Backgrounds and effective factors in the confrontation between Imamiyyah and Ash'arih in the Seljuk era

Abstract

The difference between the Imamiyyah and the Ash'ari and the Abbasid caliphs was a result of the mission that the Seljuqs held for themselves as the supporters of the Sunnah religion and the caliphate against the threats of the Alawites and Shiites. The Imamiyyah considered the Abbasid caliphate illegitimate, and the Ash'ari did not accept the Alevi caliphate and the authority of the Shiite government for the Sunnis. The enmity of the Abbasids with the Shiites caused the officialization of the Sunni religion and the Ash'ari school. Emamiyyah, who saw themselves as a minority in the majority society, their strategy to get out of this crisis was to try for identity, intellectual confrontation, religious formalism and statism in the territorial sphere. The idea and guidance of this strategy was the responsibility of the elders and thinkers of this era. The combination of these factors caused the divergence and conflict between the Imamiyyah and Ash'ari discursive thought, and the two currents used theoretical methods and physical operations in opposition. This research with a historical method based on a descriptive-analytical approach tries to answer the question: What were the factors and effective factors in the conflict between the Imamiyyah and the Ash'ari in the Seljuk era? The findings of the research show that the historical, religious, and political and social factors were the main differences between the Imamiyyah and the Ash'ari and the Abbasid caliphs, which led to the fall of the Boya dynasty, the rise of the Seljuks, and the intensification of theological and religious conflicts common in this era.

Keywords

• confrontation
• imamiyya
• ash'arite
• al-buwayh
• seljuk
• abbasid caliphate