MA in Political Sciences Bagher Al-Olum Higher Education Institute
Abstract
The occultation of the Twelfth Imam and the Shiite society's inaccessibility to the its ideal political system, on the one hand, and the need for minimally possible organization, facilities, and opportunities for the Shiites in non-Shiite governments, on the hand, required the collaboration of the Shiite 'ulama with the existing governments. Though 'ulama did their best to prove the Imamate and the occultation of Imam Mahdi (pbuh) during the Lesser Occultation, with the beginning of the Longer Occultation and the improvement of 'ulama's status among the Shiites, their collaboration with the existing governments and the nature of and reasons behind this collaboration turned to an important issue in Shiite political thought. This paper studies the collaboration the extents of the collaboration of 'ulama with sultans.
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