نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
گروه تاریخ، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه لرستان، خرم آباد، ایران
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
This study presents a comparative examination of the relationship between political power and religious authority in three major periods of Islamic history: the Abbasid age of al-Maʾmūn, the Ghaznavid period, and the Seljuk era. It analyzes the mihna not only as a theological dispute, but also as a political and ideological mechanism used to consolidate, organize, and reproduce power. The study asks whether the official endorsement of the Muʿtazila under al-Maʾmūn, the support for the Karrāmiyya under Sultan Maḥmūd of Ghazna, and the establishment of Ḥanafī jurisprudence in the Seljuk period were the natural outcomes of religious development or deliberate responses to political needs. Using a comparative method and a four-stage model of temporary synergy, instrumental use, elimination of rivals, and alliance rupture, the article examines these cases within structures of rule. The findings show that rulers repeatedly used religion to legitimate authority, integrate society, control religious institutions, neutralize rivals, and centralize political power. Such support persisted only while these currents served state interests and reinforced official discourse. Once a religious current became independent, costly, or competitive, the alliance broke down. Their fate depended less on doctrinal truth than on political utility, institutional strength, and external pressures. Religious mihnas therefore reflect the enduring tension between religion and politics in Islamic history and the historical instrumentalization of religion in the service of the state. By comparing these trajectories, the article highlights recurring patterns of alliance, co-optation, and exclusion that shaped sectarian authority and state formation across medieval Islamic societies and institutions.
کلیدواژهها [English]
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