The 'Ulama' as Ritual Specialists: Cosmic Knowledge and Political Rituals

Abstract

This chapter examines how changes in the styles and institutions of sacred kingship in the early modern Islamic era impacted the role of the 'alim (pl. 'ulama', experts in religious knowledge). In the post-Mongol Muslim empires of the Timurids (later known as Mughals in India), Safavids, and Ottomans, the 'ulama' were in great demand not just for their knowledge of Islam's scriptural tradition but also for their knowledge of the cosmos needed to transform the Muslim sovereign into a sacred ruler. This meant that many of the 'ulama' of early modern Islam, as they were brought under the gambit of imperial service, learned to combine their scriptural knowledge of Islam with cosmic and occult forms of knowledge such as astrology and lettrism. Thus the social and political function of the 'alim in early modern Islam was significantly different from what it had been in the 'classical' era of the High Caliphate.