This fascinating history explores the ceremony of the oath of allegiance to the caliph from the time of the Prophet Muhammad until the fragmentation of the caliphate in the late ninth and tenth centuries The study of royal rituals of accession and succession in Christian Rome Byzantium and the early Medieval West has generated an extensive literature This has however remained unexplored in scholarship on the Islamic world This book redresses that by examining the ceremonial of accession to the caliphate in early Islam covering the following aspects of the subject The place of ritual in political practiceChanges and continuities in that practiceThe problem of how best to understand accounts of ritual It also offers a contribution to major current debates in Islamic history the development of Arab Muslim identity and the formation of the Islamic state It presents an accessible discussion of royal ritual in early Islam which situates developments in the Islamic world in a late antique and early medieval context adding an important comparative context to the book Key FeaturesThe first book length exploration of royal ritual in the Islamic worldFocuses on the oath of allegiance pledged by subjects to their caliphContributes to major debates in Islamic history including the development of Arab Muslim identity and the formation of the Islamic state Explicitly situates developments in the Islamic world in a late antique and early medieval context