Comparative Analysis of Religious Moderation of Buyid and Seljuq Governors in Political and State Affairs

Mohammad Reza Barani[1]
Mohammad Dehghani[2]

Abstract

Performing moderation for freedom of actions and thoughts and rights of others, particularly in religious and political issues or under the law and government enforcement, has long been one the outstanding religious-political issues. The majority of politicians follow certain religious or political ideologies and a good number of them, after gaining power and authority, take the most advantage of the available conditions for reinforcing their thoughts and ideologies, even at the cost of obliterating those of others. During the fourth and fifth centuries, Muslims experienced flourishing civilization, and dynasties like the Buyid and Seljuq gained ascendance.  Taking the example of these governments, one Sunni and the other Shiite, can be quite effective for today's problems. The present article, through adopting a comparative approach, aims at describing and analyzing the outstanding and influential religious moderation as practiced by these two governments and comparing them in that regard. The Buyid and Seljuq governors acted differently in political and state affairs and religious moderation. It seems that religious moderation has enjoyed various ups and downs during this era and it has played a crucially important role in cultural and scientific developments, establishment of academic centers, and consequently the status of the scholars. Considering the political and state affairs, religious moderation or temperance established a fertile ground for benefiting from various scholars and scientists and enabled the governors to benefit from the presence of such elites.