the single most comprehensive account of the workings of islamic governance and equally a highly influential theoretical outline of the nature of that governance. It is also as if it were a snapshot of the inner workings of Abbasid power at its height. Woven throughout it are accounts of the scholars of the salaf which are the book's lifeblood andits light.