Towards an Ottoman Conceptual History 457
dominating early Ottoman political thought were born, had found a new sta-
bility from the early sixteenth century when Shah Isma’il created the Safavid
Empire, for two centuries the Ottomans’ threatening neighbor. Safavid state
ideology was strongly influenced by Shi‘ism, with the shah often seen as the
representative of the Hidden Imam. However, following the consolidation of
the Safavid state two major schools of Shi‘i thought emerged. The first school,
the Usûlî (“Principled”), arose out of the need to impose the new Shi‘ite ortho-
doxy over a partly Sunni population by establishing a strong clergy. The main
exponent of the school, Ali b. al-Husayn al-Karaki (d. 1534), emphasized the
obligatory character of Shi‘a practices and advocated the legality of Shi‘a ulema
being remunerated through a land-tax imposed by the imam. It was al-Karaki
who formulated the notion of mujtahid or “well-qualified jurist”, i.e. an ulema
who would be the imam’s deputy. This idea took the notion of ijtihad (indepen-
dent reasoning) to its extreme limits, considering it to be a kind of charisma
concentrated in the leading jurist. With Shah Tahmasp’s steady support, this
tremendous spiritual authority consolidated the role of the Shi‘a ulema in the
Empire. Safavid rule was thus conceived as the parallel power of the charismat-
ic shah and the religious leader, with the latter in fact authorizing the former;
it was only natural that this would gradually lead to bitter controversies. The
main reaction came from the Akhbarî (“Traditionist”) school, crystallized by
Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi (d. 1627). The Akhbaris considered the Quran
and Shi‘a hadith the only source of law, excluding ijtihad and legal reasoning;
they concentrated on Sufi gnosis and favored patrimonial rule, while having
little interest in government, which they saw as a prerogative of the religious
authority as presented in the line of the Safavid dynasty (being descendants
of the Prophet through Ali). Anthony Black describes this stance as “political
quietism”; other scholars have likened the emergence of the Akhbari Shi‘a with
the Salafist movements of Sunni Islam or even with Puritanism. Thinkers such
as Mir Damad (d. 1631), Molla Sadra (d. 1640), and Molla Kashani (d. 1680) be-
longed to this trend and tried to reconcile falasifa with Sufism. The dispute
was resumed with the works of Abdallah al-Samahiji (d. 1723); by the end of
the seventeenth century, however, the Usuli jurists’ (mujtahid) power had in-
creased so much that they eventually took over the whole religious establish-
ment, under Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1700). Majlisi lay down the theoretic
foundations of theocratic rule, where the mujtahid would have absolute power
to define Shi‘a orthodoxy; his political works stressed the authority of kings
over their subjects, but with the proviso that the king is “of the right religion”
and with the underlying assumption that he follows the mujtahids’ guidance.
2015). On some aspects of the relationship between the Arab lands and the imperial cen-
tre, see the survey by Kechriotis 2013.