Political Authority and Religious Orthodoxy

Political power has repeatedly shaped what counted as Islamic orthodoxy at a given moment in history: the Abbasid Mihna's attempt to impose Mu'tazilite theology by force, Ottoman codification of Hanafi fiqh as state law, the Safavid state's conversion of Iran to Twelver Shi'ism, and the 1744 pact founding the state-clerical partnership behind the modern Saudi state. In each case, the Qur'anic text itself remained textually stable even as its interpretation, and the enforcement behind it, changed with the ruler.