Finally, but seldom of relevance today, is thecharismaticmode of legitimate
authority, the idea that a command should be obeyed because of the over-
whelming personal attributes of the person who gives the order.
Authority will always be a predominantly legal concept, but its roots are
much deeper. A person is often referred to as being ‘an authority’ on, for
example, the poetry of Donne, if they are in an unquestioned position of
claiming special knowledge and expertise—authority—on the subject. From
this can be developed the political usage, that the ideology of the person or
institution in question is formed from a position of superior knowledge and
expertise, justifying their authority.
Ayatollahs
Ayatollahs are spiritual leaders of the Shi‘ite Muslim minority sect.Islamis
very much less institutionalized and hierarchically ordered than most Christian
denominations, and it is not possible to make a direct equivalent to the role of,
for example, a bishop or cardinal. A closer analogy, though still not a good one,
is to the rabbi in Judaism. Certainly the stress on religious leadership being in
part a matter of excellence in scholarship and learning, and therefore in
teaching, is important. Because Islam does not grant to any one person or
body a decisive authority over matters of faith, as with the pope inRoman
Catholicismor the synod in some Protestant churches, there is no clear way
in which any particular ayatollah can be seen as either institutionally senior to
others, or possessing a special right to lay down correct belief on any matter.
Furthermore, the divisions between Sunni and Shi‘ite Muslims are at least as
important as those between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Christianity.
Ayatollahs have political importance because the state, according to Islam, is a
religious institution (seeShari‘a) and should be governed accordingly, and
because of their particular role in guiding the Islamicfundamentalistmove-
ments which have so strongly affected world politics since the 1970s. After the
Muslim factions in the Iranian revolution of 1979 gained control over the
secular radical wing, and thus over Iran, the ayatollahs came to be the effective
government, with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini accepted consensually as the
leading spiritual guide, being at first thede factoand later thede jurehead of
government. However, his authority was never completely institutionalized,
nor even necessarily completely effective. Much of the revolution in Iran, and
especially the enforcement of Islamic law and ethics, was carried out under the
collective authority of a large number of ayatollahs, especially in their role as
members of religious courts, or because they also held posts as members of the
Iranian parliament. Divisions did occur among this collective body, and after
Khomeini’s death in 1989 there was no one who had a personal religious
Ayatollahs